thanks for the info. what program did you use to rip? also, do you have any rio performance issues with 256k? For a few weeks, i tried ripping a few discs at 95% VBR MP3, which generally resulted in files that averaged 300k or so. also, the last few albums i got from emusic were about an average of 200k VBR. both sets of files skipped a lot over the rio. i know the issue is not the network, as i am streaming replaytv all over the house with no issue. maybe the issue lies between rio/trio and the vbr format.

thanks again