HD Media player for hifi?

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody has some experience with these. 

What I am looking for is a-

-Stand alone media player (so it has to have a hard disk), preferably a screen

-Digital out (optical if possible)

-Little noise (I don't want to hear a loud fan while listening with headphones)

-Play ALAC (though I know this is hard to find).

I have looked at a lot of different options, but it seems really hard to find one that has these options. So I was wondering, what do you guys use?

Cheers,

Victor

So simple... and that might be exactly what I need :|! 

But you would have to walk to the iPod every time you want to change an album right? Because it has to sit in its dock to play, or is there also an option with a remote?

Also the 160GB of the classic seems very limiting for a lossless library.

Cheers!

Also what is the highest bitrate etc that the iPod can output, there seems to be a lot of information on the internet, inconclusive. 24bit/192? 24/96?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philharmoniker 

 

Or you can use iphone and then control it wirelessly from your computer.

I really want to be able to use my hifi without having to start my Mac. Besides them being 2 rooms apart, my Mac also has major problems since the whole Lion update, my wifi keeps dropping :@.

I checked the iPod solution, it seems really good, especially if I take it with a Onkyo dock so I can have a remote control. My big problem with this is the 160gb. I have only started ripping my cd's to ALAC, and am now already past the 160GB, I haven't even ripped half of my cd's. A 1TB would be much more plausible. Its really a shame that the ALAC thing is such a problem!