A friend "thinks" he can hear a slight difference between EAC/FLAC and EAC copies.
ehart,
One of the advantages of the Olive is to be able to play CDs directly that only get played rarely (that typically aren't high quality recordings anyway). Frankly I'd stopped ripping after about 80 CD's and like you said with FLAC that's only 25 GB. So even the 80 GB Olive would hold roughly 250 CDs. With SB you have to rip to listen. If you want to rip it all with the Olive just add an external HD.
I'm waiting for Olive to come out with a remote PDA feature. Like most users I sit at least 8 feet from the front of the player and would have a hard time reading the display (which IMO is tiny for all the information that could be shown). Kinda negates the point of having a remote.
Woodsyi,
I think I might go with a laptop or mini-Mac before that beast (to keep me off the network/internet, it'd be cheaper, and I don't forsee needing to store 3000 CDs).
