No, as John said though I think as good as the Naim is, its a product solving a problem that never existed. As you say, you want to rip all your CD's once and never again. That's why its a very good idea to rip them to Apple Lossless. If, in the future you buy a product that doesn't play back Apple Lossless (as of now, Apple dominates this field though and there is a large selection of products from Apple and other companies that play back Apple Lossless) you can convert them to another lossless codec such as FLAC very easily and you haven't lost any quality because your simply switching from one lossless codec to another.ÿ
For example, I buy some music from LINN in 24/96 FLAC format, but use iTunes as my media library. iTunes does not play back FLAC as you've already discovered, so I use an application called MAX (free) to covert the LINN purchased 24/96 FLAC files to Apple Lossless 24/96 files. It is very easy to do, and because they are not lossy codec's the files sound just as good.
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I know it can get confusing with all these codecs. Apple is using their codecs, Windows has its own lossy and Lossless codecs, and then there is FLAC. Truth be told, sound quality wise all lossless codecs are about as good as each other since they are lossless and its very easy to switch between them. The best way is to rip all your CD's to your computer or NAS (NAS is another discussion) and then stream it to your expensive hi fi. For sound quality sake, and since you use iPod and in my opinion itunes has the best interface, use iTunes which means using Apple Lossless. Personally I use an Airport Express which has a digital out which is connected to a DAC (soon to be replaced with Cambridge Audio's new product) and then from the DAC to my stereo. This way you get CD quality sound with all the benefits of ripping the music to your computer like instant access to 1000's of CD's. If you went the NAIM product route, firstly its stunningly expensive but mostly you will have to re-rip all your music or at least have another copy on the NAIM and its just not necessary. As John pointed out, if you don't want to use the products I've mentioned above, the Transporter is also excellent but either way you will want the songs on your computer in a lossless format as it gives you the most options (even giving the option ofÿtransferringÿthem to that NAIM product if you absolutely had to give them £4500)! Last comment, once you have ripped all those CD's, back up the computer/NAS it is very, very important to do. ÿ