If you want to have distributed digital audio, and use an Imerge, Request or Escient audio server, then you might like to consider a system such as NetStreams ( www.netstreams.com ). It distributes audio (and video) through tcp/IP and remains digital up to the speaker (Polk Audio have just released the first powered tcp/IP ceiling mounted speakers - www.polkaudio.com). Another nicety is that you can use an audio server (one of the three mentioned above - not PC) and stream up to six locations from a single zone output. This in itself, in some systems, almost pays for itself.

Just something else to consider...

Personally, I am waiting for the MAC media server (the real one, not Mac Mini), hooked into a NAS, feeding back to a Sonos for audio. The Sonos is an analogue system, and sure, there is better out there, but this is for background music in general and bang for buck, I don't think you can look past it. Oh and the remote definitely has the WAF.

Cheers,

Chris
<edit> Yes, Mark. You can rip to FLAC and .WAV for perfect lossless. In fact, NetStreams will only accept .WAV from one of these servers. </edit>

3x DSP5200 L, R and C (all vertical), 4x Triad Silver in-wall surrounds and 6x Triad Silver in-ceiling ATMOS speakers, Triad Silver subwoofer, Denon AVR-X8500H, JVC DLA-7500 4K projector and Screen Research 120" AT 2.35:1 screen.
Apple TV 4K and Oppo UDP-203 Blu-ray player.