Help me set up new stereo system

To find out how your copy of iTunes is configured for ripping CDs go to 'Preferences' in the iTunes menus, click on the first icon on the left, 'General,' and click on the 'Import settings' button near the bottom right of that window.

If want to check on the files you already have in iTunes do this:
- When iTunes is open go to the 'View' menu at the top of the window.
- Select 'Column browser'
- In the window that opens put a check mark in the 'Kind' and 'Bit rate' boxes
- You'll probably have to open the iTunes window all the way or scroll over to the right to see the two new columns of information you just added.
- Depending on which version of iTunes you have the options will likely be, in alphabetical order:
-- AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), a lossy compression format similar to mp3
-- AIFF - the full CD resolution format on CDs
-- Apple Lossless - a compressed but lossless format that should sound almost identical to the CD
-- MP3 - a compressed format with three bit rate options
--WAV - an uncompressed format common in the PC world but not so much on Macs

Regarding bit rates, higher is better in terms of audio fidelity and files ripped in iTunes will range from something like 1400 kbps for an AIFF file to 128 kbps for an mp3 ripped at the lowest resolution.

It's true that mp3s aren't going to sound as good as lossless files on a system capable of resolving the difference but my experience is that mp3s at 256 or 320 kbps do benefit from a better DAC and the one in the Hegel is probably excellent.

Great advice from Clio09. If you do decide to go with a Mac Mini there are a couple of things to think about.

Since the latest Mac Minis don't have an optical drive built in you'd need to buy an external drive to burn CDs (there are much cheaper ones than the Apple brand Superdrive) or you could use the drive in the Macbook Pro through wireless sharing with the Mini. The previous generation Minis do have internal drives.

You'll need a monitor to get the Mini set up, either using its HDMI output to a monitor or TV that accepts HDMI, or by screen sharing with the MacBook Pro.

Since the Mini has digital optical output and the Hegel has optical input I would suggest you consider using that rather than USB. USB really wasn't intended for high fidelity music transfer and while it can be very good with the right (expensive) implementation the optical connection might be better. The headphone/analog output jack on the Mini is also an optical digital output. You'd need a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable or a mini adapter for a regular Toslink cable.

If you re-rip files from a CD you've ripped before, iTunes will ask you if you want to replace the file that's already in your iTunes library with the new one. so you won't have duplicates unless you want them.

Whether you'd need more disc storage space than is in the Mini would depend, of course, on how big your library is and the format you choose for ripping but if that is ever a problem you can easily add an external drive or replace the internal drive with a larger one.

You do have backups of your music library, right? Ripping is enough of a PITA without having to do it twice or, in your case, perhaps three times.

I wouldn't be too concerned about trying to replicate all those AAC files at higher resolution. Just play and enjoy them. For your favorite music, the stuff you really, really want to hear at its best available resolution, re-rip the CD or go down the rabbit hole of even higher resolution through downloaded DSD files, but that would add even complexities to your considerations.

Good luck, I don't think you'll regret the effort when it's all done, and the gear you've put together would justify that effort.

Don't get too caught up into chasing higher resolution files, making you ignore any of the great music you've already accumulated.

I love sitting in front of my Simaudio amp and DAC with Nola Boxer speakers playing CD resolution or higher files but the musical experience is just as satisfying when I'm walking around my neighborhood at 7 a.m. listening to 192k mp3 files from an iPod shuffle with decent earbuds while talking to all the neighborhood cats who are always sitting in their front yards at that time of the day.

It's the music, it's the music. Enjoy what you have.