I-Tunes-type software

Audirvana, Amarra, and Pure Music all work with iTunes. Of these I preferred Audirvana. All have a trial so you can check them out and see how they handle Beethoven. FWIW I have moved on to JRiver to get off iTunes altogether.

When using iTunes you can "join tracks" when you rip which will keep longer multi-tracks performances together. I use iTunes and Pure Music and like the results.

What OS?

Zd542,

My first thought is Mac, so OS-X. Of course then there's the version to worry about. I've read recently that there is an audio advantage to staying OS-X 1.6 or earlier.

If I choose the dark side, then I'll be stuck with Windows 8 since I'd be buying a new computer.

JRiver has integer mode support for the latest OSX Mavericks. Mac brought back this feature for the Mavericks release. Previously I think you needed Snow Leopard or earlier.

Unless you need to be married to iTunes the move to JRiver will be worthwhile.

Clio09,

That is good information I'll have to check out. I've read (but not experienced yet) that integer mode is worthwhile. My only experience with any software is with Windows Media Player (hated it) and a bit with I-Tunes (did't like it, either). JRiver gets lots of press, so I'm under the impression that many people who use it like it.

Do programs like Audirvana, Amarra, and Pure Music work if not using an apple computer? Will an airport express work with these programs?

I am pretty sure that Audirvana, Pure Music, and Amarra only work with OSX and iTunes as the library. JRiver was originally developed for PC and is now Mac compatible.

Macdonj - try the JRiver software out for a bit. I think you will like it. At this point I am now getting into running Minimserver on my Mac Mini and bypassing JRiver, except to curate my library. I use PlugPlayer on my iPad and Android to access my music folders off the server. I will be expanding this in the near future but for now the results have been very good. I may go back to JRiver if and when I start using DSD.

Have both JRiver and Audirvana running on a Macbook.  JRiver has very impressive tagging capabilities and library management features, but I'm not sure that it is really at home on a Mac.  Extremely unstable to the point of unusability.  

Audirvana struggles in the tagging department.