“Normally I wouldn’t want King Crimson’s monster math metal playing less than 2 feet from my face. But the live material fromThe Road to Red, ripped from CD in Apple Lossless, became easy listening (in sound if not in genre). Even the psycho violin solo that concludes “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II” (Asbury Park version) was gentle on the tympanic membranes. At the opposite extreme, Madeleine Peyroux’s The Blue Room (in downsampled 44.1/24 FLAC via HDtracks) sounded as midrange-rich and creamy as it does through my reference home theater system. The VoxBox Edition of Chopin Piano Works (MP3, 141 tracks, 11 hours, $2.99 on Amazon) showed a musically adept balance, with midbass weight that made the piano seem full and warm. My computer speakers are 28 inches from the wall, so the speakers’ strong upper bass response didn’t become unduly swollen. The overall balance was concert-hall-like, and sounded especially good from my desk chair, though the rolloff was more pronounced from my armchair several feet away.” —— soundandvision.com