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I just finished reading this article http://www.stereophile.com/news/010508ref/
which I found fascinating for several reasons. Not least of which was the idea of creating a wholly new digital encoding scheme.

It's not a new encoding scheme. Reference is making available its masters as WAV files (Windows standard format) with 24-bit word length (another standard) and 176.4kHz sample rate (also a standard rate). These files are universally playable, provided the owner has a suitable sound-card and D/A converter.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

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That in itself is interesting, but what i find really fascinating is if we take this one step further. Why shouldn't we expect dozens or hundreds of individually designed encoding schemes?

That "one step further" is more like a giant leap. What's being described in the article seems to be that the orignal developers of HDCP have created a new DAC that "sounds better in some ways" than their original HDCD encoder, not a new encoding system. The file format described in the article is WAV which is certainly nothing new.

Besides the announcement of yet another audiophile recording vendor delivering their studio master content over the web, the comment I found most interesting was "...hard drive playback is the future of audio".

It's also interesting that the specs (from their web site) for this new DAC describe that it includes a BADA (I'm guessing Berkeley Audio Design Associates) input that "allows future support of HDMI and other DRM formats". I have no idea what this means. It it HDMI with a proprietary encryption protocol? Would unencrypted PCM over HDMI be supported? The rear panel photo shows what looks like an RJ-45 connector for the BADA input which only confuses me more.

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Which players support 176.4kHz sample rate?

Quite a few DACs do.

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Which players support 176.4kHz sample rate?

The Benchmark DAC 1 supports 176.4kHz

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Assume that I'm barely computer literate and I want to setup a system for audio only, to play these HRx discs, what computer specs do I need for my 2-channel stereo system ? Also, will this system accept hi-rez downloads ?

Ned, if you're barely computer literate, I would not recommend using your computer as a music player. I say this not because it won't sound good, but because I don't think the technology is quite there for seamless integration. I think that you're looking at many hours of frustration and cursing up a storm if you decide to go this route.

I suspected as much ! Of course, this doesn't come through,either in the Ref. Rec. article or in JA's reply, that you first have to be computer proficient. This is what I find so fustrating in trying to make sense of this new hard drive playback technology.

It will get there eventually, where computer playback will be as easy as plugging it in and inserting a disk, but considering that computer playback is in its infancy as far as user interfaces, integration, etc., you have to be at least fairly comfortable with computers in general, wireless networking and media player settings.

Those that are comfortable with computers don't think in terms of "user friendliness" because it's intuitive. However, for those who are new to the world of computers, all of this can be very daunting.

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Those that are comfortable with computers don't think in terms of "user friendliness" because it's intuitive.

I think most the current media players present very accessible, user-friendly user interfaces for ripping, cataloging and playing content. The nasty issues discussed in this forum and in the magazine come about because we audiophiles are seeking to extract that last bit of fidelity from those music files. Getting "bit transparent" delivery of audio content from a PC is far from an intuitive matter even for those very familiar with PC's. A PC could be configured (and locked) by the vendor or integrator to deliver a very high-end music source that would be easy to use by the average consumer. This box would then be just another CE appliance that would be "as easy as plugging it in and inserting a disk".

Since the RR article indicates that the HRx discs are an interim step to "direct download and for pre-loading into music servers", the computer issue for playing these discs is now moot. But will the setup and interface get more user friendly later ?

I think that the setup and interface will get much better in the future. At this point, these interfaces are very awkward at best.