Back towards the orignial post...I recently purchased a NYKO cable that connects my iPod to my 990 via the iPods dock connector versus the headphone jack. The cable has left and right RCA connections that I use at the 990. This results in a line connection (e.g. iPod volume and EQ are not applied). The result is that the iPod is the DAC with 990 processing layered on top. My order of listening preference is:

1) original CD closely followed by
2) FLAC files to the 990 via the linksys music bridge
3) and way down the list, the iPod playing mp3s.

I imagine the sound quality of the direct connection between a laptop and the 990 as Davin originally described would be better or near #2 above depending upon the file format used to store music on the PC. If you have enough hard drive space I recommend one of the lossless codecs versus mp3 for use in the house. Besides sounding better when played back using the PC burned CDs will be indistiguishable from the original CD.

I have not tried it but I understand the iPod will play Apple lossless format, but the number of songs on the iPod would be significantly reduced. Using Apple lossless on the iPod would probably improve the sound when connected to the 990.