FireWire to AES/EBU and S/PDIF
There will be an exhaustive (but one hopes not exhausting) review of the Weiss Engineering INT 202 FireWire to AES and S/PDIF converter appearing over on www.6moons.com in a few days. I can send a preprint of the review privately to interested parties.
Let's just say it's very, very good. And it includes a set of test files that confirm (in hardware) bit-perfect operation.
The Weiss DAC 202 is also exceptional. Basically it has the functionality of the INT 202 packaged with an SOTA (in my opinion) DAC.
In the next few months, you'll see similar products from other unnamed vendors. In the $6-7K price range, consumers will have several excellent choices that will significantly advance the still rough-around-the-edges state of digital audio in the home.
On the bit-perfect side of things, keep in mind that the modestly-priced ($50) but fully-audiophile-featured J. River Media Center (JRMC to its friends) gives you bit-perfect data in 10 seconds or less on Windows platforms (Vista and 7).
Everyone should keep in mind (and as Bruce probably knows from personal experience) that it's really easy to get
non-bit-perfect data from iTunes or Windows