Might be worth a sticky ...
Does MC have full access to all the New! Improved? Windows 8 audio goodness? I've seen rave reviews from the pre-release crowd about major upgrades to WASAPI and DirectSound, now rumoured to be jitter free and ultra low latency - better than Android, and (dare I say it?) on a par or better than Apple iOS.
I've also seen hints that ASIO is now dead (which may be an issue with older DACs and such, and that DirectSound is almost as good as WASAPI now with much improved anti-aliasing and such ...
Also, would support for these new W8 features extend back to MC17 and other prior versions? I'm strictly audio, so I haven't seen the need to upgrade to MC18 - yet.
And also also ... do we need to purchase the W8 standard or pro? Media center addon? Or is that just a front end player? Not seeing a lot about that from the boyz in Bellevue ... if it's just a front end like the old XP MCE editions, I can pass as I'm firmly in the MC camp now.