Hi James,
I love the convenience of computer audio, for general listening, so understand where you are coming from - but please note that macs need to be set up correctly for best sound, as well as PC's, and also there are media players designed to run on mac's, like Amarra, which are reputedly better sounding than iTunes - as I run Windows I cannot comment
I would imagine there is no issue with having iTunes and Amarra running together, with iTunes syncing with ipods and managing the library, and Amarra being used as a media player - I do a similar thing with MediaMonkey and Fooobar in Windows
However you do it, I hope the Emotiva warms up nicely for you