@shadowcat2016 ,
A couple of things:
Schiit Yggydrasil certainly DOES play hi-rez. So do most of their lower priced models. Correct, it doesn't play DSD. Because they don't believe DSD sounds better.
I can tell you that ripping SACDs to a server is a huge PITA and can only be done w/a few players such as old Sony Playstations and a couple of Oppos. If SACD( which are DSD discs if you didn't realize) is a big part of your collection or plans then get a cheap SACD player like a Marantz for spinning them.
But the majority of most people's listening is 1) red book CDs, ripped from PC/Mac into a hard drive(hopefully a network hard drive(aka NAS - Network Attached Storage), 2) hi-res files in all the other file types(collectively known as PCM file types e.g. 24/96, 24/192 even 24/48) downloaded or copied from another drive and 3) streamed files from the you play from subscription services like Tidal, Roon, Spotify etc.
Granted one box solutions are appealing for their simplicity. The same way receivers are vs. separate preamps, phono stages & power amps. If you seek the best sound quality for the dollars at almost any price point, then separates are the way to go more so with digital audio than almost anything else. Why? Because digital signals are very susceptible to electrical noise and interference. Spinning discs and their power supplies add noise. Storing the files on a NAS drive in another room makes it quieter. If you can't wire ethernet cable into the audio room, you can easily use wifi adapters that turn all the copper wiring in your home into wiring to pass the signal from your router & NAS in one room and your dac and audio gear in another.
The other problem w/one box solutions is that if(when) the transport goes, you lose the investment in the whole thing. 2 years from now and every 2 years later, when dacs are better/cheaper than before, you might decide to upgrade. Many of the recommended dacs and others are upgradeable just by changing out a small board.
FYI many of the devices use USB, which inherently carries power on one leg and signal on another. Many companies have made great strides in recent years to separate the signal from power to reduce electrical noise. If you don't pay attention to this aspect, and get a network player, cabling & dac that deal w/that issue better than most, you probably won't be satisfied musically.
For the same reason(electrical noise) a network streamer built with a tiny board and small power supply sounds better in 95% of the cases than a windows or mac operating system computer running tons of processes un-audio-related, with a large power supply that let's noise into that tiny fragile power leg of your usb cable.
If you invest a bit more time to learn about the pros and cons to some of these recommendations you will get amazing sound a far price. I evolved from:
A) Mac with attached hard drive running special audio software(Audirvana+, and the other top packages) to
B) an Oppo player into a better dac, and then to
C) a mRendu network player in the listening room, a NAS in another room storing files, an iPad letting me control music without wires nor power supply interference.
The latter option is in a completely different league at about the same price. I download high res files using my macbook or pc, save the files directly to the NAS(it's just another letter drive), rip CDs from the library the and save them on the NAS the same way, and don't use the computer when I listen at all.
Other than for convenience, I haven't heard any one box player sound better than this approach (not just with my specific gear), and I haven't heard any arguments that logically explain why it would be better.
"I have x and it sounds great" isn't enough of a recommendation. If you haven't compared the approaches you need to read up to understand why almost the entire community on computeraudiophile prefers that route. Cheers,
Spencer
