ETHERNET DAC

apple TV toslink to DAC, control with an ipod touch. The apple TV will do the same thing and more than a mini and cost much less. Also you can access your library on the ipod touch, there is no more elegant interface out there, especially for the price.

From everything I hear, the Mac Mini should work. My understanding is it's a full Mac less the monitor. I believe it has USB so you can run that to a USB DAC and use your TV for video. Better yet, just get an IPod touch and download the "Remote" application for it and control Itunes from there. Coolest thing I've seen as far as electronics. Your entire lossless library at the touch of your fingers and no hassle at all to setup. You'll need a wireless router like an Airport Express, which runs $99(US) to run the IPod Touch however, but even that's a breeze to setup. Mac's are much, much less difficult than setting up a PC to accomplish the same thing (I've done both, getting into this initially with a dell laptop PC/external HD combo feeding a DAC1 via USB, and then moving over to a Mac recently). You can honestly get outstanding sound from either, just need a good DAC that reclocks the signal like a Benchmark DAC1 (DAC being the most critical component, much moreso than the computer itself).

Some alternatives:

1. Sonos wireless network, small boxes that sit next to your DAC and stereo and a remote a bit like the Duet remote.

2. Mac Mini. Macbook or Windows laptop next to your DAC. Run whatever player s/w you want. be sure the computer you choose has a coax or optical digital output. Some of the netbooks with Intel Atom CPUs are cheap and look quite good for this purpose. Some are quieter than others according to reviews.

Both of these alternatives use standard Windows file sharing to retrieve audio data from the NAS.

Bill

You might take a look at the Linn network players - they allow any number of different user-interface options, and excellent sound quality. I'd also imagine that their support in Scotland is pretty decent :)