Please Help!! looking to get into computer audio.

Also, if possible, connect your media players (TV, BD Disk, etc.) directly to your home network via cables. If you live in an apartment Wifi is always going to be an issue due to the number of competing routers.

Best,

Erik

Consider spending $10 and getting BitPerfect from the Apple App Store as a low cost way to start.  Use BitPerfect in "hog mode" to play an iTunes library.  iTunes music files purchased as MP3s might well be less than "audiophile" quality though not all MP3s are created "equal" (i.e., they're not all equally crappy!).  Alternatively, your iTunes library might consist of ripped CDs.  These might be stored as high quality ALAC or even WAV files.  The former (MP4A) while compressed is much better sound quality than MP3.  The latter is uncompressed but you give up meta data in iTunes. Personally, I did a lot of A/B-ing between ALAC and WAV ripped CDs and couldn't hear a difference, though others report they can.  For me, a relatively low cost option has been External Hard Drive w/ALAC files in iTunes>>MacBook w/BitPefect>>USB out>>Musical Fidelity USB/SPDIF converter>>coax>>Schiit Gungnir DAC>>pre-amp.  You can throw silly money at computer audio but there's no guarantee you will hear a commensurate improvement in SQ...which is not to say the sound I have can't be improved.  For me it's just a satisfactory balance between $-spent and sound realized.  Same applies to Tidal vs Spotify.  I didn't find Tidal SQ 2x better than Spotify...though I realize that's "red meat" to some frequenting this forum.  Good luck with your explorations.  

Actually on a Mac with iTunes, if you want uncompressed music files, AIFF is your choice, not WAV. AIFF can retain all metadata, including album covers if you paste them in.

My 2500-album library is a mix of ALAC mainly, with about 10% as AIFF. And I've tested several albums over the past few years, having each as both ALAC and AIFF...and I don't believe there's any difference.

What helps keep the compressed ALAC and uncompressed AIFF sound the same as been powerful enough music servers which can decompress the ALAC files quickly.

And aren't purchased iTunes Store files in the AAC format?

Even though also lossy files like MP3, AAC tend to sound better.

Wow lots of info!! Thank you everyone for passing on your knowledge. I should also tell everyone that, I have a Toshiba pc and my phone is a samsung s6, The oppo media App that you suggested Eric which i currently do not have downloaded on my phone. With that i can sign up for a Tidal account and then stream music from my phone? sorry for my ignorance, but can you please elaborate on that a little more please?.I f i can start with that first until i get a media server set up that would be great!