Computer Upgrade

Its not just jitter. Tough to explain but very easy to listen for. You will just not get the easy going emotion from the sound youre suposed to get. USB is the worse interface you can use. Add a few grand in USB to spidf converters, cables, reclockers and you still have those crappy packets.

There is nothing else. If noise floor is low and the jitter is low then it is only matter of quality of the D/A converter and analog output section which is independent of the type of the DAC. It might be possibly lack of jitter since people are used to some noise or distortion and completely without them it sounds analytic, sterile, not engaging. It is pretty much like a difference between clean Jazz guitar and distorted guitar, Distorted always sounds livelier.

Whatever it is, I just find USB has no place in hi fi.

Back to the OP question. You can get a lot of views over at computer audiophile forum. I suggest staying with the operating system you are most comfortable with. I never tried a Mini, so can't compare the sound to a Windows machine. I've evolved within Windows machines, though, so I can comment on my experience with that.

My system used to be a Win 7 laptop with JRiver connected to an Audiophilleo with PurePower, connected to a Metrum Octave, tube pre and amp. Music library inside a USB hard drive, which is not ideal. Sound was as good as my Rotel RCD1080 CD player, and I sold the CD player.

Then I built an audio server based on Intel server motherboard (no bells and whistles), Xeon CPU, SSD for JRiver and Win Server 2012. Music on a HDD inside the PC. Fanless case, headless (meaning no monitor and video turned off within the PC). Big jump in audio quality, using same Audiophilleo and Metrum. I also had/have a linear power supply.

Next I added a Paul Pang USB card. Another improvement in sound.

Next I added AudioPhil's Audio Optimizer, which is a software that optimizes Windows setup. Huge improvement in sound. Totally unexpected!

Then I turned Windows Server to core mode. Another significant jump in sound quality. Then I added 3M RFI absorbing paper inside the PC, for another improvement.

The Audiophilleo is of course an asynch USB converter, and a very good one. This experience tells me there are definitely improvements to be had by focusing on the computer itself. Some are software based and can be done on laptops and desktops alike. Most hardware tweaks can be done on desktops only.

Thanks for all of the inputs. before I have had my laptop near my DAC PS audio Direct Stream on the audio rack, I now change the set up for convenience by having the laptop on a small stand right next to my chair. With that, I use a 25ft usb cable to connect laptop to dac. For this current set up, I have an option of buying/building a small form factor PC. It is a little bit cheaper and more powerful than laptop but I am not sure that Do I need all of that power on PC? or another option is to install window server on a PC instead of win7. I never try win server before so I really do not know it is better than win 7.