I only started using digital in my main system a couple months ago, though i’ve been playing in this sandbox since late ’60s~ I started with a Mac Book Air running Audirvana. Worked fine. You’ll upgrade as you go. You can use an iPad (or possibly an iPhone) as the remote (I use an iPad with a Mac Mini which I got from Apple with a discount coupon b/c of problems with another Mac). There are a couple tricks to using Audirvana-- loading content into the library, make sure you have some metadata associated with the files. If you try to delete and reload, it may cause the tracks to appear twice- you have to delete the interface contents as well as the folder in the library itself. Also, I found that a weak wifi signal made the remote hang up-- better wi-fi, no problem!
Interestingly, I thought because the Mac Air was running on batteries it might sound better than the Mini which has a switching supply. No so. I think the power supply is important. Many people who used the Mac Mini, now considered out of date and not as good as special made for audio computers, had surgery done to install a linear PS. Though I haven’t done that and probably won’t, the Mini seemed to have more gravitas than the Mac Air running only on batteries, so you might see if you hear a difference with the laptop plugged in v. running on batteries.
Audirvana has an ’extreme’ priority setting that overtakes a lot of competing functions on a multipurpose computer. I wanted my laptop back! (because I write or do other stuff on the computer while listening). There are a bunch of web sites if you search that talk about disabling certain functions on the Mac if you use it as a music server. You might take a look at those as well.
