Giving up on Itunes! Alternatives? I want to run my hardrive with a dedicated tablet.

someone said: "iTunes/Apple Music isn’t noted for its audio quality."
Incorrect!   Itunes on a mac mini is one of the best playback platforms, assuming you are playing HD or FLAC (ALAC) files.  Couple it with BitPerfect ($10) and you have a terrific (sounding) solution.  Unfortunately, its cataloging is pretty useless especialyl for complec Classical.
Even Paul, the owner of PS audio, admits that rather than use his own megabuck transport or streamer at home, he often uses a mac mini with Bitperfect.
I did this (on a laptop, not a mini) for about a year until i wanted to throw itunes out the window - but not for sound reasons.
I now use Roon.

Why would anyone ever listen to iTunes in the first place.  Try Tidal Hi Fi and hear MQA.  Worth the $20/month.  Hi res makes a huge difference.

Larry - i think maybe you are confusing itunes ( an app) with music formats? if you are clear on the difference, please make it clear - not everyone will take the correct learning from simple statements. You can play HD in iTunes/bitperfect - the decoding occurs in the DAC.
For those who don;t know how to play HD on iTunes - either use bitperfect (strongly suggested by me and all of $10) or rad this:
https://www.pooraudiophile.com/2016/02/how-to-play-high-resolution-audio-with-apple-itunes.html

As to MQA MQA- no. It does not support the first unfold to the best of my knowledge. But I’ll also debate the value of MQA on most recordings. And in fact I’m listing to Tidal based MQA right now as I type, and have compared it to my own FLACs of the same masterings. note that FLAC and ALAC are the same except one is big-endian and the other little-endian.

note I am not getting the 2nd unfold because none of my DACs contain the licensed MQA chip. You didn’t mention what DAC you are using and whether yours does. Note also that the DACs that do support MQA in the hardware are not among my fav’s at their price points -- so this is a trade off too.
Now back to the original question - you can get very good performance up to CD quality out of iTunes with bitperfect (necessary for the best performance). As to why you would want to? Well, i don’t. Its cataloging is terrible for classical, and it has real issues with multiple versions of ANY album. And its interface is simplistic.

But fundamental sound is not its weakness.
Now this brings up a good point about files - you certainly want to avoid MP3 for the best quality - even at 320 kbps they are quite lossy. Sometimes euphonically so tho....
As to HD in general (24/96+) - this is a can of worms. Its probably necessary for the studio where a) levels may be mis-set and b) post processing will be done. In the final playback - its at best a 2nd order issue. Great masterings of 16/44 can be superb. Ive noted many such recordings in he past (and many are 50 years old by the way). And crap recordings (listening to velvet underground in MQA at the moment) cannot be saved by HD. they just suck.
I think that roon and audirvahna are good suggestions.

G

update - i see that Roon now supports both unfolds, or so it seems, so I may be GTG simply by updating settings for each DAC device/endpoint.  I'll report back.

I gave up on using LMS and my SBT a few months ago for Roon plus a Nucleus. LMS became to buggy despite all the folks attempting to update the software ( on their own ) for years. Couldn’t be happier. 

ok, can;t edit my earlier post. Roon does NOT support unfold #2, despite some exciting, but misleading, wording.  Too much to hope for.  Gotta buy Bob's chip.