How to get into high end digital? (Feeding a DAC)


I am looking primarily at the Schitt Yggdrasil or the Topping D90.
  • How does one feed those?
  • I am assuming any sort of CD transport would output the bit stream?
  • or… they get saved to file and played from some media player into the DACs.

Some example of what is commonly done would be great.

The system currently consists of:
  • TT —> Audio Research PH2
  • An old Nakamichi 5 disk CD player
  • TV
  • Audible Illusions line stage (New tunes on the way, but it still sound OK to me with the old tube in it)
  • Prima Luna (with GoldenLion and TS KT-120 one the way… and I might I’ll get the VTL mono blocks 100w/ch serviced)
  • Vandy 2C and Vandy sub

I also have a Home Theatre pre, which is Roon capable, on the way… So that maybe does some of this for me as well? 

But to be totally honest, the digital side is a bit of mystery to me.
I have always thought we plug in a CD player and the signal comes out. (Maybe with some nuance in DACs, clock jitter, and filtering to separate the higher end from the lower end products.)
128x128holmz
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And yes, NUCs (running good streaming software ike Roon or ???) and Raspberry Pis are really strong contenders. That said they both demand attention to clean power, or better yet, segmented power with clean and dirty functions handled independently. You might be surprised how many commercial product embed a RPi or similar. Hey, i might. Nothing wrong with a solid, mass produced platform that on fixes the weaknesses of.
Oh, and to a couple who posted, my comment about "the answer being component X" was aimed at no one in particular - just more a process comment that understanding comes before selection IMO.
OK - I think maybe the best near term plan is to await the AVR arrival and just try Roon on it… Then I’ll see if the 2 channel if good enough with it.
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