Best Audiophile desktop for under $2500?

I have a Mac Mni and I hate it for audio. It kept crashing for a few years when updates were applied. The solution was to re-install the OS and then the updates. Though the Mini did not crash like this last year. Maybe Apple learned something.

During the last 2 days I switched between a $500 Dell low-end tiny computer running ROON Core and my $6000 Silent PC (client bought for me) that also ran ROON Core. The sound differences were 0.

Silent PC | Fanless PCs and Quiet Servers

The reason being that I ran fibre optical cable just before the DAC. I used a couple of Sonore Optical Rendu’s for 2 systems. I am back to the $500 computer. They reason for the computer switching was related to some issues I had with PowerLine data transfer that was unrelated to the computer audio processing. The reason I got the SIlent PC is that I use it in my office with 6 monitors and to do that with a regular computer would result in a noisy computer.

If you dig into the ROON web site of Community Forum, ROON themselves suggest using a cheap computer and sticking into a closet and then stream from that source. They do not mention fibre like I am recommending but the glass cable of a fibre setup cannot carry network analog noise into the DAC. ROON maybe not saying that today with the new owners and the need to sell the new ROON server machine.

A computer, especially a noisy one like the Dell Precision (I have a few), that is directly connected to the DAC via USB is sending the analog noise of the computer into the DAC. A RJ45 network connection is also able to carry noise, but likely not as bad as a direct USB connection.

Saying all of this I do have a PlayBack Designs Streamer-IF and that also supports USB directly from a computer. I do not use it like that, but I think there is some magical processing going on inside that unit because it sounds great on SPDIF even without any fibre in the pathway.

Mac mini

"audiophile desktop".   

No consumer computer in an audiphile system.  

I will be installing a Matrix Audio USB card for the DAC, not sure how much of a difference that makes compared to a USB/fiber optic scenario. I do a lot of 7.1 HMDI audio/video/movies also. There is about 14 TB of music. Thats another reason the DELL worked out, because of all the bays to add HD's. Has to be Windows based for when I do work. I mainly use JRiver. The reason I mentioned ROON was because I was thinking of using it also. But the main software is JRiver. 

Wondering if I can use my current DELL as a server somehow and use another computer in the system. Is there a way to make that scenario work?

Presumably you are feeding the PC audio out to a external DAC to an audio system.

Based on advice here, I switched from simple headphone audio out jack (using pc's DAC, lousy) to USB audio out to DAC (far better) to Luxman Integrated Amp to Darn good sounding Speakers (more important than the data/dac). World of difference.

I had poor speaker location for many years, totally revised my office for seated ear level, centered seating and could not be happier.

I don’t stream separate audio, just Music Videos, YouTube/Smart TV netflix/prime/viki/paramount .... shows, some here in office, most in Home Theater AV Receiver Downstairs. Most pre-recorded, watch without commercials.

Real Dolby 5.1 sources, OR, turn default pseudo surround i.e. 5.1 off, use 2 channel stereo mode, i.e. DIRECT finds 2 channel original, or forced 2 channel. VERY often better sound.

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In the office the PC fan(s) and Hard Drive(s) Noise can be as/more important than the digital audio output performance.

For that reason I buy HP compact PCs with both audio and video on the Intel motherboard, no fans, and Solid State drives (no noise). My PC Processor’s fan rarely comes on, and is whisper quiet. Leave proper/extra ventilation to minimize that fan or any extra fans to run.

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Intel 730 on the motherboard

Processors are so fast, they have for a long time been waiting for you. Gaming a different world.