My experience is with lower cost gear than described in the OP, but FWIW:
I replaced a heavily modded Musical Fidelity A5 with a Macbook, playing iTunes/AIFF, into a PS Audio Perfect Wave Dac, via a Locus Design Polestar USB cord.
I could not do direct comparisons (CDP traded in on DAC), but the Mac/PW was a very obvious improvement over the MF CDP.
I A/Bed the Mac as transport vs a modded Jolida JD100 as transport: I thought the Jolida was very slightly better; a local audio manufacturer, with vastly more experience than me, slightly favored the Mac as transport. Probably safe to conclude that any differences are not huge, one way or the other.
My experience suggests that with a bit of fooling around, you might very well get performance you're pleased with using a computer as transport, and I'd not undersell the convenience, which translates into hearing a lot more of your collection, IMO.
So Acrylic, I'd advise experimenting; I predict you'll be pleased. I second Swanny's suggestion of computeraudiophile dot com, which is a great resource. It does take a bit of work to "go computer", but I doubt it's out of line with the energies many here expend on their hobby.
John
I replaced a heavily modded Musical Fidelity A5 with a Macbook, playing iTunes/AIFF, into a PS Audio Perfect Wave Dac, via a Locus Design Polestar USB cord.
I could not do direct comparisons (CDP traded in on DAC), but the Mac/PW was a very obvious improvement over the MF CDP.
I A/Bed the Mac as transport vs a modded Jolida JD100 as transport: I thought the Jolida was very slightly better; a local audio manufacturer, with vastly more experience than me, slightly favored the Mac as transport. Probably safe to conclude that any differences are not huge, one way or the other.
My experience suggests that with a bit of fooling around, you might very well get performance you're pleased with using a computer as transport, and I'd not undersell the convenience, which translates into hearing a lot more of your collection, IMO.
So Acrylic, I'd advise experimenting; I predict you'll be pleased. I second Swanny's suggestion of computeraudiophile dot com, which is a great resource. It does take a bit of work to "go computer", but I doubt it's out of line with the energies many here expend on their hobby.
John