New Computer: What Should I Get for Audio?

There are a hundred or so threads on the subject, the good news is that there are only about 95 opinions for every 100 threads....
I believe the largest consensus today is that the MAC Mini is a good buy, you would then need an optical drive (cd drive) of some sort to download cd's and you would need a good DAC. My problem with the above is to do it right, you most likely would also need additional programs, like Amarra to use in conjunction with it...
Myself, I use a windows machine. With windows you would need to use JRiver, Foobar or Media Monkey.... I have listended to all. JRiver is the easiest and most versital, but once completely set up with the latest beta version of Foobar, I find sound quality equal... I didn't like Media Monkey as good as either.
Any Windows machine will include an optical drive, so you would need a USB DAC.
Many have touted JPlay as an additional source to play through, It runs your files directly off of RAM. When I first tried it, I was blown away.. I got rid of anti virus, deleted a bunch of programs and turned off everything else that I could, after this, Jplay was negligable... Obviously I am speaking from Windows experience. Overall If I had the funds, I'd probably try the MAC route. Don't have the funds, but I can tell you that I have a very nice Tubed CD player that I have modded to the hilt and my server/DAC combo is every bit as good.

Get a used late 2009 Mac Mini on ebay and then buy a 120GB SSD from Other World Computing and 8GB of DRAM from them and install it yourself.

Then do all of these SW tweaks:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=105944.0

Then put this older version of Amarra on it:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=105236.0

Then plug your USB cable in the slot next to the center slot.

All of these optimizations result in a spectacular SQ.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thank you, Roscoeiii, Audioengr, and Timlub,

I think I am inclined toward a Windows laptop at this point, but I am considering a Mac laptop. I haven't researched Macs yet, but I have a friend who loves her Mac Pro. This computer is going to be used for everything, so I don't think I am going to want a Mac Mini (which I'm assuming is small :) Can I do everything I need to do with a Mac laptop? Seems reasonable to me that a larger laptop would have everything the mini has; and maybe more.

I am thinking about getting an Oppo 95 modified by Modwright. The Oppo has a USB input, so is that all I would need? (it also has an eStat input..I have no idea what that is). I've learned that Dan Wright is working on a digital input, but I have no idea what that means, i.e., I don't know what advantage that is. Wouldn't a USB drive be all one would need? See what I mean? I'm a real rookie.

Timlub: why would you go Mac if you had the funds?

Thanks again - very much.
John

You could not use you PC/Mac with an Oppo. It can take hard drives or flash drives and then you choose music on screen with the remote.

Yes a laptop would work as standalone but you'd want to pair it with an approproate DAC.

p.s. Timlub - I too have a very heavily modded tube-output CD player (Exemplar/Denon). I'm puzzled by your comment that "my server/DAC is every bit as good". Puzzled because I thought the point of computer down-loaded hi-rez music was to get much better sound.