the best, cost-no-object, music streamer?

That's great news Steve, thanks.

I'm sure there are a lot of us ripping SACDs that aren't quite ready to get rid of our DACs for DSD processing; a converter seems like an attractive interim option.

When you said USB converter, did you mean USB cable from A type USB (MacMini) to B ?

No, I'm talking about a device that takes async USB as input and outputs S/PDIF coax, AES/EBU and maybe I2S to drive a DAC. Because it is async USB protocol, it creates a new low-jitter master clock outside of the computer or server.

This is what is commonly referred to as a "USB converter".

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Nd4 - not only is it a good idea for older non-USB DACs, it is beneficial 99% of the time for newer USB DACs that have other inputs. Most USB inputs are poorly implemented IME.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve N

Ok. Point taken will take a close look at this USB Converter advice

Thanks

Adj243 - while you are in the planning stages consider hard drive failure!

This just happened to me and reloading my CD's was a pita.

I now have all my music on a NAS drive that has dual drives in a RAID mirrored configuration. If one of the drives fail I simply replace it and the NAS drive software takes care of copying the data to the new drive automatically.

If you start downloading music then hard disk failures can have a bigger impact

I know hard drive failures are rare these days, but you only need it to happen once to really tick you off.