Is there a Rosetta Stone for digital speak?

For one just starting out on the "computer HD based system" adventure, the Computer Audiophile website is an excellent resource, particularly some of the "CA Academy" articles.

If you want to keep your eventual setup as simple as possible, I also recommend looking into two new "hi-res" products soon to come on the market from Sony, the HAP-S1/B at $1000 and the HAP-Z1ES at $2000.

Here's a link: http://discover.store.sony.com/High-Resolution-Audio/

Digital is just like analog in that respect. The more separates you use, the better the result and of course the higher the price.

If you are after the holy grail, the first hurdle is to achieve a really low jitter digital source. One way to get there that is fairly simple is the Antipodesaudio.com server driving an Off-Ramp 5 with Turboclock and Dynamo power supply.

http://www.antipodesaudio.com/antipodes_music_servers.html

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/off-ramp-converter

Once you have this, then pick the DAC that you like the best. Picking DACs is a lot like picking amplifiers. Some people like dynamics and detail and others like smoothness and liquid midrange. It must mate with your system well.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Skip Steve N's recommendation for the Antipode and buy a Baetis Revolution II Music Server and an excellent digital BNC to RCA digital cable (Teresonic's for $400 is superb) to connect to your DAC of preference. You will find that music sounds better through the BNC connection on the Baetis than the USB. Personally, there is so little new music recorded in DSD and digital stuff transferred to DSD isn't sounding much better than the 24/192 hi rez downloads (even some of those are average) and my SACDs burned to hard drive with an old PlayStation 3 sound better converted back to PCM by the JRiver software and played though the BNC connection it makes me wonder why I upgraded to a EMM Labs DAC 2x to listen to DSD or any music through the USB connection. The Baetis Music server is the first to address improving the digital signal out of the computer taking the signal off the mother board hard wired to the BNC connection. The flexibility and build quality are superb. Check the Absolute Sound February review; even the reviewer's conclusions favor the BNC. Many good DACs, don't know your budget but I love the Berkeley Alpha 2 and also the Resonessance Mirus was very impressive sonically as long as the smaller chasis size doesn't bother you