Need advice on how to dip a toe into digital

Also, in my other post I neglected to ask ... what kind of device (wireless router or wired modem) are you using to connect your laptop PC to the Internet?

load iTunes on your pc and copy all your CD's to your computer in ALAC format (apple lossless - close to full CD quality).

Also get Pandora (free) on your PC so you can hear new music in what ever style your existing favorite bands play.

Whenever I hear a new band I like on Pandora, I buy the CD used on EBAY and copy it to my computer on iTunes. Much cheaper than buying new off iTunes at crappy MP3 resolution.

You can now do couple things -
1. transfer your ALAC songs to an apple or android smart phone. I have over 250 cd quality albums on my 64G Droid Bionic and play it thru my car audio, at the gym and when traveling.

2. Run your computer thru a USB DAC into your 2 channel system. There start at sub $200. You could also take the headphone out and split into RCA stereo and run thru aux channel on your pre amp, although that may not sound as good as USB thru a DAC. This way you can have all your CDs playing thru iTunes and never have to actually spin another CD.

3. SACD is worth it in my opinion, as you can buy a lot of SACDs used for 15 - 20 and it sounds closer to analogue than redbook. If you go this route consider the Oppo 105 as it also get's you a pretty good USB DAC. You can run your computer thru this and use the Oppo to play SACD. Unfortunately, SACDs are copy protected so no easy way to rip them to iTunes.

GZ.... I haven't decided on a budget yet. It seems the biggest cost will obviously be the DAC, which can run anywhere from $200 to the stratosphere. For example, I've seen used ARC DAC 8s going for $2K to $3K on A'gon. The ARC route is way, way too much for now.

Motivation: curiosity. If digital sounds as good as vinyl, I'm interested in exploring further. But .... if it's just a tweak or two better than redbook CD, probably will not pursue.

If you are looking to see if digital can sound as good as vinyl I think you will be disappointed if you only Budget a few hundred for a DaC. You have a nice system and a nice vinyl playback rig that might be near impossible to better with digital unless you are spending a lot on it. I don't think of digital as equal to analog just necessary since a lot of music is not available or very expensive on vinyl. I think you would be very impressed with a dac like the ps audio perfect wave II via USB from you laptop and running audirvana playback software. This would allow you to dip your toe into the world of high resolution audio and see what you think of that too. You could even add the transport if you want to play sacd. You have a great system and I think it deserves this level of digital otherwise you may just be disappointed and be one of the ones that thinks digital sucks.

For the longest time affordable digital simply didn't do it for me. I ripped my 850 CDs, argh, and bought the Logitech Touch, The convenience alone was enjoyable but the sound was still flat.

My next step was auditioning the affordable (under $1,000 DACs) a few years ago. YUK.

Thanks to this forum I purchased a Metrum Acoustics NOS Octave direct from the manufacture for just over $600. This DAC finally produced acceptable sonics and I'm still on the cheap.

Today the affordable DAC selection has grown a great deal sonically. Because of my limited experience I have no actual suggestions. I'm confident you'll be able to put together a listenable digital source without going nuts.