Audiophile newbie Part 2

jwilsco, please look into the pc audio section in this forum. Including a recent thread were we went into this. Use the search engine, and you can look for my user-id. Computers can take you a long way. You can start super simple (laptop and asynch usb DAc), and tweak/complicate it as much as you deem worth it.

Take a look into computeraudiophile.com too. Check out what people are saying about using windows server 2012 and AudioPhil's Optimizer. I am doing this and I'm amazed at the sound improvement.

Wow so many questions!!

Jwil, I have gone pure analogue in the past two years but up till then I ran digital files via Mac , iPod, iPad etc... Into several DAC's. You'll want to explore DAC's that have a USB. My favorite which to my ears in my modest system was MHDT paradisea - I also had a very inexpensive Lite DAC-Ah (about $130) that was awesome - not as smooth or dimensional as the MHDT but deep bass and dynamics galore. These did not have USB but I ran them with a USB adapter from Mapleshade. I believe the current model MHDT Havana has a USB input. Also the Mapleshade digital interconnect was paramount in delivering warm detailed and grain free sound - I suspect their USB cable would do the same.

So look for a great DAC and USB cable. - simple, I should have said that first!

Cheers

As for an operating system for a computer transport I can attest to the very noticeable SQ improvement with Server2012R2. Stripping it out (as AudioPhil did)lead to a very noticeable improvement in SQ again.

I use a simple USB DAC (Dragonfly) and JPLAY(mini) and Kernel Stream the data. All cables are Audioquest (DAC to amp and bi-wired to speakers.

You want to stay away from DACs the upsample/downsample.

As for sample rate, more is better! Stay away from anything compressed. Look into DSD though.