PC, Lynx AES16 card, Berkeley DAC... What else?


All of my music files are stored in my computer as wav. files so Qsonix, Sooloos, and other comercial music servers are out of the question. I have decided on a computer based music server for this reason. The computer will be in another room outside the listening area, so the Goodwin computer-based silent music server is not needed. As of now, I plan on using the Lynx AES16 sound card because I've heard that it's the best sound card on the market. In a review, Robert Harley said that the Berkeley Alpha DAC is not only the best DAC that he's heard, but it only cost $5,000 which is cheap relatively speaking. This DAC will be part of my system as well.

The question now is what other items should be added to my computer-based music server that will give it the best possible sound?
redwoodgarden
If you want to convert to AIFF, running an older G5 with Tiger and backdated firmware and the Lynx AES is preferred by some as the best sound.
I've tried the legacy PC and Mac music server platforms both with the AES16 PCI card. I would say that the PC running Windows 7 with the latest 64bit Lynx driver and a music player that uses WASAPI is better than the legacy approaches.
Redwoodgarden, sounds like you are going in the right direction. The new Bryston DAC is supposed to be quite good as well. I think you have all the pieces. One thing you may want to add is a netbook PC, link it to your server via wifi, and now you'll have a very cool remote control for your server for a little over 220 bucks.