Down the rabbit hole you go...
As Vegasears points out, there has been a tremendous amount written on this both here and on Asylum.
Search on SLIM Devices and Squeezebox - one of the most successful products.
Empirical Audio and Wavelength Audio. The two smartest engineers and equipment designers. They are both active posters, especially on Asylum
Search on my name here because I have written about this a lot.
Hopefully you are computer literate and comfortable. If so, pass go, collect 200 dollars and work on getting the key concepts into your head before you get embroiled in the geek minutiae - especially on the PC side (as opposed to the Mac side) of making this work.
The big idea is this: Imagine you had a perfect (ok near-perfect) source. That jitter and all the rest were no longer an issue. This is the immediate virtually certain benefit you will enjoy using a PC as a transport.
Now build your system accordingly. DAC. Pre. Amp. Speakers. Electrical. Cables. Room tuning etc
That's it.
Read these:
http://musicserver.blogspot.com/
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/4564.html
http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/harddrive/harddrive.html
http://www.wavelengthaudio.com/usbdac.html
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/nugent.htm
As Vegasears points out, there has been a tremendous amount written on this both here and on Asylum.
Search on SLIM Devices and Squeezebox - one of the most successful products.
Empirical Audio and Wavelength Audio. The two smartest engineers and equipment designers. They are both active posters, especially on Asylum
Search on my name here because I have written about this a lot.
Hopefully you are computer literate and comfortable. If so, pass go, collect 200 dollars and work on getting the key concepts into your head before you get embroiled in the geek minutiae - especially on the PC side (as opposed to the Mac side) of making this work.
The big idea is this: Imagine you had a perfect (ok near-perfect) source. That jitter and all the rest were no longer an issue. This is the immediate virtually certain benefit you will enjoy using a PC as a transport.
Now build your system accordingly. DAC. Pre. Amp. Speakers. Electrical. Cables. Room tuning etc
That's it.
Read these:
http://musicserver.blogspot.com/
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/4564.html
http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/harddrive/harddrive.html
http://www.wavelengthaudio.com/usbdac.html
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/nugent.htm