dac advice

I went through the search a year ago and ended up with the PS Audio DLIII. They seem to be listed almost daily, and sell quickly.
If you go that route I also recommend you get a Monarchy DIP or one of the other jitter reducers. It took my computer audio experience from nice to very good, IMO.

I'd be curious to see if you get any reponses on the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, its in the same range. I was initially thinking about same price range but realized in that range there are 3 trade offs
(a) asynch USB doesn't come with
(b)there no preamp feature built in so you can't get the full transparency of going direct from DAC to amp if your source has no digital volume control
(c) support for speeds above 96khz isn't ideal for fidelity.
So the jump to around $1500 for Benchmark or Wyred4Sound DAC does look to pay off and is on my radar for next upgrade.

I use a Rega DAC with my Apple TV (Apple Lossless files). Smooth, warm, and very turntable like in it's sound. Not artificially though.

With the ATV, get a glass toslink cable, as I found that makes a big difference. I use a Sonicwave glass cable from Amazon for about $25. Far better than any audiophile non-glass cable I've tried. I also use an Audioquest C-7 power cable with the ATV (the $75 or so one). Also made a good difference, contrary to what I thought it would/should do.

The Rega DAC is going for around $800 or so here.

I own the EE minimax and highly recommend it.