Music Server vs. PC vs. Transport vs. ?


I don;t really want to add another rack in my living room. If I do, I may end up sleeping on one of the couches. Ideally, I would like to do the following:

1. Either use a pc or a server to store discs and have them accessable.
2. Have a way for the kids/wife to hook up their ipods
3. Have a way to get digital radio (xm, sirius or even computer streaming, doesn;t matter)
4. Do all of this WITHOUT degrading the sound quality ( i know, the ipod, by definition will do this)

My understanding of most high end DACs is that they do not have USB ports, but that is the ideal port to use to negate jitter. As I was researching this, I got the latest issue of the absolute sound, and they address some of this a bit. My feeling seems to be that one pays a HUGE premium for a server, that both their DACs and PCs DACs suck, and one has to get a USB to AES or other adapter, and still use an external DAC. It also seems that if one is willing to use a lossless system, that the universal opinion is that a hard drive rivals or beats any transports.

So my initial thought would be to get a pc with an ipod dock, run lossless, get an additional adapter say from Wavelength, and use the current dac. That adds at least two pieces, maybe three.

Help?????
Thanks,
Chris

Help??????

Thanks,
Chris
128x128chrisla
Chrisla - If you want to hear an amazing Sonos system, go to the St. Tropez (THE Show) suite 1203 when you are at CES.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
A couple of posts suggest hooking Macs to Slim Devices equipment. Would Mac Itunes work in such a setup?
Ignoring the space that I presently have it in, take a look at my system and it may give you some ideas. It is based on using the Mac Mini as the main digital source ...

Here is the link:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1196304575&read&3&4&
While cludgy and not "mac-easy", there are apparently workarounds to using itunes on Slim Devices. See the forum on the Slim Devices website and search for "using itunes".

Also, Slim Devices has a new control device, "Jive", coming out soon (reportedly early January) that will be a lot more user friendly. See: http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=47279.0

There is also new software, "SqueezeCenter", that will reportedly be a big improvement over SlimServer.

While these improvements are being driven internally, Slim Devices software is "open source" and there are a lot of outside developers working to overcome the current shortcomings... all of this technoliogy is relatively new and, as one of the developers on the Slim Devices forum stated: "wear shades, the future is bright".

Please understand that I am not trying to compare the Sonos and Slim Devices, but am trying to provide information about the SD route I chose so that others can hopefuly be better informed about what is out there and how it works (at least for me). Frankly, the Sonos is a fine device and if I had already owned a high end DAC, it would have been a route I would have given more consideration.