blackcinder

The upgrade intent is driven by sound quality first, and then ease of use. I'm not married to the Onkyo as the DAC. I definitely intend to get an outboard DAC. I was focusing on the Peachtree or the Cambridge DM+ until I saw the Cambridge Stream Server 6 at CES, which seemed like an ideal solution (and superior to the Squeezebox Touch). I want to move the media from the Win PC to a network device for all of the typical reasons, not having to have the PC on to play music, backup issues, etc. I personally have never liked iTunes (in theory or in practice) and that's why I used Winamp. For all of my Mac hardware, I've only just came back in Dec 2011 to a Mac as my work laptop (I was Mac addict from 1984 to 1993 then switched to PCs for work purposes). At this point, it seems that NAS with a USB connection would work--USB to whatever DAC I end up with, and NAS over ethernet for loading media. Any huge downside?

I'm looking to upgrade my current digital front end. My current setup is as follows: For ripping, I have a Win 7 PC, using Winamp to FLAC. For playback, I run Slim Server>Wifi>router>ethernet>Squeezbox. I dont have an external DAC at this point. Instead, I use my Onkyo SC5508 (192kHz/32bit Burr-Brown DAC). The rest of the system is B&K 200.7 amp, BG Radia 520 fronts. (I'll skip the vinyl side for now). The Onkyo supports DLNA, as well as as a direct USB. And there's an app to control it. Now, what to do? I've read a lot of the posts on this forum, as well as the product reviews. There's any number of different ways to go, and if I was starting from scratch, it would be a lot easier. However, I'm not starting from scratch. Instead, I have a lot of Mac stuff: (1) MacBook Air 1.8/i7/4Gb (work device mainly) (2) iPads (Gen 1 and Gen 2) (2) MacBook Pro (2.3 i5/4Gb) (one is my wife's but I can steal it and get her an Air). (not to mention Andriod devices). I could certainly build a CAPS2, but that would not seem to take best advantage of the current Mac inventory. I'm willing to migrate the content from the Win PC to whatever new device I utilize. I could get a MacMini as well, do the SSD thing, and back it up to a NAS. Or I press either the Air or one of the Pros into service as a server--but those seem to have downsides. Or I could get something like a Synology USB Station 2, and go directly USB to the Onkyo or a USB DAC--it seems that USB to a DAC is preferred. And then there's the upcoming Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6, which puts the DacMagic Plus into a player with everything to go. In terms of goals, I'm willing to trade off some (but not a lot) a audio performance for ease of use: I've only got so many hours available for audio and I have a vinyl setup that needs lots of attention. In other words, my tweaking time budget is allocated 80% vinyl, 20% digital. In terms of control interfaces, I would like to use either the iPad or Air. Your guidance would be appreciated.