[SteveJ]

I am on a temporary assignment that is expected to last another 4 months so I am relegated to having a modest sound system for the time being. I use a PC I built as a music server and until last night used Pandora and Amazon Prime Music as sources.

On a whim I subscribed to Tidal. After a brief (6 or so seconds) critical listening session I was convinced that this was a desirable upgrade. 😊
This morning I am listening to Roel Dieltiens’ rendition of Vivaldi’s Cello Sonata in E Minor from ‘The Cello in Baroque Italy’ and frantically Googling streaming devices to replace the PC as the DAC. The motherboard is an Asus ROG Strix z270-i gaming so it is not the typical PC audio hardware but I am sure there is much better to be had with an outboard server/DAC. I have not previously explored this segment of the audio playback market so I don’t have much of an idea what options are available.

The system I am using now is my ‘office’ setup. The primary function is for commodities trading but I also web surf, stream Netflix, do email and, in the background, stream music.

My ‘PC’ speakers are JBL 4412a’s and a pair of JBL 4408a’s (both pair are near field studio monitors) as a pseudo center source for when I watch something on Netflix. I run the analog audio output from the PC to an Adcom GFP-565 preamp and to an Adcom GFA-535 for the centers and an Adcom GFA-555 for the mains.

When I finish the assignment in Rockford I will go to Dayton and establish a domicile where I will be able to setup my main system and this PC system will continue to be my office system.

I am looking for suggestions for both reading and for equipment to stream the audio from ethernet to the preamp, converting it from digital to analog along the way. The equipment would need to interface with my PC and it’s WIN10 OS.

When making reading suggestions, please keep in mind the modest equipment with which it will interface. I will do something different for my main system and hope to use this as an opportunity to learn about this segment of the audio playback market.

Bonus points if it is compatible with better streaming music sources and hi-rez files.