Tony,
I like the way you think.
I repurposed my Yulong D18 Sabre DAC for use with my CR-1010 a few weeks ago, using an old laptop and JRiver.
The CR-1010 may not be super high end, however, adding the DAC and introducing FLAC to that machine was quite the eye, and ear, opener!
Good luck with the upgrade and let us know what you think.