Well, this won't be a short answer!
First of all, I started with a PC server feeding mp3's to my
www.slimdevices.com Squeezebox. That worked great for the 15,000 tracks I put on my server.
But...it wasn't audiophile quality by any streatch due to the source material. I then decided to re-rip my better quality stuff in my library into a lossless format, since the Squeezebox accepts WAV files directly, and the Slim Server software converts lossless formats (FLAC, Apple Lossless, SHN, etc) into WAV/PCM and feeds them to the Squeezebox unit. A new version, Squeezebox2, accepts FLAC files directly without conversion. The great thing is that SlimServer can be configured to convert almost any stored format to any other on the fly. The Squeezebox has optical and coax outputs, in addition to RCA analog. I feed the digital coax to a modified ART DI/o DAC and then to my tube amp. This sounds fantastic!!! At least as good as any CD configuration I've had attached, actually better, and all of my music is at my fingertips.
The key in getting a clean library is to use a "secure" ripping program like "Exact Audio Copy" (aka EAC). It is free, and there are many web guides (e.g. -
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html ) on how to set it up for ripping to different formats (and how to get good clean tag information). For reference, if an average CD is ~600MB, a lossless compressed format (FLAC or Apple for example) will yield an album around 300-320MB, and a hi quality mp3 will be about 100-125MB, so you'll need some hard drive space! But....it only costs about $0.20 these days to store a perfect CD image of an album as a FLAC on a hard drive!
Now, moving to a pure PC based system, there are a few more complications. First you'll want a good system to accurately retrieve the song files from your hard drive and convert them to analog. First, throw out your cheap PC sound card, and get a high quality D-A conversion device. I use a USB M-Audio "Audiophile" (~$150 online) to convert to analog, which then feeds a tripath-based amp in my office. Be careful to avoid sound devices that only natively operate at 48khz (like many Creative devices) or you'll get an extra D-D conversion. You want a device that natively handles 44.1khz. And one that supports ASIO (more on that below). This M-Audio system worked great out of the box, except for one problem....
Windows-based systems have a sound process called the "k-mixer". The k-mixer, in short, modifies the pure data in your file (D-D conversions) before sending it out to your external sound device. Some people really don't like the k-mixer effect on sound; others seem fine with it. Fortunately, there is a way around it. Many higher quality external DACs (like the one I mentioned) are "ASIO capable". ASIO is essentially a process which bypasses the K-Mixer, and originated with the recording industry looking for very low latency recording processes. If your hardware AND your player software support it, ASIO gives you that really clean ouput. Squeezebox, by comparison, bypasses all of these issues directly since it uses a completely different process...
As for ASIO-ready players, unfortunately iTunes isn't one yet. iTunes uses Quicktime to play back, and Quicktime isn't ASIO ready. But my family and I love iTunes, it's autoplaylists, etc, so I use it with mp3s and ALAC's (Apple Lossless Files). Fortunately, Winamp has an ASIO plugin, as does Foobar2000. Both of these players work fine for me in ASIO mode.
As for player lossless format support, it looks something like this:
Squeezebox & Slimserver - almost everything!
iTunes - mp3, wav, AIFF, and Aple Lossless (ALAC). Waiting for FLAC support!
Winamp (ASIO ready) - mp3, wav, ogg, FLAC, ALAC -- via extra plugins
Foobar2000 (ASIO ready) - mp3, ogg, wav, FLAC, but not ALAC yet!
MediaMonkey- Another decent player that supports mp3's and FLAC's. Seems to be working toward more iTunes-like functionality
BTW, foobar is a great player, but looks like a Linux geek wrote it for other Linux geeks. However, with a day or two of research, it can become a very beautiful and flexible player. They need to release several pre-configured distributions with all the fancy stuff set up!
Anyway, that's enough for one post -- hope this helps. This stuff is not as overwhelming as it sounds. Both of my systems are very robust. I feel PC-based distribution is the way to go now that you can get exact, lossless versions of your music on a PC, and get it to your preamp in perfect form. I use the M-Audio for my office system, and the Squeezebox for everywhere else in the house. The squeezebox has a great display and intuitive remote. You can also control it from a web browser -- even a wireless iPaq in your back yard if you are a real geek!!
Rich
ps - If you invest a lot of time in this, make sure you keep a copy of your data at someone else's house!
