Welcome!
The Squeezebox uses an included player program and lets you untether your audio from the computer. I have two SB's on different floors of my house, streaming wirelessly. Plus, they have a great display/interface and remote control. Once set up, it takes the place of a CD player but gives access to your entire collection (once ripped, of course)
You can get an Ethernet-cabled SB, which would provide the player advantages but you'd need to be within cable's reach of the computer. My computer is noisy, so having it away is good.
If you want to use the computer as interface and hardwire to a USB DAC, that's a possibility too. I think Foobar is the player of choice with this arrangement and there are several makers of such devices, but I haven't used any of them.
Good luck!
