Audiiophile HTPC Setup


I am starting to build an HTPC for my father, who is planning on connecting it to an audiophile-grade stereo (yet to be purchased). He is planning on using a Peachtree Decco (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_731DECRW/Peachtree-Audio-Decco-Rosewood.html?tp=180) as his DAC, so I'm not too concerned with onboard audio quality.

I did however see this new board http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ZnqQ7mgk0PCl8PpQ which claims to have independent power for the audio components. Since he'll be using the Decco, I don't think this makes much of a difference.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this / recommendations on good componnents?
mrobins

Showing 1 response by tmesselt

I can not recommend using a mac mini enough, first of all they seem to be very quiet so you can place it in your listening area if you would like, very affordable, and you can get bit perfect output right out of the box, unlike windows which takes a little bit of configuring.
I currently have mine and upgraded it to 4gb of ram and have a 2TB nas drive which is wirelessly connected to the mini.
Then I use itunes with my cds ripped using the aiff codec, and the iphone remote app. Or use my bluetooth keyboard and mouse, hooked up to my display.
I know that their are better options out there, also much worse than this. Just my opinion.