Hello:
A couple of things you can do:
I suggest you do not use the Mac's digital audio out. Get a usb to SPDIF converter if you want to continue to use your Levinson DAC. Sterophile has reviewed several of them recently.
Do not rely on itunes alone for playback. Pure Music or Amarra use itunes for book-keeping but substitute their own vastly superior audio playback algorithms.
I'm guessing the biggest issue is using the Mac's digital audio output. If you can, try to get something like an Ayre QB-9 USB DAC on loan, or even something like the new version of the music streamer plus. They both plug directly into the USB ports and you are up and running in 5 minutes. Either of those plus pure music should definitely go head to head with a mid-fi CD player. The Ayre + pure music is guaranteed to kick the CD players keister into the next county.
If you really want to see how good a Mac can sound as a server, you might want to try one of the extraordinarily good Metric Halo or Sonic Studio (the MH re-badged) firewire interfaces. In my humble opinion, one of those with Pure Music or Amarra will not be embarrassed by any digital front end, computer or otherwise at any price.
A couple of things you can do:
I suggest you do not use the Mac's digital audio out. Get a usb to SPDIF converter if you want to continue to use your Levinson DAC. Sterophile has reviewed several of them recently.
Do not rely on itunes alone for playback. Pure Music or Amarra use itunes for book-keeping but substitute their own vastly superior audio playback algorithms.
I'm guessing the biggest issue is using the Mac's digital audio output. If you can, try to get something like an Ayre QB-9 USB DAC on loan, or even something like the new version of the music streamer plus. They both plug directly into the USB ports and you are up and running in 5 minutes. Either of those plus pure music should definitely go head to head with a mid-fi CD player. The Ayre + pure music is guaranteed to kick the CD players keister into the next county.
If you really want to see how good a Mac can sound as a server, you might want to try one of the extraordinarily good Metric Halo or Sonic Studio (the MH re-badged) firewire interfaces. In my humble opinion, one of those with Pure Music or Amarra will not be embarrassed by any digital front end, computer or otherwise at any price.