Send music from computer to Receiver?

I do this with my laptop all the time, we get files on the work LAN, then when I get home I have a cable from my headphone output on the laptop, and I plug this into the AUX L/R inputs on the receiver, and fire away !!

The quality sounds fine to me, but being an audiophile I am starting investigations to see what the actual quality is in Hz, bits, etc

Many savy owners of small CD stores have discovered that, by putting CDs onto the computer and then using a fairly high-end stereo system to demonstrate just about anything in the store makes for lots of sales.

I happened to be in Mendocino(Northern California) a while back and I wondered into Red Rooster Records and I loved listening to his imports. The owner listened to my tastes and, after a couple of hours, I walked away with about $250.00 worth of CDs. Almost none of which had I ever heard of.

Just bought the squeezbox from www.slimp3.com Plan on using the digital out to my Denon 2802. I will let you know how it works out.

Since you have a good A/V receiver, I would start with a soundcard like M-Audio's Revolution 7.1 sound card which is really geared toward home theater enthusiasts. It has the following features per M-Audio's Web site (http://www.m-audio.com):

24-bit/192kHz audio playback on all output channels.
Supports all speaker configurations from stereo (or headphones) up to 7.1
Analog line in supports recording up to 24-bit/96kHz
Analog mic in supports recording up to 24-bit/96kHz
Coaxial digital output
S/N Ratio A->D: 100dB
S/N Ratio D->A: 107 dB (eight channel/two channel)
Driver-Level Bass Management
Windows Media 9 Compatibility
Very low CPU utilization
Dolby Digital Decode (Windows)
Supports both CircleSurround II and TruSurround XT

You can install this card into your PC's PCI slot and use your PC as a music playback device. This will provide much higher fidelity than audio than what you can get from audio built into a PC's motherboard. Most home theater enthusiasts really like this card for PC-based home theater set-ups. You also have the option of going digital out on the card to digital in on your receiver. It would probably be worth it to test which device (soundcard or receiver) has better digital to analog (DAC) conversion.

Yamaha Cavit series is a sound processor and will do what you want to do. It's not liquid as an upscale amp, but will improve the sound of the most stock soundcard.

It stands up vertically and doesn't take up much space - and looks sleek. Besides having digital outs (ptical and coauxial), it has effects like Europian concert hall, church, Jazz club, etc.

You can tweak it from a computer. It's fun, and looks sleek - not for the high end minded, but will improve the stock.

You can get them at ebay, amazon, and buy.com.