I'm going to need an audio source, so I thought I'd try building my own with a Raspberry Pi.
I'll be playing ripped CDs, from a USB flash drive, and Internet radio.
It will certainly be more convenient than having my CD collection spread over two locations.
I now have a Raspberry Pi running Volumio, with a board-mounted DAC (Allo Boss) and a touch-screen.
It'll run into a Cyrus 1 amplifier and Royd Coniston 2 speakers; I've also played it via an older Cyrus 1 and Rogers LS/2s.
None of this is at the high end of hi-fi, but the two systems have been happily playing music for nearly 30 years each and I'm happy with them.
With the DAC, the Raspberry Pi is in an uttterly different league. I haven't had the opportunity to listen with much attention so far, but it sounds clear, unmuddied and noise-free, with no obvious anomalies in the output. The Volumio software is OK - I can live with its deficiencies.
There's no way to play CDs directly via an attached drive; they have to be ripped with iTunes first, but I hope some future update to the Volumio software might incorporate that.
Daniele