I have a NAS with music on, a PC, a Rapsberry Pi, TV and a trusty old HiFi amp.

Phono cable from PC soundcard to Amp has always worked very well in the past but they’re not so close anymore and am thinking about digital options.

I tried using the audio output on the Pi before and the sound quality for video/movies was too bass-heavy/muffled* so that wasn’t an option for TV/Movies, and I found problems** switching between the two DAC/HDMI outputs.

I’m not keen on using the TV to control the PI for playing music either, would rather use PC*** just as if I still had an analog audio cable from soundcard to amp.

What new thing should I buy!?****

* ok so speakers are on the floor, not ideal.
** problems I can’t remember.
*** am i just being awkward now?
**** no i’m not interested in storing my music in the cloud

Dnla client on the pi, stream the music to it

I just use Toslink from the PC to my A/V amps. Surely you can just buy a tiny optical>phono DAC if you don’t have optical inputs on the Amp.

BlueRigger 10m optical cable was extremely cheap, works fine.

EDIT – you probably want the UK Amazon, sorry

I use an Apple Airport Express to stream to my amp and speakers. It generally works perfectly, sound wise, but has an annoying habit of dropping out occasionally (like when our boiler comes on, which is weird). I understand they can be improved further by adding a separate DAC.

Am running OSMC/Kodi on Pi….Linux PC & Linux. Will have to look more later.

Linux network attached storage! << easier to type in full than as acronym on mobile!

Got a HiFiBerry DAC+ delivered today. Had to reconfigure IR receiver/LIRC slightly as default gpio pins conflict with DAC+, but nothing too difficult.

Just using phono/rca lead between Pi/DAC+ & HiFi. Using Kodi to play music, works well for just playing an album or two, don’t generally have time for much more these days.

Most importantly, audio quality is spot on*. Well worth it.

* I’m not an audiophile, but I like it to sound good.