An alterative method of listenting to digital music files, whether ripped from physical media or downloaded, whether "hi-res" or CD quality (44.1kHz x 16 bit), is to store them on a NAS (Network Attached Storage device) and let your networked HTR (Home Theater Receiver) play the files directly off the NAS. The NAS makes the files available to the receiver using the SMB protocol (the same way the Windows OS shares files and printers), and the reciever converts the digital audio to analog with its own DACs. I love this method, because all you have to do to listen to music is pull out your Smartphone (or tablet) and use your HTR's remote control app (e.g., "Onkyo Remote App," or the third-party app called "oRemote") to select the album or song that you want to listen to. You don't have to turn anything on or fuss with any physical device (other than your cellphone, which serves as a smart remote). I listen to all my music this way when I'm in my living room. When I'm elsewhere in my house, I listen to the same files (served off the NAS) on whatever computer I happen to have around. In essence, I stream lossless music, stereo and multichannel, to myself. As an added bonus, you can make your collection available on any connected device for free by letting Google's "Music Manager" crawl your music collection on your NAS. That's how I listen to music in my car (cellphone pipes music via bluetooth or cable to car stereo) or when I'm out walking (headphones plugged into cellphone). Google isn't delivering the music losslessly, but in my car, I certainly can't tell the difference.
There are just a few caveats: You have to make sure that your receiver handles the file formats that you download, and to transcode them if it doesn't. I can tell you all about what the Onkyo TX NR828 will and won't do, in the extremely unlikely event that you care. If you're buying a new receiver, make sure that it plays back multiple flac files "gaplessly" (with no silence in between). This feature is called "gapless flac playback." I suppose you should look for gapless DSD playback if you care about DSD files. Also make sure that the receiver plays back multichannel flac (or DSD) files. The instruction manual probably won't tell you in sufficient detail, so try before you buy, or make sure that you have return privileges.
