Thanks, I'll check that out. Id be happy to go this route (DAC / Streamer to a headphone amp. Happy to go any route if it's simple enough and sounds good!

I'd rather stay away from the laptop as a source. For the cost of something like the Ifi Zen Streamer (RM2,079 over here so approx USD470 or GBP385) its worth it to me to know that the 'streaming' part is taken care of and isn't being restricted by my crappy laptop....

That's a very, very good point, I never thought about it like that. The Uniti Atom HE is basically the same as a CD player with a preamp built in. Funny how that makes it more attractive to me...... It's very strange how some of these prejudices can occur with the concept of what 'must' be...

The more I look and research the more confused I get...... It looks like I want a separate DAC (looking at the Chord TT2 as I like my original Hugo's sound a lot and I assume that this would be a major step up in the same general direction) and streamer (or bridge???), this can be controlled...

What a nice thing to do, thanks. Have a great Christmas everyone!

Thanks for those replies. So basically if it's a desktop system then direct from my Laptop to the DAC (via USB) should be fine, if it was a traditional system then a streamer would be nice so that it can be operated remotely?

Hi Everyone, I'm new to the forum but have been involved with hifi and the pursuit of the best sound for over 30 years. Due to moving abroad approx 10 years ago I went from having a 'standard' 2 channel system to headphones and have been successfully running a Chord Hugo and Audeze LCDx system...