[LTSFBH]

Recently picked up an Acer Chromebook 11. I have a Samsung 1TB external HD loaded with lossless (WAV) music. It plays the music with no issues, but obviously the sound quality isn't anything to get excited about. I don't actually need it to function as a music server, but I just thought it would be cool if it could. Since it doesn't have a hard drive to download DAC drivers, is there any way to run a DAC from it? 
 
Also, does anyone know a good audio playback/EQ app for the Chrome OS?
 
Finally, I understand that you can strip it of its Chrome OS and run it as a Linux based machine. Any benefits in doing that?
 
Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[yay101]

Chromebooks are Linux. Every Linux kernel, even android, support all USB audio protocols by default. So unless a DAC needs special drivers under osx or Linux it will work perfectly on a Chromebook.

Running more traditional Linux will get you bit perfect playback and hundreds of music players, but the simplicity of chromeos is fantastic and you should stick with it for a bit first at least and see what you like.

 

[LTSFBH]

It worked! Thanks for your advice.