Laptop/Netbook for iTunes; yay or nay?!

[hifilover]

Now that I'm completely settled with the hardware in my system listed in my sig below and thoroughly enjoying the MF M1 DAC I'm wondering about tweaking the source a bit...

Currently all music is via my iMAC & iTunes upstairs in my office and is fed via Airplay to my ATV2 downstairs and then into my M1 DAC via toslink. Thus being fed at 16/48 and being upscaled to 192...

Is it feasible to have my iTunes on a laptop/netbook that is solely used for the hifi and iTunes; if so would I need to look for one with toslink capabilities or would it be best to use the USB feed which, I think, would then be 24/96 as my MF M1DAC isnt the asynchronous USB as far as I know (I did buy it 2nd hand and it's a year old)

Ideally I'd be after a laptop/netbook under £150/£200. I've already got a seagate 1TB external USB 2.0 HDD which I can use to store iTunes which currently stands at about 350GB

Any thoughts?

[Sonority]

If you intend to have various types of recording file types to play back (16/44.1, 24/96 etc) you may be better off getting something like Pure Music or one of the other players that integrates with iTunes.
Simple reason is that iTunes plays back natively at 16/44.1 and does NOT change automatically when a higher res file is played - you have to do it manually every time, and switch back etc. Plenty of players sense file type and switch 'on the fly'.

USB only transports the signal that it is given, it does not request file type, so if given 16/44.1 that is what it will send. USB2 (now standard) & USB three will transport high res files if given, ie, 24/96, but will not automatically do so, that's down to the software and file being played. Apologies if that was already known, but the OP states :-
''Is it feasible to have my iTunes on a laptop/netbook that is solely used for the hifi and iTunes; if so would I need to look for one with toslink capabilities or would it be best to use the USB feed which, I think, would then be 24/96 as my MF M1DAC isnt the asynchronous USB as far as I know (I did buy it 2nd hand and it's a year old)

My preferance is USB, I personally do not rate toslink other than for galvanic isolation, YMMV.
So yes, it is feasable, but more done to the software first may bring better results - especially further down the road.

PS - dont get hung up on 'hi res' files. as of yet very few are what they are made out to be. 16/44.1 done well will easily outperform 24/96 that has been done badly :-)

[wee tee cee]

Dan,
A v-link with a good quality co-ax (mark grant supra trico/wtb). Feed the m1 straight from USB. Lossless I tunes.....bobs your uncle.....I use a poverty spec Dell lap top.
Consider a pre-amp....it made a significant positive impact to my set up.
Tony.