newbie set up questions

[rogg]

I have a hifi set up in the lounge. wireless router for the interweb is nearby. I have an imac with iTunes. various mp3/alac files. i have just plugged in an airport express and tried the onboard DAC. It sounds rubbish.

My question i guess is can i simply plug in a DAC via USB to the wifi router? Will iTunes recognise the DAC? I was thinking about an Arcam rDAC. Will the rDAC replay the various file formats that my music is currently stored in? Is it really simple and i'm just overthinking it all?

sorry if the questions are really basic and have been covered before - i did do a bit of a search but couldn't come up with anything that seemed to answer the above.

 

[The_Lhc]

rogg:
I have a hifi set up in the lounge. wireless router for the interweb is nearby. I have an imac with iTunes. various mp3/alac files. i have just plugged in an airport express and tried the onboard DAC. It sounds rubbish.
My question i guess is can i simply plug in a DAC via USB to the wifi router?

No you can't. You can take a USB connection directly from the iMac to the rDAC or take a digital output from the Airport Express to the rDAC and then to the amp (I think I can't remember if the AE offers a digital output).