How to introduce computer audio to my system?

Thanks D'howser for all that.
(I may have asked something similar a long time ago,
but I cannot recall -- the old brain is getting too foggy I guess...).
I actually have an old Mac Mini (but with a conventional pair of hard drives.
Of course, I need a monitor and keyboard in this setup.

I guess the alternative would be one of the Meridian boxes that can store the CDs and let me control playback from my iPad. With the Mac Mini, I don't think I have the ability to control playback (recording and track selection) from a screen-based remote control, which is part of the convenience package of a server based library. Is this correct?

The Weiss MAN301 in the server-only version has a built in CD transport and looks like something that could connect right to the AES/EBU DAC inputs of my EMM player. (Not quite ready to spend $9000, but maybe a used one will show up and I'll wait to save up...).

The Bryston BDP2 has no transport so I would first have to copy my CDs to an external drive I guess and then copy the file to the Bryston (just by USB I suppose).

I of course would be looking for the equivalent sound quality that I get from playing CDs directly on my EMM XDS1.