IMO, no question - a digital music server is the way to go. I've played around with a bunch of them and they're all imperfect - every one seems to have something that it truly gets right, and some things that it doesn't do well at all.
If you want the computer to be remote, there are some limitations. I got the Squeezebox stuff up and running in, literally, 10 minutes, running flawlessly, streaming from the remote server to my laptop. All software was free, and I was streaming lossless WMA files. Really nice. Assuming the Squeezebox device (200-300 dollars I believe) outputs SPDIF, you'd be set, as long as the feature set works for you - remote control from a laptop, infinite remote storage, seems to scale well.
Once you've had all your music at your fingertips, it's difficult to imagine going back to a CD or a record at a time.
If you want the computer to be remote, there are some limitations. I got the Squeezebox stuff up and running in, literally, 10 minutes, running flawlessly, streaming from the remote server to my laptop. All software was free, and I was streaming lossless WMA files. Really nice. Assuming the Squeezebox device (200-300 dollars I believe) outputs SPDIF, you'd be set, as long as the feature set works for you - remote control from a laptop, infinite remote storage, seems to scale well.
Once you've had all your music at your fingertips, it's difficult to imagine going back to a CD or a record at a time.