Setting up a Mac mini as a music server, and other digital music questions

I’m a bit out of touch on PC audio, I’ve hardly changed much in the 10+ years I’ve been in it. I don’t stream, I acquire music in a few ways and keep it on a hard drive. Currently over 2 TB. I started with a Mac Mini and the two I now use are vintage 2011 & 2014. I use iTunes mainly for it’s library. I use Audirvana Plus. 

What I thot I learned when I started this is that there are two basic stages, the digital and the analog. In the digital phase the objective is to acquire the best source you can and then not allow it to degrade on the way to the analog stage. Supposedly Apple did this. If this is true and the original source is not degraded then what would be better by another alternative. Before going to PC audio I was big into dCS and upsamplng. If  something like that is “making it better” I think that is a different issue. If this is not true I’d like to understand what happens to degrade the signal.

I currently use the Esoteric D-07x as my dac. I like to believe that from the dac on what you spend is worth the added cost. For digital I use MC 501 monos for amps and MIT cables, for analog VPI,  Atma-sphere amps and Audioquest cables. Vandersteen Quatro speakers for both. It’s clear to me the cables and speakers have a big impact, the amps I might fail a listening test. 

So I’ve been with Apple since around 2008. In addition to the Minis I’ve two desk tops and an Ipad. All vintage around 2011 to  2014. All work fine for what I do. Apple disabled my Ipad and when I called them they said sorry nothing we can do (meaning there is nothing they are willing to do.) YouTube solved the problem.

I heard something on a business channel that made the picture clear, Apple sees the future where they offer hardware as a service so you pay a monthly charge for your equipment and replace it every couple of years. That leaves me out.

So now for my question. With what I’m doing I think the minis will need to go. Probably iTunes as well as Apple is dropping it. Given what I currently have in the iTunes library what would be good alternatives for removing the Apple piece and not losing the iTunes library? Appreciate any thots. Thx.

I think using a Mac Mini is fine, especially if only using for music playback, get one of these 

between Mini and dac and you be fine, later you could always update to something else if need be.

@hortense   the component that makes the biggest difference to a digital signal is jitter which when taken away to appreciable levels makes you do a double take. I would advise you to look at all digital insertions to see how you can make each of these display as little as possible.  

I recently removed an ultraRendu and LPS 1.2 and now go USB direct from a Mini to an asynchronous Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC then balanced analog through an Ayre KX-5xeMP preamp to a pair of Parasound JC 1 monoblocks driving KEF LS50s. I think the sound is excellent with less clutter.