I'm going to need an audio source, so I thought I'd try building my own
with a Raspberry Pi.

I'll be playing ripped CDs, from a USB flash drive, and Internet radio.

It will certainly be more convenient than having my CD collection spread
over two locations.

I now have a Raspberry Pi running Volumio, with a board-mounted DAC
(Allo Boss) and a touch-screen.

It'll run into a Cyrus 1 amplifier and Royd Coniston 2 speakers; I've
also played it via an older Cyrus 1 and Rogers LS/2s.

None of this is at the high end of hi-fi, but the two systems have been
happily playing music for nearly 30 years each and I'm happy with them.

With the DAC, the Raspberry Pi is in an uttterly different league. I
haven't had the opportunity to listen with much attention so far, but it
sounds clear, unmuddied and noise-free, with no obvious anomalies in the
output.

The Volumio software is OK - I can live with its deficiencies.

There's no way to play CDs directly via an attached drive; they have to
be ripped with iTunes first, but I hope some future update to the
Volumio software might incorporate that.

Daniele