new laptop needs help from you all

[Old kid]

already have old dell desktop with itunes on it feeding my 2 channel / multi-channel system . Usb out thru some external 24/96 card (soundblaster? ) digital out is digital coax into a cambridge 840 Azur (used as a DAC ) output to ARC LS - 7 or Intregra 7.8 . Used lossess settings in itunes . Went to itunes after i touch purchase,originaly ripped with Media player in lossless,then converted to itunes.Also have this in both formats on a seagate 1.5 t external HD. Now I am wondering if I should do something different with my new laptop maybe No itunes . Laptop has digital SDIF output. I like the eye candy of i tunes & the convenience of getting album art ,tho I don't buy their lossy music. the Azur 849 has upsampling 24/384 so do I need some other upsampling software?Foobar? Monkey ??? Kernels? I'm Sorta got information Overload.but I will get it ,maybe ....HELP

 

[Mr.C]

The tricky part of using Windows is bypassing the operating systems sound aggregation (K-Mixer or whatever it is in 7). The playback program you use will do the upsampling for you. With itunes, you access the settings through quicktime which seems counterintuitive. iTunes is harder to get (impossible?) bitperfect in Windows, so switching to something like Jriver or Foobar might make your system sound better because they have plugins which allow bitperfect output.