hey Russ - I also like to find bargain gear that helps up my sound! I have two Hafler DH500's and a first generation Adcom 555 amp (Nelson Pass design I believe) so I have the power-part covered. I use one Hafler to power the DQ-10's and the Adcom for the DQ sub. I mimic that same setup for a second pair of 10's and a second DQ sub in another room.
About 13 years ago I spent the better part of a week ripping and creating a FLAC music library from all my CD's (400+ maybe?). But somehow in the fog of multiple moves, etc. I can't find the flac files and my library is all MP3. I think I tried to clean up tags and converted it...anyway. To your point, I suspect to get the most out of a DAC I'd have to go back to CD's as the source.
When you were using your laptop for the music were they lossy MP3's? I hate the thought of having to re-rip all mine again as FLAC files but it's probably worth it because I don't have a convenient place to store 400+ CD's!! (Now if I just a had a good CD drive/reader!!).
SpongeSound