Since yesterday’s question in Facebook about USB and Ethernet audio, I found some people are interested in learning about how Network Player works inside. I’m going to use most recent yet affordable product Teac NT503 as a model to explain. Top left is Ethernet board and top middle is USB board.

As you can see, this network board is very big, much bigger than USB board. It has a lot of chips like CPU and controllers inside.  Yes, the network board is actually a mini PC board that receives data from network and sends from built-in audio interface to digital receiver board.

If you connect DLNA Renderer PC to USB DAC and stream music from your phone, it will work exactly like that network board but use large board USB audio interface instead of tiny chip in network board. So building a dedicated computer transport outside should have more room for improvements.