I have been using Linux and UNIX for more than 15 years. I conclude Linux is less annoying than Windows for many things but for two things WIndows will remain superior, audio and video.

There are no widely available highres music players for Linux. Linux sound system can have many pieces in the way and it is very hard to diagnose problems like downsampling and other mangling of music between your player and some USB device. I think there is no advantage to Linux for audio or video and it's not worth trying.

In my case I bought a small quiet PC (Lenovo M710Q) and on it I have Tidal and Deezer desktop apps and foobar2000. With this I have official driver support for my Oppo, Audiolab, FiiO, Chord, etc. and everything works fantastic. I can also use these devices on Linux but no driver support and I can't get bit-perfect or high bit rate DSD.

Hi @gminorcoles .... sorry for my loooong time response, but only now I see this post....

I abandoned Windows10 for lot of reasons one year ago. I switched on Linux Mint Cinnamom because this sys is very very stable and the support is very well.... To prepare the pc for real-time audio productions, you need to:

1. Install the Linux low latency Kernel
   

sudo apt install linux-lowlatency

2. Configure real time access...
    Add your current user to the audio group:         
   

sudo adduser USERNAME audio

3. And then give the audio group real time access:
    open terminal in:  /etc/security/limits.d/
        With the terminal opened in this path, create audio.conf file
           

sudo touch audio.conf 

                Add this 2 lines to the file audio.conf:
                   

sudo nano audio.conf                 
                        
                        @audio - rtprio 99                 
                        @audio - memlock unlimited 

                       
                        (You may have to restart your System here.)

4. Install pulseaudio-module-jack     
   

sudo apt install pulseaudio-module-jack  

When working with JACK, make sure you choose your default output device to "Jack Pulseaudio sink". You should now hear the output from JACK and Pulseaudio (Browser etc.) together.

5. Install from Ubuntu Software Center qjackctl when is required, allow qjackctl for real time process

6. INSTALL WINEHQ-DEVEL     
   

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386     
    wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key     
    sudo apt-key add winehq.key     
    sudo apt-add-repository (this forum allows me to post only 1 url BUT search on google "winehq.key" and go to the winehq page: in this page you find the lost url in the "Download and add the repository key:" section)
    sudo apt update     
    sudo apt upgrade     
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport     
    sudo apt update     
    sudo apt upgrade     
    sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel

7.LIBRARY for some VST-PLUGIN fonts:     
   

sudo apt install winetricks     
        winetricks     
        winetricks -q mfc42     
        winetricks -q corefonts

8. Install INDICATOR-CPUFREQ (Performance o Powersave mode for CPU)     
   

sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

now your system is almost ready:

you need to use LinVST or LinVST3 to bridging the Windows VST plugins: download it and run the bridging....

PS: I use the RME UCX in Compliant Mode

If you hawe other questions, please answer me:

in my opinion the only thing that drives a lot of people to speak / write badly about Linux is their ignorance of this fantastic system!