Bit of a copy paste from another post.
I recently set up a budget system in my study for some background music while working from home. This is based on a Raspberry Pi 4 and IQaudio DigiAMP+ HAT. I used an old laptop power supply I had lying around, and spent around 70 Euro in total for this. As speakers a couple of Monitor Audio Silver RX1 and Atacama stands a friend had surplus and he donated to me. The DigiAMP+ does 24/192 and has about 2 x 35 Watt with the power supply I had (can be less with weaker ones). As software I use piCorePlayer so it seamlessly integrates in my LMS/Squeezebox system.
The setup is currently in a temporary 'case' consisting of an old chinese takeaway plastic box
with a few holes cut out for cabling. I'm going to get a hifiberry case for it, but it is all hidden somewhere in the back of a book cabinet now and I can't really be bothered to get it out...
As mentioned this system was meant for background music, but I find myself really enjoying it. Up to the point that I start browsing music, looking for favourites, etc.
This would absolutely be something I could live with as a main system. For reference, my main system is a combined HT/stereo consisting of a Squeezebox Touch, digital into a Marantz AV7005 processor, modded Parasound HCA-2205 amp, ATC SCM40 mk1 speakers.
Install LMS on the Raspberry/piCorePlayer (I currently run LMS on an M-ITX small form computer/server), add an external USB drive with your music, and you have a fully integrated storage/server/streamer/amplifier with very decent sound quality in something the size of a deck of cards. LMS integrates your local music, streaming services, internet radio, podcasts all in one platform. With the latests plug-ins you can also quite easily integrate the wide variety of uPnP/DLNA and AirPlay capable devices as players in the LMS platform. So it could even be the basis for a limited multiroom system, but I assume at some point the Raspberry would run out of steam here.
Regarding the comments on needing to be a coder or some type of IT specialist. It was easy following the instructions on the piCorePlayer site. A simple download, install on SD card, insert SD card in Pi. Only thing that I needed to do in the piCorePlayer software was to select the output (in my case the IQaudio amp). And that menu was just a few mouseclicks away in the LMS settings. All in all, if you can read a few 'how to' steps on a website, you should be able to get it to work.