I always preferred a "player" rather than a laptop because operating systems have interrupts that can cause a very short, but discernable, dropout as the OS runs a quick "seek" process to see if there is a task waiting. Be aware of the output quality when you look to save money by going Chromebook if you do in fact go laptop-ish. I had good results with an iPad Nano. Others will swear by laptop. What I don't get is the desire to run full program and introduce the variable of tracks playing. Dump to WAV and play WAV files and KISS.