Dave and Troy- I’m guessing those 2 servers that you found to be the best, you probably sell those too, correct?
“Roon has a dedicated Linux program you can use”. Roon provides software for many different OS’s. 99% of computer users don’t know linux, so it would be difficult for these people to build a Linux server. I prefer linux myself for enterprise servers, but I will not use any server with a tainted linux OS, which most music servers use. For example, who is going to support the linux OS of say an Aurender or Aries server if the company goes out of business?
Apple, Ubuntu, Red Hat, and many other OS companies have a better chance to be around for the long run.
What I normally see are people concerned with SQ but they use USB. Most 3rd party servers claim they have better sq using usb. Better than terrible, sure, it’s still bad.
You can configure a server using linux/apple to minimize processes that aren’t needed for a music server. Audirvana for example for a dozen years has documented how to shut down processes that are not needed.
I’ve been streaming (local and remote) for the past 16 years. I did go to 1 of those dedicated music servers described above around 4 or 5 years ago and went back to running on a Mac using Roon and have better sq. But at the same time, my server is in a different room than my dedicated audio room and I use Ethernet to the dac.