Best standalone music server?

I've just seen this thread for the first time.
I have the Bluesound Vault 2, and in other rooms in the home I have a Node 2 and the Minipulse.
I had tried a PC based system and frankly it was to much hassle.  I have no desire to be dealing with IT issues at home when I want to relax with music, and no one else in my family liked it.  Bluesound isn't entirely hassle free but I have found it to be much more elegant than my former Mac based system, and it covers the whole house as well.
  The DACs contained in the Vault and the Node are decent  but not exceptional.  In my two channel system where the Vault resides I run it into my external DAC, the Mytek Manhatten and it sounds as great as any other source in that DAC.  In the kitchen we listen to a lot of Internet Radio .
 I have recently started using the Vault to pull in the files that I had on my Mac and so far find it much easier than just the pc by itself.
  Different strokes for different folks.  If a PC based system works for you, then fine, but not everyone will find them so accommodating.  If they were Universally easy, then there would be no market for seperate servers.  I do find myself scratching my head here when the OP clearly stated he was not interested in a pc based system and yet others are badgering him or her to go that route

@mahler123
Exactly my thought process right from the start
Nobody in my house wants to be an it expert after a hard days work, just select a few tracks or pick an internet radio station on the bluos app and let it play.
Glad to see my choice was a path others have already taken for much the same reasons
still enjoying my unit and maybe adding a Node for my daughter to use in her room, probably just connected to a soundbar...lol, evil I know!

Yes, all too often we (me too) try to tell folks what sounds better etc...when all they want is a simple all in one solution.  Once they use that solution and it's easy, they enjoy music. Real music.  I too am going through trying to become an IT guy to get the best sound quality and it's taking away from the fun.  I keep waiting on that one component to come out that will be the be all end all. Roon core and a decent hard drive, ethernet that is isolated and have all the noise taken out of the signal chain.  Yes, I want it all, but right now, that's not out there.  Melco is the closest, but no Roon core and it won't have that.  I may wait for the new Melco units to come out, get the Roon NUC from Roon once that comes out and call it a day.

Glad you love your VAult2 

Antipodes have it all, including Ruin...

Regarding "best" standalone server.  I too am looking for something with an integrated DAC, storage and ability to stream Tidal.  I am thinking about ripping all my CDs (about 1000...sigh).  I considered the Bluesound Vault.  It certainly is inexpensive and appears easy to use...however I am concerned about sound quality.  The only reason I would go to the trouble to rip my CDs would be for convenience AND sound quality.  If my ripped CDs don't sound as good as they do on my CD player I doubt I will listen to them very much.  I want a streamer/DAC that will sound AT LEAST as good as my CD player if not better. A product like the Aurender A10 looks appealing as a higher end alternative to the Bluesound.

 I have a Sony 5400ES SACD player and a Meridian 805.24 CD player.  I realize neither of these players are anywhere near state of the art so maybe it will not so difficult to equal or surpass there performance.  My other option is to abandon the Music Server idea altogether and replace my two disc players with one high end player like the Esoteric and use it's DAC with an inexpensive streamer for online content.  Any opinions?  or alternatives?

@randyhat 
in all honesty the rca outputs of the vault are a little soso, i thought the bass was overcooked
however using the digital coax out i think i prefer the sound to the original cd played through my esoteric sa50!
and yes prior to the vault i was using the esoteric to stream simple stuff like pandora and spotify through and it did sound good, but the vault sounds a lot better.
of course there are pc based systems that will sound better but i am very satisfied with the results
so much so that i have put my esoteric up for sale right here on agon!
mostly listening to tidal right now...yes you lot were right!

@uberwaltz let me say sir you are very graceful in defeat! :-) Seriously glad to hear you're enjoying Tidal it is a really amazing service! Happy listening!

@jond
Bit of a dinosaur at times I am afraid but when I checked and saw a free 30 day trial, what was there to lose!
Now I have been listening to stuff from my youth I would most likely never buy but nice to have an option to stream it!
Stuff like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rick Wakeman, Wishbone Ash etc.
I really do like the fact that Tidal can be run inside the Bluos app as I did see that the standalone Tidal app on my droid phone was quite a bit of a memory hog, nearly as bad as Farcebook....both of which have now been forced into stop mode...lol.

I have a Bluesound Vault 2.  I'm happy with it.  It does everything I want it to do, rip CDs, catalog them, play them. There are CDs that do not have their information and picture on the Grace Note internet database, so you have to use Mp3Tag to add the song/artist information to the ripped files, but it's not that often I have to do that.  And I think that would be the same for any ripping device or software. The Vault 2 also streams from the online sources, and it has a full internet radio capability which is nice if you want to hear different music at time.  It also gets the local streaming radio stations, so I don't need a tuner.  I don't think that, for the money, you would be unhappy with it.

Thank you ubewaltz for starting this post. Years ago I worked & owned audio stores. I have been out of audio for 30+ years. My bucket list included getting back into music, now that I have the time to enjoy it. I have gotten a pretty good system for vinyl and have been trying to educate myself on digital. I am fine, when it comes to vinyl, but digital is a different store. I remember the first time we got a CD in the store and a player. We hoked it up to our Ref. system (Mags MG2s, Mac C28, Mac 275 and a B&O linear TT ) and quickly realized that the cassette tape sounded just as good as the CD and compared to vinyl the CD was a joke. That being said, an Edison phonograph compared to what we have today, you have to start somewhere.
I have been debating getting a good CD player with a DAC, seeing as I have 500+ CDs and all the CDs are on my computer. After reading all the outstanding comments in this post, I am forced to rethink the CD player. I was looking at the Esoteric, Ayon, and the ARC players costing $5000+ on average. The idea of a streamer sounds fantastic on the surface, but I am far from a geek. In fact I spent as much time looking up what computer terms meant, as I did reading the post.
I don't want to start up an old battle, but in reading all your comments as to the sound quality of the Vault, I was wondering if you had ever compared a CD, tidal, or streaming to Vinyl? I have been listening to music from my Ipad, phone, or bluetooth MP3 in my car and to my AV system. The other night, I finally got the system I have been putting together to play vinyl and played a record. I must say I was blown away. I had to just sit an enjoy the music. Can't believe I was away from it for so long. 
I just wanted to put my 2 cents worth regarding coping CDs to the computer. I am sure I have purchased the same music over and over thru the years. I have purchased my favorite music on 45 rpm, 8 tracks, cassettes, LPs, CDs, buying off the internet, and now with say Tidal, I have to pay per month to listen to the same music I purchased many times before. No wonder the records companies make so much money. Than goodness for the internet, so anyone can get there music to the public without the record companies.
 

Check out fidelizer-nimitra 

Not sure of your budget, but Aurender N10 or higher priced W20 are fantastic pieces. I auditioned the N100 and bought the N10 ONLY 'cause the W20 wasn't in my budget. No need to listen to the CD player anymore!

Hick, in the beginning of the thread he said that was out of his budget.  That's why he went with the Bluesound Vault.  As for the W20 and N10, the difference in sound is only if you use the balanced output of the W, otherwise the N10 will sound virtually the same based on my auditions.  He also wanted an all in one so most of the higher end units didn't work for him.  Nice units though, that's for sure.

@juke4u
I may have gone one better in comparisons...lol
I actually own two genuine cd discs of one of my favourite bands( counting crows).
So i was able to compare both my cd players (mcintosh and esoteric) vs tidal AND the vault rips, makes it easy to instantly switch between them, not just rely on memory of what a track sounded like 5 minutes ago.
My preference order, and this is just my opinion

1/ vault
2/ mcintosh
3/ esoteric
4/ tidal

now tbh they are ALL really close and 3 and 4 are probably more a tie
we are talking points of a percent apart really

I still buy odd cd,s ( still some stuff not available on tidal yet) but the first thing i do is rip them to the vault and listen to them from there!

I see Pandora is starting up their full streaming service next week for just $9.99 a month, hopefully as a present Pandora user they will offer a free trial as well. Be a nice comparo to Tidal

For those of you concerned that the Bluesound Vault 2 may not be high end enough for you, I suggest that if you already have a DAC that you like, play it through the DAC and call it a day

It's not that Bluesound is not "high end enough" for me.  From what I've heard the DAC is good and the digital output connection is good.  Unfortunately I have neither a separate DAC nor do I have a preamp with digital inputs.  I would have to use the RCA outputs to my preamp...which may be the weak spot.  In any case I am curious enough about it to give it a try.  It shouldn't take me too long to determine the sound quality vs CD.  I do like the built in disc drive/ripper.  It's not that it is difficult at all to rip CDs to my computer...I just dread the chore more doing it this way than just popping them in the drive and letting it do it for me.  The other product I've considered is the Aurender A10.  It has everyone in one box except the CD ripper....and is considerable more expensive than the Bluesound. Another option would be to upgrade my CD player to a model that has a good DAC and then have the best of both worlds.

Uninteresting that the Vault sounds the best. I would have guessed the Esoteric would be on top but it could also be the DAC making a difference. Is the Mac a tube DAC?  Have you ever compared vinyl or is that a bad word, when we have obvious peolple posting, that are probably digital only. I have all my old LP's and all are in mint condition and also have many CD's that have newer artist not available on vinyl.

I saw "hickbones" earlier post about the Aurender where you auditioned both players and got the N10. At this point I do not have a DAC, Streamer, or CD player. I can play a CD but with a Sony blue ray player.(yes a $49 dvd player) I have read as much as possible about streamers and the Aurender and Lumins seem to be the best. Uberwaltz's experience with the Vault has got me thinking in a hole new direction. If it sounds better than the high dollar CD players that's amazing. Maybe they will come out with a new Vault with Balanced outputs.

The Mac is the c-48 which is digital and solid state, no tubes
i really do not think you can compare vinyl, it is just so different, guess the word "warmth" may be a little cliched but thats my best summation.
I have a Funk Firm Vector with Grado Gold cart and play it through the macs phono input and it really is just so sweet, I usually end up playing an evening of vinyl once I start...lol.
The Vault for me just does everything i wanted although I am sure higher end with higher price tags may do it better for sure.
But to end up sounding better than my esoteric?
That was quite an achievement 

Aurender best to date.

@juke4u. I, for one, am not interested in having a vinyl vs digital debate.  There are plenty of other places to go looking for that discussion.  I have decided that digital is it for me and ain't lookin back.  You may notice that this folder is labeled "digital " and you may perhaps infer what people's preferences tend towards based on that folder name...

@randyhat 
I agree with your last thought.  I love my Vault2 but in your case for the same expenditure you can get a pretty good CDP that will have digital inputs.  You will enjoy your CD collection and every other digital source more.  

Look up Antipodes Audio (NZ) - and the reviews that AP products get.  I have their DX and also ref. series cables - fantastic.  When (if ever) they re-sell second hand they go for almost full retail.  Also great service.

@mahler Very sorry. It was never my intent to start a debate. I am new to forums of any kind and will have to be more attuned to what I post. I very much want to get digital music in my system and I was thrilled to hear, that the Vault sounded so good and most of all, I feel I might be able to learn how to use it. Yes, I love vinyl, but it is a pain. Digital music is much easier and lets you enjoy it without the record ending, getting up, cleaning it, and putting  it away. All I know is Bluetooth to my AV receiver and it does not sound that good. Maybe I should have asked to compare the sound to MP3 or Bluetooth to get a comparison.

I do agree that the 20 minutes and get up to change the vinyl can get old, it is still just  a very different experience that sometimes it is worth it.
@juke4u,
yes the sound quality over bluetooth will be vastly inferior, it is definitely a convenience medium and not a hifi medium.
Both mp3 and bluetooth are vastly inferior in sound quality.
I do have a few odd mp3 files I transfered to the vault and you can really tell the difference between them and flac files. Very compressed, boxy, nasal sound.
@randyhat 
yes there are plenty of great sounding cdp with dig ins and outs at about the same cost of the Vault. And IMHO the rca out of the Vault were definitely a lot weaker performing than when run though its dig out, may just be my system but it was very bass heavy, over heavy, boomy. This totally changed when run through its dig out to a very clean ,as good if not better than original cd state.

Interesting thread because we are all playing at different levels of cost.  It's just so obvious.  The OP wanted an all in one unit or system that was affordable. He got what is one of the few on the market that has it all and that includes the streaming he wants and MQA (not sure if it's core or all the way).  Folks are still trying to talk him out of it, which is kind of funny.

I've seen someone post that Aurender is the best.....no it's not.  What is best is what we listen to vs others and like the best in our system.  Digital is funny in that what sounds great in one system may not be the best in the other one in the same house.  It's more dependent on the other digital feeds that analog amps are I think. I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way.  So much we are learning about digital sound still.  I think we still have miles to go with it and we will in time.

Personally, I've heard Melco vs Aurender in many many shops and also in my own system and I prefer the Melco (the N1A not the N1ZH).  Melco is coming out with new units in the next few months so I'll wait to see what they have, but Aurender just sounds differently. It's a great unit and I"d happily have one, but I will get what's best in my own system.  It's audio and there is no best in any category.  Just isn't and cant' be as we all hear  differently.  

I too like the Antipodes gear and always have.  Nothing not to like about it.  Nice distributor also.  I may have gotten one, but my rebuilt Mac mini still sound better than even their new TOL ref unit.  Steven Nugent used it for his shows (he builds the high end Empirical Audio DAC's of which I owned until Ayre came out with theirs).  He sold me one of his two servers and went with Antipodes, but he eventually went back to his as it just sounded better.  HE wanted a one box solution (the mac has a huge Paul Hynes LPS), but needs the best sound to sell his 14k DAC's.

I read about guys wanting to get rid of their mac's, but if optimized and using the top LPS you can get and changing the drives to the best sounding (not most expensive) SSD's and changing some other components you can have as good a server as a W20 Aurender or Antipodes ref or any other out there.  Just not always the prettiest or the easiest to use maybe.  

For the price point OP is at, it's the perfect solution of him as the sound is nice and he doesn't want a second box for an external DAC.  He's have to upgrade to a Codex or higher (DAC alone will cost much more than this full set up now) to get better sound.  JMHO

I have been using a friends Wadia 321 DAC mostly as a learning experience. I sent an email to Aurender about compatibility and got the attach response. If I read correctly, it looks like I would never use DSD as the music offered it nothing I would listen to. Is my thinking correct or is there something I am missing? The more I research the more the Vault looks appealing. My only concern is I would have to use the RCA outs or buy a CD player with DAC. 

Response from Aurender:"The Wadia 321 should be compatible with the USB output of the Aurender N100H and N10 in terms of working, however the Wadia 321 DAC is limited to 24-bit and 192kHz sampling rate. This means it cannot decode DSD or other high resolution files above 24/192. All Aurender music servers can reproduce digital files up to DSD128. If an N10 was used the SPDIF outputs could be used to connect, but then again, you are limited to 24/192 by both server and DAC. If playing these kinds of files is something you want to do, then perhaps you should consider the A10 and it will also give you full MQA decode. MQA files and Tidal streaming of MQA files sound exceptionally good."

@ctsooner
As always your posts are refreshing and well thought out and always of interest to myself.
I would say that on this venture I limited myself on how much I wanted to spend on the music server as it was my first foray, just like my very first amp cost a whole $25...lol.
I am sure like the rest of the components that in time I will get the urge to explore and go higher both in quality and price, not that they always go hand in hand!
But yes for now I have EXACTLY what I asked for and sound quality of ripped files and Tidal have surpassed my admitedly fairly low expectations. Only previous experience of digital was my daughters itunes and Pandora played through the smarttv connected by optical digital connection.

And yes Juke, in my system I definitely noticed a huge difference going dig out of the vault instead of rca so if you did go with a vault I would not judge it entirely by its rca performance until you had opportunity to try the digital outputs. As of yet I have not tried the usb out bar for backing up the hard drive so no idea what the sound quality is like over the usb port.

The words are too kind, but also realize that I'm just one person.  Trust your ears, but when you learn to listen you can hear distortions that really do take away from the music.  Many never get there and it's fairly easy to see when reading some posts on boards.  NO big deal as long as they love their music  Heck, I can spend a day listening to crappy recordings of 80's rock and have my ears killing me.  Just love the music.  

What I may suggest to you eventually is to look into a Melco as a streamer/NAS and then get a nice DAC like a Codex or equivalent to your ears.  Then you can more easily upgrade as you grow.  You can then sell your Vault and only lose half, but half of that is less than half of an Aurender or Melco or whatever.  

One reason I like the Melco over the Aurender (other than I like the sound better) is because if you update your DAC to one that's say Roon end point and also a top streamer and headphone amp (Like the Ayre QX5 I just purchased), then you can still use the Melco as it's by far the best NAS I"ve heard and even Michael Lavorgna of Audiostream (I pray you are over there enjoying his writing) has said that and that's his job.  

Honestly, with what you have now, I wouldn't do anything else just yet. Get comfortable with it and learn to use it to it's fullest.  Listen at times critically and see what you enjoy about the sound of it.  You will soon notice trends in the sound on various cuts.  Then you can learn what you DON'T want next time in any piece you get in your system.  

To me audio is just like the second wife (or more)....you need to know what you DON'T want, as you never fully know what you do want.  Just think about that and take it for what it's worth.  You can and probably will do other upgrades in your system before doing more with the source. Oh, and don't bother with other cables or power cords or anything right now.  At the level you are at, it's so silly to spend even 100 for a power cord when you could spend that eventually in component upgrades that will make a much much bigger difference.  JMHO

I looked for an all in one solution that i could rip my 500 plus CD's into, had the ability to stream MQA from Tidal etc and that could be combined with 'Roon' software...I went for the Bluesound Vault and could not be happier, it also streams to multiple airplay system's set-up in different rooms of the house. Obviously the Airplay quality is not as good as hires/mqa but it's fine for background music when needed. 

Forgive my technical inexperience but I’m in a similar position. I have a modest system with:
-Yamaha 1060 AVR (used as preamp w/HT ability)
-Parasound A23 Halo

I want to add Rune and a have a something that can manage my digital content either Tidal/Spotify or MP3s. My Yamaha AVR can handle streaming services but not Tidal yet AFAIK? I don’t need the ability to rip CDs as I have an external HD full of them and prefer the portability of having external HDs. Can I get a Bluesound Node 3 and connect my HD to it via USB and then connect it via digital coax to my AVR and have all I need to run Rune and manage everything? From what I understand the Node3 is just a Vault2 without the ability to rip and built-in storage? One other thing, for my MP3s to work on our iPhones/iPads I need my files in AIFF form not FLAC correct? As I get more MP3s, I want the best quality I can for our devices.

Thanks for any advice or input.

You should go to their site again and get to know what each piece can do.  I"ve seen many systems using the Bluenote gear without the Vault as they already have a large NAS drive they use with it.  

Yeah, I’ve basically confirmed I can pull off what I want to do but wanted to ’think out loud’ a bit about it here to hear others with way more experience and knowledge than me offer any opinions or things I should consider before going this route.

It's one of, if not the easiest way.  For it's price range, the Bluesound gear is really solid stuff.

Thanks. Yeah I wish my Yamaha AVR worked with Rune (easily) and I could connect an external HD to the rear rather than the front panel. Would any USB->HDMI or coaxial digital convertors work? The Node 3 sounds like the way to go.

But not in the price points that the folks in this thread are talking about.  Plenty of great servers on the market from Melco to Aurender to Antipodes to Lumin to CAD to custom made to one of the most under rated, The Music Vault by Neil Van Berg (I personally don't like all of them).  What kind of US support does the Zenith have?  I don't know much about the company. I visited their site, but not much about the US there.  

Finally I may have found a chink in the Bluesound Vault 2 armour!
Unless I am missing something and hopefully fellow Vault owners can help out.
For the first time today I decided to try and connect up my tv toslink output to the Vault via the supplied mini jack to toslink adapter.
At first I thought I had done something wrong as at my seating position I heard nothing, I got up to check the connection and I heard Antman singing in my speaker!
I had to turn the volume up on the Hegel from a normal 42 for my Vault to about 87 before it had anywhere near the same volume level.
The same cable/output from the tv fed into the Hegel dac only needs about 45 on the volume to have the same actual room volume.

So am I missing something in the vault setup for the toslink input volume or has anybody else found this is exactly the case and it is what it is?

Audio vault 2 + Border Patrol DAC p+ ripping my cds and letting me browse throigh Tidal... what’s not to like

Still very happy with my choice of bluesound vault2 connected with nordost Valhalla digital coax cable.

The Node 2 is a great overachiever that I have really enjoyed. I later chose a sonicTransporter i7 for storage and Roon core and added a Naim Uniti for Roon player/DAC/integrated amp. But I keep the Node 2 as my “radio” given its wider range of streaming service choices which I will try down the road. The free Tunein service is a nice background music option for me.

The Node 2 is a great overachiever that I have really enjoyed. I later chose a sonicTransporter i7 for storage and Roon core and added a Naim Uniti for Roon player/DAC/integrated amp. But I keep the Node 2 as my “radio” given its wider range of streaming service choices which I will try down the road. The free Tunein service is a nice background music option for me.

If money is no object, the Ayon Audio S-5 Network Player/Preamp with direct Ethernet connection to a NAS drive with a single solid state drive is the best I've heard.  Very analog sounding.

Would really be interested in hearing from folks who have used a Mac mini as a server running Roon via Ethernet into a high'ish end renderer like the SOtM triple set and then USB from the SOtM to a good DAC, and compared that to a high end server/player like the Antipodes DX.  I own both server/player units (i.e., a mini and the DX) so I really want to hear about whether the mini into the SOtM stuff can equal the DX.  Another option would be to run the DX as a server with Roon into the SOtM triple set via Ethernet.  Does using the SOtM triple set negate the differences between the mini and the DX?

Here is another idea. If you like it fine, if not okay too. I had bought a Bluesound Node 2 to add to my stereo. I already had a quality CD player and many, many CDs. So I wanted to rip all my CDs to a NAS to play via the Node 2 AND stream music via Spotify and Tidal. After many hours of ripping my CDs and tagging album artwork.... I started listening to an ever growing streamed library of music, much of which were the same albums I owned on CD. When I started listening to MQA I was really impressed by the sound. I questioned WHY I had ripped my CD collection in the first place. When I have a CD player to use when i want to listen to MY MUSIC, why not just stream music when I am not???? The Bluesound Node 2 sounds truly fantastic, but if you MUST rip your CDs.... get the Vault 2.

Exactly what I did 2psyop....lol
And yes I do wonder at times why I bothered taking all that time to rip the same music I can now just about as easily stream....some rare British stuff not found on any online service yet but not many....

Well, I've decided to sell my Mac mini that is a total rebuild by Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio. It was his personal unit that he filled with well recorded wav files.  Many high res, that he brought to shows to show off his Overdrive DAC.  I'm using the hard to get Paul Hynes LPS.  

It's a great server. I"m running Amarra right now, but it can run anything that a Mac can use.  The reason for this is that I'm getting a new The Memory Player with built in DAC (guess I"m selling the Ayre QX5 DAC/streamer now also, lol).  My friend has auditioned every server on the market other than a couple of the new ones that are yet to be released.  It beat the Aurender N10 which is the best server I've heard until this new unit.  

I have loved the Empirical Mac mini, as I was able to rip songs for my portable DAP and I ripped some of my music onto the internal SSD wiht the built in drive.  What I have learned that the Mac needs is the proper hard drive and the best LPS you can get to allow it to be a true high end server that can be used with even ultra high end systems.  I took the server to a friends house.  He runs a pair of Vandersteen 2's, NAD separates and an Codex DAC/headphone amp with inexpensive Audioquest cables.  A fairly modest system I think.  My server woke the system up big time.  We were shocked at how low the noise floor was and that allowed so much more detail to come out.  He has the Bluesound system right now.  He was also able to use the Vault to play his own music through the Mac.  Since I don't love the look of the Mac and external supply, I put it in the cabinet that has doors on it and just use the TV screen to remotely control it, lol.  I just never put it on the net as Steve has turned off everything but Bluetooth and that includes all teh programs that aren't needed for music as they all affect teh sound quality.  

Anyone try the Wyred 4 Sound Music Server?  Looks well built, appears to be up to date tech wise.  A bit $$$ though. 

My suggestion would be a Naim Uniti Core which  rips, streams etc.... I have the Atom and has a rich wholesome sound, ant a bit volume knob.
Look it up...

TYPO: that's a big volume knob....

Is it a digital volume control or analog?  My Ayre has one of the best sounding volume controls I've ever heard in digital and I would never use it.  My The Memory Player will have, what is called, the best digital volume control made as they do some upsampling deal so that you will never lose bits (digital volume controls must be at 100% or you will lose some of the music and yes you can hear it on a good system.  I need to audition TMP's control, but I"m not holding out any hope.  You mostly lose dynamics when not using a good preamp.