I bought an M3 with the idea of the built in renderer saving money as well but have yet to purchase a server. Hooking up my iMac with Audirvana by way of generic ethernet cable and wifi with two different routers has led my to conclude sound quality is sensitive to the ethernet "feed". The newer router does sound better and wifi is not good. The best, current ethernet sound is actually unacceptable but the DAC does sound good with my old CDP connected with Mogami aes cable. My inkling is to get a server with two ethernet ports, which means antipodes S40 for me personally. The only other option is getting a SGC or Nimitra and a switch but that strikes me as rabbit hole without a lot of cost savings.
High Quality dac with network streamer saves $1,000s
Having compared and done a lot of research . I have compared verygood dacs adding on
$3-4k network streamers-servers , vs the Bricasti M3 dac- network streamer.
Bricasti has a ton of trickle down technologies in this setup ,and very-well known in the professional
mastering realm ,before consumer . Your computer takes its data and send its to the dedicated Lynex
based operating system ,which filters and then 8 x upsampled the dual mono Analog Devises 1599 multi bit dacs ,linear power supply and filtering , Totally eliminating the needto spend $2-3k+ on a dedicated server ,I listened and compared plus extra cables, and powercords , the only thing I bought was a decent Wireworld starlight Ethernet from the modem, and most important cable by far from network hub to the dac,streamer .BTW the uptone audio Ether regen truly cleans the noise riding on the line , andEthernet is noticeably cleaner then a USB cable . The Wireworld platinum 8 I tried going into the streamer ,Avery noticeable improvement ,thsts my next upgrade , a good power cord is always a plus . I was going to buy my brothers latest Denafrips terminator using with a Melco n100 streamer sever but, the Bricasti setup was noticeably better and getting for around $5k a steal , and also having the dedicated1bit DSD thst doesnot have to convert to pcm , and verygood analog preamp section
if youwant Toruń direct,and headphone option ,100% Differentially balanced a Steal in sonics as well as function and if compared a bunch of dacs with theMelco as well as Innous at our audio get togethers,all equipment had identical system and Ad one to make this call with others verifying it just when I was going to spend another $3k on a server,streamer I am now saving for reference speaker upgrade ,having excellent quality and design all in one product has several electrical advantages in less wiring ,cables and signal path, I just thought well worth mentioning it saved me $3k.
https://www.bricasti.com/en/consumer/m3.php
$3-4k network streamers-servers , vs the Bricasti M3 dac- network streamer.
Bricasti has a ton of trickle down technologies in this setup ,and very-well known in the professional
mastering realm ,before consumer . Your computer takes its data and send its to the dedicated Lynex
based operating system ,which filters and then 8 x upsampled the dual mono Analog Devises 1599 multi bit dacs ,linear power supply and filtering , Totally eliminating the needto spend $2-3k+ on a dedicated server ,I listened and compared plus extra cables, and powercords , the only thing I bought was a decent Wireworld starlight Ethernet from the modem, and most important cable by far from network hub to the dac,streamer .BTW the uptone audio Ether regen truly cleans the noise riding on the line , andEthernet is noticeably cleaner then a USB cable . The Wireworld platinum 8 I tried going into the streamer ,Avery noticeable improvement ,thsts my next upgrade , a good power cord is always a plus . I was going to buy my brothers latest Denafrips terminator using with a Melco n100 streamer sever but, the Bricasti setup was noticeably better and getting for around $5k a steal , and also having the dedicated1bit DSD thst doesnot have to convert to pcm , and verygood analog preamp section
if youwant Toruń direct,and headphone option ,100% Differentially balanced a Steal in sonics as well as function and if compared a bunch of dacs with theMelco as well as Innous at our audio get togethers,all equipment had identical system and Ad one to make this call with others verifying it just when I was going to spend another $3k on a server,streamer I am now saving for reference speaker upgrade ,having excellent quality and design all in one product has several electrical advantages in less wiring ,cables and signal path, I just thought well worth mentioning it saved me $3k.
https://www.bricasti.com/en/consumer/m3.php