Music server quality.

Sw23...I think on using your notebook etc or PC..a) personally I tend to upgrade my PC more regularly as the pace of tech development is much faster and b) they tend to crash much more frequently than servers (virus etc) and finally c) I use my PC for so much other stuff anyway could actually inibit usage flexibility if married to my music system. ...I do use a PC based system due to my IPOD and also via Sonus yes...but still interested in what the servers have to offer. Also finally I guess, for some rooms at my place wirless distribution doesn't work that well so need mutiple options to consider. Obviously a PC based system also has lot of advantages such as convenience, user interface, flexibility, software upgrades etc as well.

I've been considering too...and the thing is it appears to me a lot of servers are actually made by non tradtional audiophile companies.....but that may not be a bad thing: for me the most important thing will be storage space, user interface and digital outputs given I will be using my dac. There is the sooloos system for example. Sounds interesting to me as it has terabyte capacity! Oliver is another.

Then there are PC based systems such as Squeezebox, Sonos etc...the question on these are not the quality (again if you use the digital outputs to a good DAC) but to me the fact that PCs tend to crash. I do have the Sonos. The positive is these are generally not a very expensive option (obviously using Airport Express is very cheap though it doess suffer in quality). A very interesting development is msb tech developing a IPOD cradle which charges the IPOD, and they configure your IPOD to actually have a digital out. The IPOD then becomes a remote control, sending uncompressed digital wirelessly to a base station of sorts which in turn can be hooked up to your dac.

I also hear Arcam has come out with one.

I cannot really judge on quality of sound on squeeze box vs a mac (given I have tried neither)as u said but I wonder whether it may have to do more with wire vs wireless...but in any case u make valid pts which I was not aware of such as having remote for mac....never knew. However in terms of user interface....not sure how the mac remotes works etc...but I do have Sonus and its the best remote I have ever used on any consumer elec product bar none: the flexibility, visibility, funtionality, everything is absolutely genius: Squeeze box falters by a huge margin on this. Sound quality of Sonus feeding into my external DAC vs playing CDs...well my digital CD front end is top tier to say the least so benchmark is very high: the Sonus enjoyable but can't match my Meitner set up: but I bet its just as good as a average (?) CD player set up.

The MSB Tech IPOD solution also sounds interesting as the IPOD becomes a defacto remote: and MSB at least in the past via its DACs and CD players has done very well with digital auido so I find it very interesting: will be checking it out soon. Will check out the mac solutions you have pted as well.

I tried the MSB Tech IPOD system at dealer today. Basically a docking station hooked up to an external dac, IPO reconfigured so it outputs digitally, and wireless from IPOD to the docking station.

The main system hooked up was unfamiliar to me so I can only comment on the context of relativities: MSB Tech Platinum DAC, Moon Audio CD & amplification, and Wisdom Audio speakers.

I compared a) CD vs b) IPOD in the docking sation vs c)IPO in hand?data sent wireless to the docking station.

c) was quite good but when switching to b) the difference was immediate: bass got tighter and imagining better defined, sound staging improved. Moving from b) to a) was much less of an improvement, but I did think CDs had better solidity to the notes, if u know what I mean. The diff from c to b was far greater than b to a.

This may support the previous talk of Wavelength PC etc vs some wireless solutions...the diff in sound quality may well be more about wireless vs wireline as opposed to PC based vs music server based etc.

However c) does offer a lot of convenience in that the IPOD becomes your remote control. Accessing playlists for example become a cinch and one can quickly move from track to track for example.

I would have liked to do a side by side comparison of say Sonus or Squeezebox wireless vs the MSB but could not. My hunch is that the latter is better but just hunch as I could not do any sort of direct comparisons.

Thus it seems to me the MSB IPOD system which costs circa US$2500 (including an 80G IPOD reconfigured so that digital output is possible)...is niche product with the following value add

1. For some homes.places....wireless thru out the house is difficult due to inteference, type of walls: in such cases a room by room approach is required.

2. IPOD user interface is familiar, u can charge it, and most of us have one anyway for portability...so nice way to integrate things

3. If need be and you don't need to keep switching tracks and prefer better quality, you can play it with the IPOD in the docking station which probably beats most if not all wireless solutions.

4. IPOD is much smaller than a notebook!

But also the strengths also mirror its weakness: remote...nothing beats Sonus. Capacity limited to 80GB, no multi room capability....etc

I am interested but still will continue to think thru and investigate options...may come back to this however.

Hope that helps

Kana813: Nothing beats Sonus...I meant strictly the Remote and its user interface. Felxibility, easy interface, album covers...the works. Simply awesome. Set up is very easy. And you can expand and daisy chain thru out the house so it has mutli room capability. Using the remote u can even have each room playing different music at the same time! Sonic quality vs Mac....can't say as I personally have not used a MAC set up...but my hunch is that will be worse than MAC directly connected to a DAC (as well as Sonus) but better or similiar when using the
MAC wirelessly.

On Squeezebox, and especially the new Transporter...seems the value add here is that it has a very good internal DAC. But for those who already have excellent DACs like myself already, I find this redundant.

Jayboard,.,..guess you are right: but in that dealer demo room as well as my own exp at home, wireless has suffered: though still very listenable indeed...good for background relaxing music, parties etc...so far for me not more than yet (in terms of my own exp). But whether its music severs or the IPOD in docking station (or likely PC via Wavelength), directly connected systems I think are competitive in sound quality though perhaps suffering for the last mile of refinement (so far of what I have heard, I would be gladly pointed alernatives where this is sin't so) and have the flexibility that comes with digitally stored music which obviously CD players lack. As such, I want both!