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What makes One Music Server Sound Better than Another?

So this week my Mojo Audio DejaVu music server that I have used for the past 2-3 years crapped out. Benjamin at Mojo was more than helpful and the DejaVu is on its way to Mojo Audio where it will make a full recovery.

Thankfully, I still have my Antipodes DX2 Gen 3 (their former flagship) music server so I hooked it up. After wrestling with Roon protocols, transfers, and set-up menus, I was able to get it going so I have music. The DX and my Sonore Sig Rendu SE opt. are both connected to my network so the DX (like the DejaVu), is only being used as a Roon core and the Sig Rendu SE serves as the Roon endpoint for streaming Tidal and Qobuz, with a direct USB connection to my DAC.

The point of this thread is to ask, how come I perceive the the DejaVu server as sounding better than the Antipdes DX? In fairness, the differences I perceive are not great but it seems the DejaVu is fuller sounding, more tonally rich, and bolder. Is this why some here spend $10K+ on a Grimm, Taiko or something else?

If a server is basically a computer, sending digital information to a streamer/endpoint and, assuming that digital information is transmitted asynchronously and reclocked by the DAC’s master clock, and assuming noise is not the issue (i.e., both units are quiet and there is an optical break between the network and both the server and endpoint) then what are the technical reasons one should sound better than the other? It is not that I want to spend $10K+ on a music server with a lifespan of maybe 5 years before becoming obsolete, but I would like to understand what more you are getting for your money. So far, the best I can come up with is lower internal noise as the major factor.

As a side note to the above, when I thought things looked hopeless for getting set up, I scheduled a support session with Antipodes and, although I lucked into the solution before the meeting time, Mark Cole responded ready to help. Setting up the session was super easy and reminded me of the superior level of support I had come to enjoy from Antipodes during the time that the DX was my primary server, including multiple updates and 2 or 3 hardware upgrades, which prolonged the service life of the DX. Good products and good company.

 

mitch2
ddafoe
238 posts
 

Buy mass market gear and it will get you about 50% there. Seeking quantity over quality go for the $300 turntables and hit the used record stores. Your raspberry NUC streamer and an $800 DAC with Amazon music should get you the same sound quality. Enjoy

 

@tonywinga, lots of assumptions or maybe implications that I don’t see as necessarily true. One does not have to spend a fortune on digital audio to get great sound; nor do I buy one has to spend a fortune to get 50% there either, wherever there is.

Many years ago when Roon released their Raspberry Pi bridge image I added a good quality SPDIF board to the Pi and (after market power supply) fed it into my 25x expensive Berkeley Alpha Dac 2 and it sounded great. I eventually replaced the Pi bridge with a Bricasti M5 once they came out and it certainly sounded better. I bet an $$$$ streamer will beat my M5, but how much better will it be?

The NUC by the way can offer very good performance (i.e. it’s not a raspberry pi by the way) when used as a Roon Server. Take a look inside many $$ audiophile products, and your might see one there too...   I’ve enjoyed my NUC running Roon Rock feeding a Meitner MA3.  Maybe this is budget system compared to yours, but it is still very musically satisfying and the law of diminishing returns is there for us bottom feeders :)

 

tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

I agree.  My first rule of audio:  Your system sounds great, until you hear a better system.

retrocrownfan's avatar
retrocrownfan
128 posts
 

Interesting thread, mostly above my pay grade ;) Without hijacking this thread, my Mid-fi ears are delighted with the streaming input I get from an Audifi WIFi receiver with an ESS Sabre DAC, controlled by the 4-Stream Mobile App playing lossless files from Apple Music from my IPhone with the current IOS.

Sooo, which device or app is providing the operating system that processes the digital music file in the absence of a high dollar streamer?

tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

I have one brother who does not like the sound of my stereo at all. He says he doesn’t care for that hifi sound. He much prefers his Sony boombox. He’s not kidding. How loud his boombox gets impresses him. I was expecting praise and honor for how my system sounds. Leave it to brothers to smack us back into reality. :)

Sooo, which device or app is providing the operating system that processes the digital music file in the absence of a high dollar streamer?

The Apps that you are thinking about remotely control the high dollar streamer. No processing takes place in the phone or tablet. But in the case of a low cost wifi receiver- like the Sony boombox, your phone is the bridge and the boombox the endpoint. Or, the phone is the server and the boombox the player.  Is that what you meant?

ghdprentice
6,390 posts
 

@tonywinga …”Leave it to brothers to smack us back into reality. :)”.

 

Not sure that is reality he is smacking you back to.

You have a really carefully chosen high end system of a very distinct flavor. Your combining Audio Research, Pass and Wilson… well, I can practically hear it. I think few could not be very impressed and complimentary, even if not their particular flavor. To me, great systems are like ice cream flavors from a great ice cream manufacturer. They all taste great, but I really love Butter Pecan.

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