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Music Server vs. PC vs. Transport vs. ?

I don;t really want to add another rack in my living room. If I do, I may end up sleeping on one of the couches. Ideally, I would like to do the following:

1. Either use a pc or a server to store discs and have them accessable.
2. Have a way for the kids/wife to hook up their ipods
3. Have a way to get digital radio (xm, sirius or even computer streaming, doesn;t matter)
4. Do all of this WITHOUT degrading the sound quality ( i know, the ipod, by definition will do this)

My understanding of most high end DACs is that they do not have USB ports, but that is the ideal port to use to negate jitter. As I was researching this, I got the latest issue of the absolute sound, and they address some of this a bit. My feeling seems to be that one pays a HUGE premium for a server, that both their DACs and PCs DACs suck, and one has to get a USB to AES or other adapter, and still use an external DAC. It also seems that if one is willing to use a lossless system, that the universal opinion is that a hard drive rivals or beats any transports.

So my initial thought would be to get a pc with an ipod dock, run lossless, get an additional adapter say from Wavelength, and use the current dac. That adds at least two pieces, maybe three.

Help?????
Thanks,
Chris

Help??????

Thanks,
Chris
128x128mount_rose_music
gonzo1
14 posts
 
I just got a Macbook on Friday for all of the reasons you list above. It will be replacing a Primare CD21 as the transport with my PS Audio DL III which does have USB input.

As far as equaling your current digital setup? That's for you to decide. The convenience and excellent software easily makes it worthwhile. While i got a bit more separation between instruments, I seemed to have lost some bass.

I'm using twin 500G Western Digital hard drives for storage and backup. If I still need to have circular discs for digital I will use my Oppo 980 through the DL III, or even upgrade to a better Universal player. And I will always have a turntable for analog.

This is definitely the future of digital playback. Let the audio manufacturers start branding computers with design and components for audiophiles.
rbstehno
1,407 posts
 
i read the reviews in TAS on music servers and the $6k and $12k music servers reviewed don't offer any more than my mac setup (except the touch screen), and my mac setup does much more and it is thousands cheaper. IMO, i haven't heard a music server that sounds decent, they all need an external dac to improve the sound. Even in the TAS review, they indicated that these needed an external dac. a mac with itunes 7 using cover flow, hooked up directly to an external dac using the toslink cable, with a raid 5 disk setup with terabytes of data, multiple airport express units for whole house audio capabilities, an ipod touch or iphone to remotely control itunes from another part of the house, and you have a system that offers more than the reviewed servers and is still thousands less than the $6k model that was reviewed. if you want to spend a little more money, you can buy used mac mini's to substitute for the airport express and you can share the itunes library from 1 central source and have multi-source, multi zone music, plus you get web access from each location the mini is setup.
bigamp
219 posts
 
Chris, IMO a music server provides a segway into PC-based audio for those who don't have the time, knowledge, or just plain don't want to deal with setting up a PC-based system. So, you obviously pay a premium for the convenience, but IMO lose flexibility. You're stuck with their software and sometimes limited to their disk size. But that may be OK. Also, you would need to check to see if the music server changes the bits in any way during rip or playback.

You already have a great DAC. Adding a PC instead of a music server will give you the flexibility to add any kind of new storage, change software, play from RAM if you want, etc.; but if you're not interested in any of that then a music server could work out. It's a judgement call.
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