Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Guys the Music Vault servers are also outstanding. He is willing to do custom builds in them for various inputs and outputs. He even offers an A/D converter to get a digital rip of your analog. I've heard it and it should be part of this list. PJ at Antipodes is really trying to get his units into stores.

My list is by no means complete. I'm just learning as I go. Any other server suggestions are welcome. Please throw a descriptive blurb in as I did to say what it does, what it is and what it isn't.

Thanks all!

I myself like the idea of a streamer that is NOT computer audio into a dac, though they are similiar, but not the same!,a streamer has storage like computer audio, however, a streamer is like internet radio too?

Streamers used with USB or S/PDIF outs should be Linux-based, not Windows IME. The difference in SQ between FLAC and wav goes away with Linux and a good CODEC.

The big advantage of USB out is that you don't rely on the clock in the server.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve, one of the questions I had about the Antipodes unit was how their "Uncompressed Flac Paranoid-mode" format, which is standard from the internal ripper, would sound compared to the uncompressed AIFF format I use with my mini. It is my understanding that FLAC is a compressed lossless format and I have read forum discussions with folks on both sides of whether the "uncompressed" characterization (i.e., "Uncompressed Flac Paranoid-mode") can be accurately applied to FLAC. Users of the Antipodes devices don't seem to be concerned about it so it must sound good. Any thoughts?

I was told the Antipodes will also store other formats but if you use the internal ripper you get FLAC. To store and play the other formats, you apparently need to download them from the internet or rip them on another device and transfer. I will have some things to learn when my unit arrives later this week.