Any high quality music servers out there?

I'm building my own music server. There are a couple of devices that will help make it easy. The problem with going to a black box solution is the technology bite you could potentially take and lack of upgradeability. My Denon and Rotel DVD players are about to be worth nothing ... why? HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray will render them virtual 8-tracks within a year or two. Music server boxes are even more likely to be outdated.

I'm building a stand alone PC to do the work:

Configuration:

4 disc SATA array with a 3ware controller - with 320 gig drives that will yield about a Terabyte with one drive for RAID 5. The PC will be nothing fancy but I will get an audio component looking case that will support multiple drives. I'm going to run Linux but Windows XP Media edition is a possibility as well. This will be my storage...

If it's too techie for your taste, look at the Buffalo Technologies 1 Terabyte server. It's about the size of a small shoe box and plugs right into a 10/100/1000 base home network. In a RAID 5 configuration it will yield 750 gigs. You load some app. software on your PC to set it up and will run stand alone once configured. It just looks like a big fat file share sitting out on the network (NAS box).

The next device is a component to tie in my DAC and component video input to the network, again I picked Buffalo Technologies as they seem to have the most advanced media box as far as file formats and the cost is reasonable:

If you have a network already setup looks to be a snap, just plug it in and it works ... right? Don’t bet on it ... looks like it will want to run some kind of front end. Those can be kind of cheesy but that is the price you pay.

If you don’t have a network setup you better plan on going wired Ethernet and I would suggest 10base1000 for speed. Forget wireless ... the reviews say it's too slow. This thing will share audio (in multiple formats) and video at up to 1080i in multiple formats.

Here is the listed file formats it supports:

Video Files:
dat, mpg, mpe, mpeg, m2v, m1v, vob, avi, asf, divx, xvid, rmp4, mp4, vro, m4v, m2p, hnl, wmv, wmv hd, divx hd

Audio Files:
mp3, mp2, ogg, wav, aac, wma, pls, m4a, ac3, mp1, mpa, asf, m3u

Picture Files:
jpg, gif, bmp, tif, png

The media box could run alone and just use you current PC to store files. If you add the Teraserver (Buffalo) you get the safety of using RAID - which can prevent loosing you precious data. If it's just audio I think 300 gigs would be a good start. I would try to run as high a resolution as possible ... wav might be to big. It's too bad these boxes dont suport more lossless formats. Lossless compression like flac or WavPack yields 2:1 compression with little or no audible loss. I thought the Buffalo box did FLAC but I dont see it in the list. Thats not to say they wont update the firmware OR come out with a new box.

The cool thing with the media box solution is that you can mix and match file formats. It will play anything it recognises. It feeds digital out to your DAC or component video to your TV. It even displays your picture files ...

The NAS box runs about $900

The media box runs about $300

Anyone out there found a better media box? Maybe one that supports lossless file formats and works with OS X? Please post !!! I'm not totally familiar with all the formats the Buffalo media box supports but I dont see anything lossless.

My PC solution will cost a fair bit more but I'm looking at running Myth TV and doing some high def recording as well as running a home security system with a WEB accesible front end and of couse surfing the web on my big screen.

I know ... I'm a geek, there is no cure.

LINKS :

Media box:

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=96&categoryid=18

NAS Box :

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4350515?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

PC Solution

Drive Contoller :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116022

Case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Showimage.asp?Mode=&Type=&Image=11-163-004-01.JPG%2C11-163-004-05.JPG%2C11-163-004-04.JPG%2C11-163-004-03.JPG%2C11-163-004-02.JPG&CurImage=11-163-004-01.JPG&Description=SILVERSTONE+SST-LC01+BLK+Black+Aluminum+front+panel%2C+1.5mm+aluminum+body+ATX+Desktop+Computer+Case+-+Retail

Harddrives :

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=150157&Category_Code=SATAHardDrives

Horseface... you are my idol!

I am still loading all my music in AIFF onto internal HD in my Power MAC, but do not currently need to run 1080i tthrougout my house... but will likely soon.

I opted for the Airport
Express route, and FWIW with an 802.11G network, I do not lose the signal, even with two or three other computers on line.

Snipes, DO start using the optical digital out. It is a huge step up from the DAC in that little box! There are some people modding the AE's, but I am not sure what the status of that is so far, for now, I am pretty happy to have anything in my collection available easily. Their is one problem withiTunes and the AE's though and it is that you can only stream to one at a time unless you use two systems...

Kennyt: Thanks for the airport info. How certain are you that the airport is not doing something like digital -> analogue -> back out digitally, which seems like that would defeat the purpose of using a digital out. The reason I ask is it appears to me that the AE only has one output jack and you buy a cable with whatever type of connection you want on the other end ( RCA or optical). Like I said I happen to have my buddy's that I'm trying out so I haven't researched it much. It's a very slick solution though and really want it to meet my needs.

Snipes,

Yes, it does only have one jack, but that jack is a mini tos-link and 1/9" analog out. You can buy the Monster kit they sell, or I am sure someone is making a minitoslink to regular cable. When you use it this way, it is a digital out. I do not beleive that it goes D->A->D in this case, since the music comes from the HD in digital, is fed over a digital network, and then comes out, I beleive it stays in the digital domain.

Thanks everyone for the very informative responses. Manga, when will you get your SB2 back and who is doing the mods? I recently tried the SB2 and was unimpressed. It's sitting in my trunk awaiting a drop at FedEx, although now I'm considering shipping it off to get modded after reading the audiocircle posts. Thanks!

When I was using the SQ2, I only used it to listen to MP3's (I know they sound worse than CD) and internet radio (thoroughly unimpressed). I don't really want to burden my 60GB hard drive on my laptop with CD's, so I didn't consider downloading any of my CD's to the computer. I see now some, like Horseface (you are my idol too!), are purchasing additional storage drives.

But, this all seems to be very complicated!

After posting this thread, I see that VRS Audio makes a server that possibly is available now or in January. It wasn't clear to me whether some people are using it or not? Nobody mentioned cost of the VRS, but based on what folks are writihng here, it could be considerable.

However, to do the SQ2 right or to build your own computer (way out of my league), you need to get a mod done ($700 at RWA), buy a computer with a very big HD/s or buy additional drives, buy a drive control card (?), appropriate software (?), and buy a decent burning drive (I know they mentioned a good drive in the Audiocircle post, but I can't remember the name). So, this isn't cheap either and appears to be very technical. Not that I'm against technical, but a cool looking shiny one box solution sitting under my preamp sounds better, well if I can afford it that is. Anybody know how much the servers, such as the VRS Revelation, do or will cost?