audiophile music servers the latest products, info

I bought Exemplar musicserver after listening to many servers at CES and the RMAF. The closest competition for the Exemplar IMO was the Blue Smoke, but I feared that it was not going to come to market.

I have several Macs and have tried using them directly and through the USB port into a dac. I have not liked what I heard in comparison with and separate dedicated music server. I rip all cds into the .75 terrabit hard-drives and backup with fewest errors WAV files. Seldom do I see any errors, but some cds take as long as 45 minutes to get there. The normal time is 7 minutes or less.

One thing that continues to amaze me is that treated cds sound different than untreated cds even through this process. Untreated have better bass but less sense of soundstage. How this happens defies what I know about this process.

Nakolawala hit the nail right on the head. Squeezebox or whatever---if you can get a dac that sounds as good as your cd player (or better) you're there.

get a mac mini, a jitter reduction device, toslink/aes/coax cables, and a very good dac and you might be surprised on what you hear. don't waste your time going straight from a computer into a dac or a preamp. you will not get the sound you are looking for. also, if you want to compare a music server with some of the best cdp's out there, you will need a very good dac, and right now, the best dac's use coax, toslink, aes, or glass connections.

I have never found the PS Audio gear to be any good. I guess YMMV. I would also strongly suggest that any compression, including lossless, is not the route to good sound. I have also found that the cabling is critical to the sound you get.