Building a Music Server that will play all formats

About a month ago I bought a Music Vault Emerald from Sound Science [google soundscience audio] Neal has devised some beautiful PCs expressly for audiophiles. I piked his middle piece because it has very good DAC in its sound card. AB comparison's show up the DAC in my 14K Lexicon preamp. 2TB hd for storage, a second one for mirror back up. Solid state hd for operating. 17" wide fits nicely in rack. Very quiet, except when ripping cds. Runs cool. HDMI out so you can put its video interface anywhere. Cordless keyboard/trackball. Windows IR remote to teach my RF universal. Redbook cd's sound way better than from a transport. Decodes downloaded 24 bit music from HDTracks and WAV copies of hi-res DVD's fm Reference Recordings. Media Monkey will convert anything to MP3 or iTunes, if needed. USB port on front and several in back. Digital out/Anal out, wireless to your network but also enternet ports, so it also replaces my Sonos system since its sound is better. Just takes some work ripping, correcting megadata, setting up favs on internet. If you want your music to sound the way you used to think it should, this is IT. And all the music is instantly accessible. Nirvana.

Just buy a Mac Mini or macbook pro and put Amarra or Pure Music on it. XLD for ripping. Done. Then you just need a good USB DAC or a USB converter to go with your current DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I would check out the discussions at

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20

computeraudiophile.com

They do not recommend connecting outboard DACs to standard computer hardware. There are numerous problems effecting the quality of the digital data (the USB being a major one). After reading some stuff there, I have put off consideration of a commercial PC or Mac for a music server. The OS also plays a major role with some file formats (like Win 7).

Dhl93449 - the article you linked to is one of many possible solutions. There are lots of people who have built very good computer based systems without building a system like Chris' system. Using a quality player along with an async USB connection can provide excellent results using a standard desktop or laptop. If you want to try a simple system, you can get a HRT Streamer II for $150, add a player (Foobar, J River, iTunes on MAC) and you are good to go. Like everything, it can take some time to build up to your "final" system, but you need to start somewhere. Chris' article is a perfectionist view. Don't let it scare you off.

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