Servers: Are we there yet?

psag, 

Understood, that's the world we live in.  I guess the only other technology missing from this setup is Bluetooth capability.  We gotten accustomed to the world without wires and we know it's not perfect but it's the next best thing. 

Happy listening!

> If either the Ipad or the wifi are not working, the server is rendered non-functional.

Yes. It's like if your CD player broke, your entire CD collection is rendered useless. 

Good news is, it costs next to nothing (relatively) to get a replacement wifi router. If you worry about that, just have a spare one handy at home.

My experience over the last 8 years or so is for CD resolution streaming,  wifi need not be a problem as long as functioning properly and connections are strong(say >80%).   That is with good quality gear designed to stream CD res audio or higher over wifi.

It is best if disk storage is physically connected to server  (not remote on the network) and streaming occurs from wifi connected player to server only (again with a strong wifi connection).

Results will vary server by server still.    Two software  server programs I can recommend that do things well are Logitech MEdia Server ( though this is no longer undergoing active development and not a good choice for new users) and Plex Server, which I have started to phase in as a replacement for LMS.

I do not have any experience with current one box audio music server products  ( I prefer running good software on commercial computers to buying proprietary hardware from specialized vendors) but I have read mixed results over the years with many and would be cautious and only consider newer products/technology that have received large scale acceptance and positive reviews.     Sonos, Bluesound, Sony are three product lines I have seen that seem to be getting decent traction in B&M shops lately, with Sonos probably having the most users currently.

Fellow Sony HAP server owners sit back and chuckle at these frustration threads whilst our state of the art player and app sing and dance for us in rock steady glee.

For many years I'm using Itunes on MacMini (that I use anyway) to play music over WiFi (5GHz) using Airport Express and DAC.  It is simple and I never had any problems.  Sure if router fails music stops, but the same can happen when CDP fails (it happened to me), when preamp fails, when amp fails etc.  Routers are cheap these days and you have to replace them anyway to get access to internet.