Best standalone music server?

I had a personal " quest " similar to yours. I was running JRiver off my MacBook Air and really hated all the effort it took, software issues, took forever to rip, plus I didn't want a computer anywhere near my music ( somehow they don't seem to pair well together)  A distributor I work with The Sound Organization, I was purchasing Wilson Benesch speakers from them, well they recommended the Melco. I said who the hell is Melco. Well turns out they make a really sweet library/server with built in software. The Melco people are also Buffalo in Japan and make an ever so simple burner. The Melco retails for 2K has 4 terabytes of storage,  the burner I purchase from office depot for $169 bucks. I am so happy with this set up.
If anyone is interested they should contact Jim at Sounds Real Audio. He is a great guy, well thats what my mom used to say about me.

Best 

I love Neil's products and he's a great guy to work with.  Melco makes the best sounding NAS in the world and they you can easily hook up any optical drive to it to rip.  It has the built in software to do so and it's a versatile unit.  Can be  stand along NAS to hold your music if you get a better server later, or you can just use it as a server with built in storage.  I personally like the more detailed sound vs the Aurender and it's less money.  It can be hooked up via ethernet (it's best sounding connection) or USB.  It also have a USB hook up to load music onto an external HD for back up and you can also use an external HD or stick to play music through it that isn't on it's internal HD.  Looks great, Buffalo computers builds the thing and its built very good.  

It won't do Roon, but if you use it as a NAS and have a NUC for a few hundred on your network, you can still have Roon.  Personally, I'm not sure Roon is worth the extra money if you are on a budget and want easy and the best sound.  

jond

Don't forget the timeless expression..

" Be careful what you wish for " 

Did you say audio brunch, would that include bottomless mimosas? 

Thank you uberwaltz for starting this post. It is full of good information. I don't want to steal your post and please let me know if I am doing something I should not do.
I am new to Audiogon, and I am trying to learn about streaming, also. I am very computer challenged. I have saved all my music files on Microsoft Media Lossless. Do I need to switch them to Flac? A brief Flac for idiots would be great, so I can inderstand why. If I need to convert, do I need to redo all of them or can dbpoweramp convert them?

@juke4u
computer dummy here too...lol
i believe flac files are reported to be the best and easiest to work with
however i was able to just import all my windows media files direct to the bluesound vault and it took them happily. I had ripped at highest quality level anyway and tbh i honestly cannot tell any difference to the flac files the vault ripped but that is my old ear!