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Best standalone music server?

So I am considering dipping my toes into the full digital world and was wondering what people here may consider as the best standalone music server, and here I am going to be specific.
I do not want to consider a home pc or mac based type of system at all!
Looking at adding one of the standalone models like for example the Wyred4sound ms1 or cocktail audio.
High on my list is ability to rip my cds directly at the unit itself, access to internet radio and other music apps (Pandora etc). High quality built in dac would be nice but if not then high quality digital out to run to an external dac. I will not be needing to access music files stored on another pc as my home pc is pretty old but fully functional for my simple needs. The only music looking to access from it right now are ripped cds and internet available music in whatever form.
So if it worked out well, yes it may be a replacement even for a cd player completely

Thank you
128x128uberwaltz
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
But not in the price points that the folks in this thread are talking about.  Plenty of great servers on the market from Melco to Aurender to Antipodes to Lumin to CAD to custom made to one of the most under rated, The Music Vault by Neil Van Berg (I personally don't like all of them).  What kind of US support does the Zenith have?  I don't know much about the company. I visited their site, but not much about the US there.  
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Finally I may have found a chink in the Bluesound Vault 2 armour!
Unless I am missing something and hopefully fellow Vault owners can help out.
For the first time today I decided to try and connect up my tv toslink output to the Vault via the supplied mini jack to toslink adapter.
At first I thought I had done something wrong as at my seating position I heard nothing, I got up to check the connection and I heard Antman singing in my speaker!
I had to turn the volume up on the Hegel from a normal 42 for my Vault to about 87 before it had anywhere near the same volume level.
The same cable/output from the tv fed into the Hegel dac only needs about 45 on the volume to have the same actual room volume.

So am I missing something in the vault setup for the toslink input volume or has anybody else found this is exactly the case and it is what it is?
recordchanger2018
11 posts
 
Audio vault 2 + Border Patrol DAC p+ ripping my cds and letting me browse throigh Tidal... what’s not to like
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Still very happy with my choice of bluesound vault2 connected with nordost Valhalla digital coax cable.
jb0194
476 posts
 
The Node 2 is a great overachiever that I have really enjoyed. I later chose a sonicTransporter i7 for storage and Roon core and added a Naim Uniti for Roon player/DAC/integrated amp. But I keep the Node 2 as my “radio” given its wider range of streaming service choices which I will try down the road. The free Tunein service is a nice background music option for me.
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