What's my ideal music server? Read and recommend please

Ironlung- thanks for your considered response. I own a Bricasti M1; my entire system is on my profile. 

Cool, what a nice piece. I've only heard the Bricasti stuff here and there, but it's quite amazing and I think you should certainly consider a better delivery system. 

I didn't see a BNC connection on that particular piece. If you're using SPDIF i'd suggest a Linn or Naim streamer (used or new, with SPDIF out). Some of the early Uniti products have a BNC connection; and the Majik and Akurate Linn products have SPDIF outputs. 

Forewarning - I don't like the Naim app much, but it works. Linn's apps are a bit better. BluSound options from Sim Audio and NAD are also quite nice and I think just as relevant to your application. Also look at the Bryston BDP-3. 

USB is a little trickier and is only necessary if you want to play files beyond 24/192kHz PCM or DSD. In that case I might suggest looking into a custom/DIY solution or one of the higher end alternatives already mentioned (Innuous in particular).

I just think there are many other alternatives if you take a bit of time to plan things out which will provide you with more musical enjoyment and additional flexibility (i.e. Roon, other control point options, etc.). I wanted Aurender to succeed, at one point, but I think they are getting in their own way now.

My M1 has a BNC connection- 

I seem to have a lot of options. I like both Sim and Bryston and I have a friend who sells both Naim and Linn. I suppose a streamer with an NAS is the functional equivalent of a server such as the Innous 

Have you looked into what the capabilities of the M1's MDx processor module upgrade are?

https://bricasti.com/en/consumer/mdx.php

Looking into the owner's manuals, you can use the Bricasti as a network DAC for a UPnP/DLNA server. 

My guess is that if you discussed this with the folks at Bricasti, I would not be surprised if they consider this the best sound quality option for the M1 DAC, and you can then explore a good NAS option. If you wanted to get "audiophile", the Innuos products would probably work best.

The Innuous products are functionally an integrated NAS without a bunch of storage options on board. There are many Linn and Naim users who host their UPnP server on an Innuos or other products like it (Melco). I would not be surprised to find other Bricasti owners to be using the MDx with an Innous or other NAS using UPnP/DLNA and getting exceptional results.

On this note, this is also to me a huge blind spot on the part of Aurender. There is absolutely no technical reason Aurender could not include a feature to install a DLNA/UPnP media server on any generation of music server they have produced. It's a Linux machine running Ubuntu after all. Why not give a customer the flexibility to use the product in a different way if they decide to move/upgrade from a USB-based DAC to a network-based DAC? It's plainly obvious by now to anyone paying attention that network based delivery, whether it's UPnP/DLNA, Ravenna, Dante, Roon, or whatever comes down the pike, is how DAC manufacturers (including Bricasti) are improving their products and bringing them to the future. An Aurender customer owning an M1 DAC wishing to experience the MDx upgrade will be left sitting on a brick which can't deliver files over a network connection in any meaningful way. Sure, the Aurender software is nice, but there are plenty of easy to use media software apps. Their attitude is actually quite tone deaf, as is shown by their introduction of products which are essentially an Aurender-only, glorified NAS drive with CD ripping (the ACS10 and ACS100). Cornering these products to solely the Aurender ecosystem is a foolish approach, when they have plenty of capability to run a Roon Core or UPnP/DLNA server and give clients much more flexibility.

The MDX board is superb. It’s been fitted in my M1 since July 

I wonder if this is doable and a viable solution- continue to use my MacBook Pro and use a Bricasti M5 renderer between my laptop and the dac 

So just how pricey are these Bricasti products? (M5 in particular) There literally isn’t a dealer within 1,000 miles of me and their website doesn’t even show an MSRP on any of their products. As a career marketing manager, I have a very negative initial impression of any company who does much of their business exclusively on the net, but intentionally does not post an MSRP.