Takedown of pricey servers, streamers OCD HiFi guy

"Is Laufer even in business?"

It was in November 2019 and their website looked the same. At that time, they exhibited at an audio show.

They did play music from the Memory Player and I have no idea how much it contributed to the whole experience. However, I will admit that I enjoyed the sound in that room more than in any other room at any of two audio shows in those two or three weeks. I cannot say it was the most natural, most accurate, most whatever, except that it was what I liked the most. I suspect, without any real knowledge, that it was the speakers (The Note). Speaking of "performers being in the room". At the same time, it was the first time I have ever been exposed to that kind of speakers so maybe all of them sound like that.

I wonder what the profit margin on those speakers is.

Seems I have some studying to do beyond reading the posts in this thread.  Computer grung is real and measurable.  Soundings in Denver about 10 years ago was previewing a music server that if memory serves me correctly Boulder Audio helped them design.  Price point at the time was $1500.00 running Microsoft and dBpoweramp for 1tb of storage.  Stick in a CD and the system did the rest.
So just what is that last 10% worth.

Wow, Leave the kids alone and look what happens.. So Im the guy you are talking about and I may as well speak for myself so you may understand me at face value. I started the YT Channel to show regular people how silly and whacky us audiophiles are , to show them the OCD crap that we go through in pursuit of what boils down to perception. People really liked the vids and kept suggesting and giving me moral support and its because I am told nearly every Vid that I in some way helped someone learn, or understand or laugh or feel good in some way that I continue to provide content. This industry normally keeps the people in the dark as its more profitable to make it seem like what we do is rocket science and you are too common to understand it. Because we can keep selling endlessly to someone who does not quite understand. Well this happens to be music , my sacred place and I dont take kindly to people bringing their hustle to music. Its sacrilege, as this is hallowed ground. So this is why I point things out. Mainly to get people to question what something is and learn about it before making judgement . Trust your own ears ... nobody can tell you what good sound is to you for they perceive something different than you do.
So I get Im not all prim, shaven and ironed. Its my hint to you that im probably not of the establishment. I am a common man that pays attention and puts my money where my mouth is. My most valued thing in life is integrity. No I dont know it all , I make mistakes, Im fat and unshaven (Blaming Covid for this ) But I am for sure a keeper of the Music. I hold it precious because it is one of the few "Real" things I experience on this planet.
So briefly for those that think am just some rube talking smack, I am unlike most of the content providers for HiFi in that:
I dont just talk about expensive gear, I buy it and I own it. Im hoping a guy with an over $100K rig may have an opinion that carries more weight than a guy who has never owned it. Why ? because the guy without experience will tell you "Best thing Ive ever heard" whereby youll be hard pressed to hear anything like that from me. So Im credible as a true HiFi afficionado.  People reading reviews never ask themselves how much killer gear has this guy ever owned much less heard? Does he even have a hifi rig ?..also I do not get paid by the manufacturers nor given free gear for a review. I wont accept it as it gives me bias immediately. Why would I expose a brand that gives me free stuff or pays me ? Nearly every YT reviewer is given product or paid by the Mfg. YT is their career.  not me. In fact I do not take one red penny from YouTube. I do not get paid for clicks and I do not get paid for reviews. I am here to earn your HiFi business by proving I know good sound.  My vids are one take with barely any editing on a cel phone, Im not trying to bamboozle you with beautiful video production, but I am sharing with you more real experience and proof than any other HiFi seller. and Im showing you I have world class gear to compare with. By doing this people have been able to trust me enough to buy full HiFi systems when weve never met in person. The channel takes a good amount of time and its not something I must do to survive. My Cable company has been taking care of that for the last 20 years. Currently I consult with HiFi manufacturers insofar as product development. Because I know what audiophiles want in a product and many manufacturers do not.
A quick list of crap that will lend cred just so you understand my background . I hate doing this but it seems it may be necessary by the way some people responded to the thread.
Ive owned an amplifier manufacturer in California
Mark Levinson had LG Electronics hire me to be on his HiFi team as the "marketing expert:" which I had to chuckle at as Im no expert.
I have sold cables and HiFi as my only income for the last 23 years.
I can and do repair and modify HiFi gear. I design and build speakers and I love to grill and am sort of a foodie. I ride motorcycles and love dogs. Im really no mystery and nothing different than any of you guys. And Lalit, I did dig deeper about Taiko after I posted that vid and I know exactly what’s in it. There are main parts that are off the shelf, like MOBO and then there are some off the shelf parts that are tweaked and a few proprietary power supply pieces. I hear this is the only server that means anything above the sea of "same old shit". So Ill try it eventually ... Ive tried my best to respond to what people were saying , If I missed anything please feel free to ask me or give me any feedback as to what I dont do that you would like to see.. all the best and thanks for watching OCD HiFi Guy !

SSSSEE YA !

OP, here. Thanks, Mike, for replying to this thread. I enjoy your videos and thought you were posing a legitimate question -- not about whether people have a "right" (funny word) to pay what they want for a piece of gear, but whether others had seen the video and how they assessed the argument you were making.

As usual, the thread went in lots of tangential directions, some of them valuable, but I do believe some stayed focused on your central point -- namely, that some gear that (for it’s high price) should *not* be using inexpensive, off the shelf, computer innards. I’m a newbie, but the point boils down to "there’s sawdust in this expensive meatloaf." And of course you’re not talking about kinda expensive meatloaf -- something that is, say, one or two times the price of a decent product. You’re talking about really really expensive stuff. That detail helps push back on all the (to my mind, ineffective) counter arguments about "R&D, overhead, design, research," etc.

You surely have a busy life, but if you could find the posts which understand and (civilly) address that claim, it would advance the central point in dispute. If you don’t have time, well, peace.

I have been in this hobby a while.  After graduating college in 1980 and replacing my Kenwood receiver and refurbished speakers with a Kenwood integrated amp,  Scott Speakers and a Kenwood DD TT, I felt I had a pretty nice stereo system.  That was it until 1988.  Then I moved up to planar speakers and started my journey into "hifi".  I delved into modifications and tweaks for the next 15 years and slowly worked myself into the "high end hifi" or what I called the big boys club.  Once into the high dollar equipment, I can say that while mods and tweaks of gear is a fun side to this hobby, the high dollar stuff has the goods when it comes to great sound.  I spent the first few months of my recent retirement revamping my stereo system and adding hi res music playback capability which is something that I have wanted to do since about 2011.  I have stuck to vinyl playback all of these years and my vinyl rig has never sounded better with my latest turntable, preamp, phono cartridge and phono cable.  My CD playback today is outstanding and blows away all of my beliefs about the limitations of Redbook CDs.
I am not surprised at all about the current debate and merits of high dollar digital streaming equipment and cables.  I watched a video last night about USB cables.  I was amused by this guy with some expensive electronic measurement equipment arguing that all USB cables are equal.  He showed with his measurements that the only difference in USB cable performance is the length.  He showed shorter is better.  Well, a lot of people already knew that by listening.  His high dollar measurement equipment wasn't needed to tell us that but it is good to know.
 All of this debate about digital streaming reminds me of the same debate that raged in the 1980's about speaker cables.  It's just wire.  "If the resistance is low enough then there is no difference," so said the naysayers.  Once people figured out how to measure and what to measure, specialized speaker wire became accepted.  Same with interconnects and power cables.  I believe that as the digital streaming technology matures we will see what matters and what does not.  To me, the state of digital streaming today is extremely complicated and confusing.  I spent months reading and studying to try and wrap my head around it all.  I have a Marantz Home Theater Receiver that can stream music- sound is ok.  So why does hi end hi res streaming have to be so complicated?
I jumped into music streaming first with a "low cost" solution.  That did not work well at all but I had to try because I was a working man and I'm not going to spend my money without getting perceived value in return.  And before I took the "low cost streamer path" of course I tried streaming into my DAC with my laptop computer.  
Keep in mind that a stereo system is a chain.  Each link in the chain is important.  A good amp paired to poor speakers is not going to shine at its best.  A good turntable paired to a weak preamp cannot sound its best.  Therefore, an average streamer feeding into a high quality DAC and stereo playback system will sound pretty good but it's limitations will be apparent.  That is what I found.  With a high quality streamer, I find MQA file playback breathtaking.  Hi res files are close behind followed by CD quality.  Streaming hi res is outstanding but CD quality streaming is still just a tiny bit less than CD file playback on my system.  These differences were not so apparent to me when streaming through my laptop.