audiophile music servers the latest products, info

Hi Tbg, I own the MBL 1621 myself. Yes, I think I've spent too much money for CD playback.

Chris

Dazzdax, I know what that is like. I once owned the dCS stuff and the Teac Esoteric line. MBL is pretty stuff.

how can anybody spend $6k to $20k for a music server that doesn't sound any better than a pc based server at 1/3 to 1/10 the cost? i have had a few people go the route that i have gone instead of purchasing the qsonix and sooloos systems. the only thing you get with the sooloos system is a touch screen. big deal. the interface is the same as itunes 8 and itunes gives you more flexibilty. also, these 2 systems do not allow you to surf the web or do other multi-tasking tasks while playing music. either of these systems by themselves sound terrible without using an external dac, same with using a computer. if all you want is a touchscreen, by all means, spend the $$$, but you wil not increase the quality of your music unless you spend $$$$ on a good external dac (and jitter device).

i read the stereophile review about the sooloos system and i thought it was a joke. the reviewer complained about pc's/macs being to complicated to setup and the interface of the sooloos allows him to sit on the couch and enjoy the music. isn't this the same magazine that swears by vinyl and isn't setting up a turntable correctly more involved than hooking up a simple mac mini? and doesn't it take more effort to playback vinyl than anything else? either this reviewer was under the age of 7 or over the age of 80. go to any apple store and watch the kids under 10 years old operate a macintosh and play with itunes.

Rbstehno, there is enormous convenience to some music servers, but it comes at a cost, as you say, in money but also in realism. I first heard a VRS server about seven years ago and it was awful, but about three years later it was very much improved and its convenience was evident.

Since then I have used my Macs with and without external dacs, typically USB connected. I have heard six different specifically music directed music servers RCA connection. Furthermore they minimize the processing within the processor. My only real complaint is that I still want to play sacds.

You paint with too broad a brush. There are music servers that are clearly better than computer based systems, but not all of them are.

You might want to try the wadia i170 its great. I had it modded by greatnorthern sound co. I have it hooked up to my ensemble hi dac, the wadia replaced my bel canto cd-2 and it sound just as good.