Music Server with no DAC?

Not having heard an SB and having a Modwright TP, its hard for me to judge, but I'm also thinking that Cruz123 is correct. With an external DAC, that is probably the sweet spot in the price/performance/functionality spectrum.

This is something along the lines of what I'm saying - so there is a market for this... They are basically prepping the Sonos for high quality outboard DAC...

http://www.underwoodhifi.com/mod_sonos.html

"Our Sonos reclocker upgrade is now available. This upgrade completely replaces the mediocre Cirrus Logic CODAC and the associated high-jitter clocks used in the Sonos ZP80. The mod was designed to integrate the Sonos system into a high-end audio system thru an outboard digital-to-analog converter."

I'll read more about the 'classic' and compare that to Media Monkey!

Thanks for all the thoughts...

J. River is the most functional with equal or better quality to Foobar or MM.

Can stream lossless to upnp or over wan to another instance.

Multiple zone playback, database driven, expressions, custom meta-data.

I look at reviews of Sonos and the price combined with lack of flexabiliry and customization is just laughable.

A good music server has to have, IMO, usability equal to its fidelity.

That said, netbooks getting cheap, one could choose anumber of great USB dacs if serving to another room/location.

Or buy a touch screen and build your sonos type setup as j. River just added ability to use their library server to control other zones (from one master instance on laptop etc ).

If using Windows, it's really the most functional front end while maintainig high fidelty.

Dc

Dc

Sorry for my spelling, stuck on my iPhone for now.

The gist is, you can push 24/96 24/192 over your LAN with the right hardware.

These new netbooks keep coming to mind and something like the Proton DAC would give your a VERY nice hi-fi streaming solution with a highly customizable GUI. I could setup a system at your house and stream from Florida, lossless flac, ape, etc. at high resolution while playing my own files on my system.

If I had a summer home, Id have no need to copy 5tb of audio to another external drive, I'd simple access via wan and enjoy.

This is an extreme example but really showcases how powerful and cost effective this can be.

Happy 4th!

Dc

Yes - looking at the JRiver funcitonality I would consider the client/server functionality a must. Posted on MM about it, perhaps MM can do it via mapped drive letter? Not sure. But agree the J River functionality looks great, and you could add opera/consert hall DVDs type stuff there whereas MediaMonkey is music only for now. I'll have to look at this very closely as J River does look great. Just spent 3 weeks on Media Monkey set up. Oh well, I'll keep researching.

But between then two, I'm really really thinking now that this is the way to go, no Sonos or Squeezbox or anything. Just NAS on local LAN with JRiver or Media Monkey out via SPDIF on docking station to already-owned DAC. Totally kills the other solutions from what I can tell.