State of the Source: Server, computer....or what?

Aurender W20 does not use a battery for CPU purposes, so it can not influence the sound anyway. I think the battery only needed to protect HDDs from a power outage and also to separate HDDs (distortion that they create) from CPU.

I am sure that the main reason why S10 and W20 sound better than X100 (and I am sure they do!) is better clock - OCXO (Oven-Controlled Crystal Oscillator) which X100 lacks.

But if you try to connect X100 to an external clock in this case the difference between X100 and W20 (S10) will be much less noticeable.

Here is a good example: http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/65934-which-audio-streamer-to-buy/?p=1126945
People connected X100 and W20 to Puccini U-Clock and they sounded almost equally, as W20 already has a high-quality internal clock the external clock does a little work in it's case.

I just heard a $600 Nordost USB cable with a Mac as source,
there ARE differences in USB cables, as in night and day.

One reason why I haven't received more responses to my recent music server threads may be that not too many here use purpose built music servers.

Out of over 5,000 virtual systems listed on this site, I found 136 systems (less than 3 percent) using a Mac mini as a music source/server, and only about 60 systems (just over 1 percent) using one of the more common purpose built music servers, from the manufacturers listed below;

- Musica Pristina
- Baetis
- Aurender
- SOtM
- Antipodes
- C.A.P.S. (Small Green Computer)
- Mojo Audio
- Core Audio
- Olive
- Bladelius
- Naim
- Lumin

FWIW, about half of the 60 servers were from Olive.

I obviously did not search for all brands of purpose built music servers, and I am sure many here are using either a variety of streamer choices, a VortexBox, Mac books, or PC computer sources to play music but, based on the brands I did search, the purpose built server just doesn't seem to be that popular yet, at least based on the posted systems.

Moving to a music based server system is very appealing, I have been interested in the Music Vault in particular, and find that this type of system is useful for management of large CD collections.

The issues seem to be a check list of core hardware/software components, since each MFG has there own variation and this can be confusing to a novice user. Also the thought of ripping all of your CD'S is endlessly time consuming . . Unless you have a nine year old nearby.

Maxboy00, I didn't include Music Vault with my initial searches and there were indeed 3 Music Vault servers that showed up in Virtual Systems here, which is still not statistically significant (e.g., results in 1.2 percent using purpose built servers).

All of these servers have their supporters but, without enough folks here using them, there is not enough general feedback to have a clue as to how they might sound relative to each other, or relative to a tricked out Mac mini or C.A.P.S. server.

Most of the reviewers who are comparing the purpose built music servers to computers are not comparing them to the C.A.P.S. servers or Mac minis that are optimized for music with SSDs, outboard HDDs and linear power supplies, plus measures to clean up the USB output such as filters, galvanic isolation, and elimination of the power side of the USB cable. As a result, "buy to try" seems to be the only way to hear how good those music servers sound.