Music Server vs Computer?

Wow, and the Antipode has a whopping two USB connections while the Baetis has 8; four of which are 3.0 and the others 2.0. The Baetis has 16G of RAM; plenty for buffering any digital stream. If you want a linear power supply, Baetis has it as an option and adding it, the Revolution II is still cheaper and more flexible than the Antidpode. The Baetis has 128SSD solid state memory internally and no disc drives internally to add additional noise; it is designed to use external hard drives. The Baetis understands a microprocessor needs cooling and adds a very quiet fan for cooling. The Baetis can connect to the internet via Ethernet or via wifi for those wanting the convenience. The USB on the Baetis streams DSD beautifully and while John prefers the BNC out, with my EMM Labs DAC2x the USB sounds equally as good. The Baetis optical drive allows for blue ray DVDs to be ripped as long as you purchase the software to do so. Playback of Blue Ray is superb and you can turn off the video and just listen. I don't remember even seeing an HDMI on the Antipodes. The only thing the two choices have in common is the chassis they are constructed in. Mr. Steve N must be a dealer for the Antipode and feels threatened by the superior construction and flexibility of the Baetis and should be. Beatis has a better warranty and one year of telephone support. Anyone in the market for a music server would be crazy not to look at the Baetis. It is far superior, more flexible, has a better warranty and support included and is less expensive. BTW, it plays all all files superbly; couldn't tell a difference between FLAC, WAV, AIF. DSD to me sound best.

My two cents. I am not a tech person, I put up with it to gain access to music. Dedicated music servers have integrated hardware and software into an all in one box device, that is simple to setup and control. They are filled with proprietary hardware, firmware and software. The more complicated the device, the harder it is to repair. Computer based servers like mac, windows or linux are assembled with off the shelf components. Repairs or upgrades most often can be performed locally without a trip to the OEM.

Need to follow up on Steve Nugent's comments of 11-19. Music Vault seems to have no negatives. Has a 2 TB internal HD for storage and a second 2 TB drive for auto backup. Uses dbpoweramp for ripping and JRiver for play. Can save in any format, to include WAV. Add a DAC of your choice and it seems to be a very user friendly system. I can try to cobble together a bunch of hardware and software, but not sure I can do it for much less cost and achieve any better SQ. Please tell me where I'm wrong.

Your experience may differ but I have a MacMini setup configured per Steve's recommendations. I use an Audiophilleo with Pure Power USB converter and LessLoss DAC 2004 MkII. I have also heard this set up with a Music Vault server. Both using JRiver. For my money I stuck with the MacMini.

If you want to look into other alternatives than Mac check out Small Green Computer and the servers they sell, as well as Sonore Audio and the SOtM servers.