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Music Servers - Baetis vs. Music Vault

I, like many, are looking to add a music/media server to my system.

Aside from fabulous sound and performance, I really want ease of use, with minimal involvement from a computer.

My preference would be a unit that has the hardware to rip/store my cd's, download high-rez files from the internet, set up playlists and then kick back and enjoy the music.

As I explore the options in the under $5K price range, both Baetis and Music Vault are floating to the top.

Ripping and playing Bluray is a nice bonus, but not critical.

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who has compared these two brands, in your own system or demo'd at a recent audio show.

Which unit sounds best?
Which unit is easiest to use??
Which unit has the most features???
Which unit is the best value????

Thank you.
barrelchief
erndog's avatar
erndog
261 posts
 
Yoby,
No, I'm not using the off ramp anymore. I sold it to fund the Salk stream player. I would love to hear how it sounds with the Salk, maybe in the future.

I'm using a modded MHDT Stockholm dac. Other dacs I've had are: Nuforce Dac-9, Empirical Audio Oversrive SE, and the Chord Qutehd. All were great sounding dacs, but the MHDT sounds the least digital and the best match for my rig.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
...any server WILL work well, within reason. USB is the lowest fidelity interface. It is the least 'engaging'. USB (even the best implementation, which is an oxy-moron), I find, sucks the emotion out of the music.
barrelchief OP
294 posts
 
If Cerrot is correct then it truly is a shame that this industry has been forced to (or has chosen to) focus on USB, simply because most computers don't have spdif outputs, etc.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
USB is like a belly button - every puter has it. USB kept users from having to open their puters, mess with drivers, etc - it saved a ton in customer service. if you remember, usb was created to connect printers, key boards, mouse. If you look at a USB bus implementation, and how it behaves with IRQ settings, its realy the wrose what you can try to transmit audio. It actually gets worse. If you study the way data is passed on a usb cable, you can see it is much more complicated than just developing an asysch relationship to the slave. I do believe that if an engineer take's it seriously, and has no cost to work within, you can develope a decent USB interface (look at the Berkeley), but you are realy going the long way around... and the usb interface is much more susce[table to jitter, and a ton of other effects.
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
Get a decent PC or Mac and stick the extra $1300 into your rig. Baetis PITA is my experience.
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