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Primer on Music Servers?

I've been watching as the price of digital storage falls like a rock. You can now get a 4GB compact flash card for $45. A 16GB compact flash card sells for $235. I clicked around and saw that Samsung is planning 64GB CF cards in the near future, which means that those 16GB cards will be 50 bucks before too long.

However you code it, that's a lot of music. I have a friend who ran his own software company, and a short while back he told me that people will soon be carrying the contents of their PC (operating system, apps and data) on compact flash cards, and soon after that on their credit cards.

I've got to think that we're at the dawn of an era where digital content is stored and retrieved without moving parts, and where storage is so vast that capacity is no longer an issue. All of this leads me to believe that the various spinning media are living on borrowed time, be they conventional hard drives or CD, SACD and DVD.

I've discussed this with my A/V system dealer and he points out that the music servers come from the PC makers. Those guys just don't get it when it comes to the various interconnection and other performance issues that audiophiles care about, he says.

Having interacted with my share of geeks I absolutely believe thus. Still, how hard is this? I'd think it's a matter of how to stream the data from storage. If the PC makers don't get it, what's keeping the audio equipment guys like, say, Linn, from going there? It must be that there are much more formidble technical challenges than I know.

Perhaps folks here can lay them out? I'm not particularly interested in various format wars (coding methods) unless there's something about a particular one of them that makes it especially difficult to move digital content off of a CD or DVD. What's the holdup to music servers that would equal the sound from the best spinning disc players?

I'm hoping I don't set off a religious war with my question. I don't own a music server right now, and I'm not going to get one until my dealer tells me they're ready. I'm just wondering what the holdup is.
pluck
spiritualized
138 posts
 
Check out Wavelength Audio's site:
http://www.wavelengthaudio.com/Cosecant.html
I own "The Brick", and it makes a good case for computer based systems. Flash memory is a great concept, but I have 800 gigs of music digitized losslessly and the flash drives simply don't have the capacity at the moment.
rbstehno
1,473 posts
 
there are quite a few music servers out in the market right now. they can come from macs/pcs, mcintosh, and other audio manufacturers. there has been more talk recently on how manufactures are providing this. for the past couple of years, i have had my mac with itunes setup with an external dac hooked up to my tube jolida amp in my den. I like the sound and convenience of listening to my ripped cds, internet radio, and purchased songs. Would i use this as a source for my dedicated audio room? not yet, but it is getting better all the time. my immediate plans call for: using the new mac airport extreme router that doubles as a NAS device (which allows me to setup a very large disk farm for my audio library), use the airport express to link this music server to some of my other systems in the house to stream music for casual/background listening, and possibly using the apple tv device to stream audio and video to certain rooms. with the appropriate equipment (external dacs for example) and the newer 802.11 'N' network, it is getting better all the time.
pluck OP
15 posts
 
There's just a whole lot I don't know about this topic. So I'm going to try breaking it into baby steps. I'm going to ask some questions that at some future point I'll probably cringe at for their stupidity.

When you play a CD or DVD, does the information go straight to the DAC in real time, or is there a buffer? If there's a buffer, then why does anyone care about the quality of the transport mechanism?
mikewoodkozar
22 posts
 
Check out my virtual system, i have added my MAC media center into my main listening room and i could not be happier! It is a total stand alone remote controlled component. I love it.
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