Ipod + Wadia 170i Dock OR AppleTV + Airport Expres

Here is the other thing that kind of makes the Wadia option attractive: I rip a lot of music onto my Mac at work. Having the option to bring different iPods from different places is also attractive.

I am going through the same situation.I like the convenience of a music server.At first I thought I buy the Wadia itransport 170 and use it with my ipod classic 120gb latest generation BUT I thoroughly checked the forums here and at audioasylum as well as various other websites and realized that the best solution for the money is the Mac mini hooked to a DAC with two external 1 Tb hard drives (one for storage,the second for backing up data).Some upgrades include 4 gb RAM plus a solid state drive for the OS.
Your miles may vary.
Regards
George

George: Are you going to put the external drives in the same room as your system or have them accessed via a wireless network? Do you have a monitor in your listening room?

Thanks,

-t

t
I haven't work out the finer details yet but I believe that a music server can't compete with a good digital front.I am happy with my cd transport/dac in my listening room ,I just find it tiresome to keep changing cd's during listening sessions,that is why I want to invest in a music server.It will be for casual listening and therefore I will install it in my den so that all in my family get to use it and not in the dedicated listening room.It will be hooked to a flat panel display to interact and also watch movies.I got a good DAC and Genesis DL that I connect to the mini. The hard drives will be in the same room,most likely I will go for the Drobo unit.I am planning to have the mac mini by Christmas,there are rumors that Apple might upgrade it so I am waiting till then and making sure to get the latest,if they do decide to bring a newer one out.
Best Regards
George

I haven't work out the finer details yet but I believe that a music server can't compete with a good digital front.

If you can accept to use a Benchmark DAC1 then I am fairly confident you could not tell whether the digital input to the DAC1 came from a Transport or a server (playing lossless files that match the CD redbook data). Or put it this way, I have run tests and I cannot tell the difference.