After owning an Olive 03HD, an Olive One, a ReQuest Audio F4.8000, and a Bluesound Vault 2 with a Node 2, I had given up on the whole Media Server/Streamer category. Almost. The appeal of the category is not lost on any of us, but that was soon enough lost for me as configuring and operating those models aforementioned seemed to bring me closer to computing than it did to adding a peripheral piece of hifi equipment that would complement my system.
While I am not a novice to computing in general, I was not technically nor emotionally equipped to contend with all the peripheral wares associated with bringing musicality to my system. I should state that with the exception of the ReQuest unit all of the equipment performed as advertised, as expected, with the Bluesound being the best of the lot. However, for reasons that fall into the IMHO category, it too fell short of my needs.
My needs were and are to add a simple piece of hifi equipment to my system that provides good sonics, ease of use, and reasonable cost. The Sony did that for me. It took a pretty good while to transfer my entire iTunes library onto it, but I did so with a time window ample enough to avoid the frustrations I experienced with the other brands. Overnight. (None of the other brands can be considered fast in ripping, either. The Bluesound took around 10 minutes at minimum to rip a CD containing 40 minutes of data or more at minimum.) The Sony is also a more "familiar" piece of equipment while the others are more of the type associated with tablets or smartphones, meaning that they were touch-screen oriented as opposed to buttons and whatnot.
I also think that the sonics of the Sony are on par with the Bluesound Vault2, which I found to be excellent. For me 1TB of storage space on the hard drive is sufficient. For now. For some inexplicable reason that I am addressing with both Sony and Apple, my iMac will not permit me to download the Sony Music transfer app onto my desktop. This isn't a huge problem as I simply drag and drop my music files into the server connection when I attach the Sony to my network via an ethernet connection. Simple.
The Sony also has the ability to play local radio stations, which I found to be a nice plus, as well as internet radio.
This is the first Sony product that I've ever integrated into my two channel setup.
While I am not a novice to computing in general, I was not technically nor emotionally equipped to contend with all the peripheral wares associated with bringing musicality to my system. I should state that with the exception of the ReQuest unit all of the equipment performed as advertised, as expected, with the Bluesound being the best of the lot. However, for reasons that fall into the IMHO category, it too fell short of my needs.
My needs were and are to add a simple piece of hifi equipment to my system that provides good sonics, ease of use, and reasonable cost. The Sony did that for me. It took a pretty good while to transfer my entire iTunes library onto it, but I did so with a time window ample enough to avoid the frustrations I experienced with the other brands. Overnight. (None of the other brands can be considered fast in ripping, either. The Bluesound took around 10 minutes at minimum to rip a CD containing 40 minutes of data or more at minimum.) The Sony is also a more "familiar" piece of equipment while the others are more of the type associated with tablets or smartphones, meaning that they were touch-screen oriented as opposed to buttons and whatnot.
I also think that the sonics of the Sony are on par with the Bluesound Vault2, which I found to be excellent. For me 1TB of storage space on the hard drive is sufficient. For now. For some inexplicable reason that I am addressing with both Sony and Apple, my iMac will not permit me to download the Sony Music transfer app onto my desktop. This isn't a huge problem as I simply drag and drop my music files into the server connection when I attach the Sony to my network via an ethernet connection. Simple.
The Sony also has the ability to play local radio stations, which I found to be a nice plus, as well as internet radio.
This is the first Sony product that I've ever integrated into my two channel setup.