IMO, out of all servers mentioned here, I would pick the Auralic Aries over any 1 of them for many reasons.
When going this route, you need to look at:
SQ
functionality- support connected disks or access a NAS/server, integration of Tidal or other streaming services.
front end software - besides Roon, DS Lightning is fantastic
I have been using music servers for over 15 years and I went down the path of the Auralic Aries a few years ago and then went to a much different route for a much better SQ and a more enjoyable listening experience overall late last year. IMO:
never have any kind of server with spinning disks in your audio room and going the SSD route is a waste of money for music.
never use usb into a dac
use Roon for front end, best SQ and music integration of ripped/purchased music and Tidal.
get a dac with a bridge and use Ethernet to connect the dac to a real server.
use a pc/Mac to store to store your ripped/purchased music and keep this server far from your audio room. Set up a RAID over multiple disks for a more fault tolerant system and make sure this server has enough disk to backup your music every hour or every day.
Most music servers don’t allow setting up a RAID nor do they have a means to backup your data and especially, how do you restore the data when a disk fails or you screw up and delete music accidentally
When going this route, you need to look at:
SQ
functionality- support connected disks or access a NAS/server, integration of Tidal or other streaming services.
front end software - besides Roon, DS Lightning is fantastic
I have been using music servers for over 15 years and I went down the path of the Auralic Aries a few years ago and then went to a much different route for a much better SQ and a more enjoyable listening experience overall late last year. IMO:
never have any kind of server with spinning disks in your audio room and going the SSD route is a waste of money for music.
never use usb into a dac
use Roon for front end, best SQ and music integration of ripped/purchased music and Tidal.
get a dac with a bridge and use Ethernet to connect the dac to a real server.
use a pc/Mac to store to store your ripped/purchased music and keep this server far from your audio room. Set up a RAID over multiple disks for a more fault tolerant system and make sure this server has enough disk to backup your music every hour or every day.
Most music servers don’t allow setting up a RAID nor do they have a means to backup your data and especially, how do you restore the data when a disk fails or you screw up and delete music accidentally