Sooloos music server: Anyone hear, anyone a dealer

Albert, I'm with you. The Sooloos is very expensive.

The main appeal is its user friendly touch screen interface and perhaps convenience...the fact that you can buy all the music server components in a single product line.

I'm finding though that with a decent DAC, it is not hard to get very good sound for not much cost.

For an easy and low cost of entry solution, I'm doing it via a wireless connection with a fast Toshiba laptop with a large disk built-in and Windows MEdia Player, a Roku Soundbridge, a mhdt Paradisea tube DAC, and decent but not exceptionally expensive ICs.

I have over 1300 songs available on the server currently (ripped from CD in just a few minutes each) and room for 2-3 times as many at least more. Total cost, including laptop PC, Roku, DAC and ICs: ~$1700.

The sound is fabulous!

The music server is a great thing that adds new perspectives to music you may have heard many times before.

I have been rediscovering parts of my music collection that I other wise might not listen to often with my new music server set up.

I often now find myself putting the Roku in random selection mode within or across genres and let the 1300+ tunes flow. You hear music from a different perspective and make new discoveries by not having any pre-conceptions or album context in mind when a particular tune comes on.

For vinyl, I currently record to CD-R first and then rip to the server. In the future, I may go with a direct to disk/file recorder or ADC and avoid the CD-R, though having the disk copy for safe storage and use in the car isn't bad.