The blusound vault 2 is an absolute breeze to setup and operate
I debated long and hard months ago on which way to go with a server and so glad I chose this one.
You can choose how it rips cd but imho flac is best
You can access lots of internet radio station and other music streaming services through it, I use Tidal.
Back up is as simple as plugging in a 2tb hard drive and selecting back up in the menu.
Set up was so painless it was laughable, it automatically found my home network in seconds and I was up and running within minutes and then proceeded over the next few weeks to rip my entire cd libary to it and box them all up and placed in the loft. That barely made a small dent in its 2tb memory.
The app whether android or apple is also childsplay and very intuitive, i use android from my phone, my daughter uses apple version from her ipad
Neither have given one single glitch at all ever.
We get regular updates to the app software and I think the unit itself has updated itself maybe 3 times in the 7 months I have owned it.
As far as the metadata and artwork I only found maybe 3 albums that failed and that was because they were very old obscure British releases. It was then a fairly simple task to write the correct metadata and add artwork with any good metadata editing software.
One comment I do have to make, connect it by digital coax to your preamp as the rca analog outs are the worst feature on the whole unit, the sound is very bloated and somewhat indistinct via these. I recently upgraded my digital coax cable and it made an huge improvement in sound quality so dont scrimp on that either.
Yes there maybe better and higher quality ways to go but this is the system for complete computer dummies, my wife uses it and usually if it has more than 3 buttons she has had it!
Buy it , you will not regret one second of it!
I paid exactly $1000 for it and its the best grand I have ever spent on music.
I debated long and hard months ago on which way to go with a server and so glad I chose this one.
You can choose how it rips cd but imho flac is best
You can access lots of internet radio station and other music streaming services through it, I use Tidal.
Back up is as simple as plugging in a 2tb hard drive and selecting back up in the menu.
Set up was so painless it was laughable, it automatically found my home network in seconds and I was up and running within minutes and then proceeded over the next few weeks to rip my entire cd libary to it and box them all up and placed in the loft. That barely made a small dent in its 2tb memory.
The app whether android or apple is also childsplay and very intuitive, i use android from my phone, my daughter uses apple version from her ipad
Neither have given one single glitch at all ever.
We get regular updates to the app software and I think the unit itself has updated itself maybe 3 times in the 7 months I have owned it.
As far as the metadata and artwork I only found maybe 3 albums that failed and that was because they were very old obscure British releases. It was then a fairly simple task to write the correct metadata and add artwork with any good metadata editing software.
One comment I do have to make, connect it by digital coax to your preamp as the rca analog outs are the worst feature on the whole unit, the sound is very bloated and somewhat indistinct via these. I recently upgraded my digital coax cable and it made an huge improvement in sound quality so dont scrimp on that either.
Yes there maybe better and higher quality ways to go but this is the system for complete computer dummies, my wife uses it and usually if it has more than 3 buttons she has had it!
Buy it , you will not regret one second of it!
I paid exactly $1000 for it and its the best grand I have ever spent on music.