Looking for music streamer/server...Is a Macbook Pro better than a Sony Hap Z....

Another vote for the Sony. Great user interface, sounds great on both native 44.1 and upscaled to DSD 2X, can be modded to go that extra step (the Modwright mods are awesome). Sounded better than my Devialet. Only downsides are no Tidal integration (has Spotify though, but...) and there's no digital input. I prefer not to have a noisy Macbook pro in my listening room... they can be made to sound good and be quiet but requires a lot of effort.

Aurender 100H is far better then the Sony ,snd No computer period is as good as s dedicated music server way too much noise .
For example the Aurender I bought for in the $3-k and under none better IMO.
A 2Terabyte internal drive , with a 120 Gigabyte solid state hard drive buffer.compare the 120 gigs for a buffer to Q music with competition
With a very low noise power supply it's Linux  based server is very fast and quiet.
When playing music use your iPad to just choose the music and play 
With a 1Gig plus Ether net port your music is always in Q on a SS drive no waiting as long as your router being the latest dual band with speeds over a 750 mps
If I want yo use the Tidal audio library it is already built in with s free month free trial 120 million songs.the Conductor App to operate the music library with album art  is one of the  best out there. the upper  tier 10 and 20 model even better. my Schiit Multibit dac run through thd Aurender is a noticeable improvement with a warmer balance.
It has auto update and if a problem email help desk they run through all programs 
If software related they fix remotely . I owned Auraliti,bryston friend has Sony 
Check if out it has won more awards then any other music player server.
I took 2 months of testing listenjng and speaking with others betore purchading.you can buy 
For around $2300  with discount, $2700 retail..buy a good digital power cord for player and dac 
Good aftermarket fuse also count to get the most out of it. with its powerfull processors Dual heat sinks  and weighs 12 lbs. The  Auralic I looked at for $1700
Decent  but light and all plastic for the other $600 the Aurender,100H.

The Sony Z1ES is a remarkable unit. If a smaller boutique company were making it, it would be $5,000+. I've given up trying to best it with separate dacs. It's here to stay in my system.

The specs on the sony mentions it re-samples compressed music to DSD http://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/hap-z1es

Fine. But how does it handle files that are not compressed? I not sure I would be interested in any kind of conversion of many of my flac files that are 24/96, albeit not DSD. 

I am new to computer audio. My DAC (Lampizator 4) with my macbook sounds better than my older Meridian CD player. Very cool. 

One of the things i love about using my Mac is Pure Music and JRiver's plugins for tone equalization and other acoustic/room effects. 

In considering a dedicated server such a Aurender I understand there is no way to adjust bass and treble. I understand the sonic improvements to be expected with a dedicated unit, but is there any way to get my EQ back with an Aurender or other such server?