Any high quality music servers out there?

Thanks everyone for the very informative responses. Manga, when will you get your SB2 back and who is doing the mods? I recently tried the SB2 and was unimpressed. It's sitting in my trunk awaiting a drop at FedEx, although now I'm considering shipping it off to get modded after reading the audiocircle posts. Thanks!

When I was using the SQ2, I only used it to listen to MP3's (I know they sound worse than CD) and internet radio (thoroughly unimpressed). I don't really want to burden my 60GB hard drive on my laptop with CD's, so I didn't consider downloading any of my CD's to the computer. I see now some, like Horseface (you are my idol too!), are purchasing additional storage drives.

But, this all seems to be very complicated!

After posting this thread, I see that VRS Audio makes a server that possibly is available now or in January. It wasn't clear to me whether some people are using it or not? Nobody mentioned cost of the VRS, but based on what folks are writihng here, it could be considerable.

However, to do the SQ2 right or to build your own computer (way out of my league), you need to get a mod done ($700 at RWA), buy a computer with a very big HD/s or buy additional drives, buy a drive control card (?), appropriate software (?), and buy a decent burning drive (I know they mentioned a good drive in the Audiocircle post, but I can't remember the name). So, this isn't cheap either and appears to be very technical. Not that I'm against technical, but a cool looking shiny one box solution sitting under my preamp sounds better, well if I can afford it that is. Anybody know how much the servers, such as the VRS Revelation, do or will cost?

Sammie,

I havn't desided yet which of the two companies I 'll have perform the mods. Both are reputable vendors and have been around long enough. These guys know what they are doing and if you go over the listed mods point by point they seem to be almost identical and quite extensive. Main defference is that Red Wine uses a battery power supply whereas Bolder uses a custom AC one. The battery probably has a theoritical advantage but I figure I 'm a bit lazy to have to remember to charge it and wouldn't want to be unable to play tunes in case I forget to recharge.

Remember, both modifications (for fully modified SB2) will allow the unit to be connected directly to the amp. In that configuration the signal runs straight from the DAC bypassing any op amps or active circuits, going through only a high quality capacitor and interconnect to the amp and the volume is controled in the digital domain. Thus you can avoid the preamp.

I agree that there is additional cost besides the moded SB2 but these days you can get a 300GB drive for under $150 to replace your existing without having to go to RAID configuration with multiple drives and the such. At least for the near future, you 'll be able to store close to 1000 albums or slightly less using FLAC. I commend what Horsehead is doing but that is a bit extreme and he is admittedly a techie. To me, the biggest hustle is ripping your collection. It should take you quite some time to rip those 1000 albums. Just use EAC for ripping and the FLAC losless codec which is supported by SB2. This alone will have a big impact in sound quality over the lossy mp3's you previously used.

http://home-12.tiscali-business.nl/~tpm54044/

The VRS server I believe costs around $2K if I 'm not mistaken and you 'll still need to rip your CD collection. I personally don't see much advantage to it.

Here are the direct links for the modifications to the SB2:

http://www.boldercables.com/servlet/Detail?no=302

http://www.boldercables.com/servlet/Detail?no=303

http://www.redwineaudio.com/SB2_Mods.html

Cheers!

Manga,

Spoke with Vincent (owner) at VRS. They presently offer one server with a 600GB drive. It offers several cool features as it provides an internet interface to download from various sites. Vincent said they are working with Music Giants to offer downloads without lossless compression so that sound integrity is maintained. Unit will operate wireless or via ethernet. I was very excited of course until Vincent told me the price: $8500. Vincent will actually travel with the device and stay as long as you need him in order to get the system integrated well and help the owner learn how to use it, which is also very cool!

Unfortunately, I'd rather spend that money on flying and the modded SQB2 is looking much more attractive.

Hoseface - why go though the hassle? I did. Last year, I built a music server based on Windows using FLAC, Exact Audio Copy and WinAMP. I had SATA drives, Silverstone case and fan-less PS, controllable CPU fans, etc.

Read though your post and think you're building on a PC platform. While FLAC is great for its flexibility, it's a huge pain in one simple but important area - tag management. It sucks. WinAMP is no better with the FLAC plugin.

Also, I had to use an old beta plugin that I found on a Russian site because the released plugin didn't display tags correctly. Apparently, this was/is a problem that other users experienced. It's nice to have an open source format but it certainly has its share of problems and sometimes, like this plugin tag issue, it never got solved. Some systems it worked and some didn't. When emailing Josh at FLAC, he simply didn't know how to solve the problem. What I realized was that these problems happened all the time with the Winamp/FLAC combo and when you're hosting a party and your system starts screwing up, it's embarrassing. Josh gets rid of the old versions (the installer versions) and you are left with a version that may or may not work for you and your system.

This is why I changed to iTunes and a Mac Mini with external MacAlly cases - works great, RAID, etc. And the iTunes front end is the best period. My collection is managed and very organized. Anyone of my friends can choose music and have fun with it...

I used to rip to FLAC with EAC and I believe that it creates outstanding rips. I think better then iTunes but I really can't tell. iTunes may have slightly worse audio quality then FLAC statistically but it does take 45 minutes to rip a CD (with EAC on high quality) and I really can't tell the difference with my tube equipment.

The bottom line is a little Mac Mini with iTunes and external Firewire disks works great and is easy to setup and low in cost. I liked the idea of building my own music server and felt proud when George from deHavilland was blown away by how good it sounded with his amps but it was just too much to manage - kinda took the fun out of the music...

My experience and opinion only... maybe it will help people decide - please feel free to email me...

P.S. – USB DACs are the way to go. Second in line is coaxial (the mechanical connection is more organic) and if you have to, optical.

I'll second or third (or whatever) the roll-it-yerself recs. I've got a mac mini (very quiet) in my main rig hooked up to a dCS stack via a Waveterminal U24--seriously can't tell the difference between that and my DV50s as a transport. I've got a terastation full of Apple Lossless files on my network playable through that, or the Win XP box in my study. Pretty remarkable. I'm waiting on delivery of a couple squeezebox 3s to replace some audiotrons in my house (the SQB3s will do Apple Lossless, the A'trons won't). Convenience/space savings is fantastic. If you want to stay in the Windows family, you can also pick up a super small form factor PC for about $600 that is fanless and use that the same way as a mini.