Music Servers

Any benefit in pairing a NAIM Uniti Core Music Server with my Innuos Pulsar? 

Probably, but maybe upgrade the Pulsar to a Zenith, or Stream, if you love Innuos or look at other complete streamers that are server and players? 

And if your question is: Does adding a dedicated server improve upon a single player or server/player? 

Read the 4th post in this thread: (I see this fellow had some Naim gear fyi) 

https://antipodes.support/t/differences-k50-and-k21/3805

After analyzing what made up a streamer many years ago I came to the conclusion that a laptop and a server could equal or better many streamers at much less cost.

Ripped CD files stored on a server, retrieved using a laptop and played through a quality DAC provide a very versatile and easily upgradable playback system.

My recipe: Rip CDs with Exact Audio Copy (EAC) on a desktop and store the files on a NAS. Connect NAS with Cat6 or better to laptop and play using Foobar2000 through a DAC.

EAC provides CD quality rips and the windows laptop, the "drive belt" to the DAC, can also play web radio stations from around the world. Chord Mojo DAC sends data to Anthem MRX receiver connected to Focal speakers. Total cost is minimal and sound quality is excellent.

Bonus: good playable CDs are very cheap to buy and relatively easy to find at yard sales and flea markets and upgrading any component in the chain is easy and relatively painless.

Drawback: system is akin to driving a manual vs. automatic transmission car. It requires bit of effort on the part of the user but, like driving a manual, provides very real satisfaction.

NB: I do sometimes purchase online music from Qobuz or others but the thrill of searching/finding rare CDs in bins and boxes is rather exciting IMO.

My "transport" is an Eversolo T8, with  an SSD.

I stream from Presto and Qobuz but have about classical 1,000 works stored on the T8.  They are a mix of purchases from Presto and Rips of CDs.  

My internet is somewhat slow and can be glitchy, and disappears with strong winds, ice or snowstorms, hence an alternative to streaming.

Also, when in NYC I go to Academy Records and pore through their media.

The T8 could also access a NAS, but the stuff I had on a NAS is now copied onto the 4GB ssd.

If your DAC has a first class clock, and a similarly good implementation of asynchronous USB, all sources will be essentially of the same quality as the data is buffered in the DAC and timing is solely the responsibility of the DAC's clock.

Other source to DAC connections may not have this isolation, in particular IIS depends critically on the source clock, which is transmitted to the DAC, and the IIS cable.

Any thoughts on how the quality of the server impacts the streaming sound?