Behold Gentle G192 Media Player

Audiolabyrinth, the G192 is an integrated amp with DAC. I believe it can be purchased with "modules", including room correction and a media server. I don't know much about the media server module. Brett Mesler, my dealer at Audio 202 in New Jersey may be able to answer your questions. The U.S. distributor, Sam Laufer at Laufer Teknik can also answer any questions. I found both to be very honest and accommodating. My sense is that the G192 would be overkill as a server alone, since you wouldn't be using its amp. And, although the G192 can be used with a wide array of speakers, my feeling is that it really shines when used with Behold speakers. I demo'd many speakers in my search, including Acoustic Zen, Wilson, Coincident, Vivid, Gamut, DeVore. None were as immediately transfixing and mind blowing as the G192 and Tanara (which are the lowest end in the Behold line.) The only speaker that I preferred to the Tanara were the Kaiser Kawero Classic, but they are too large for my space and a lot more money than Behold. Behold is a great option if you want a simple setup that sounds fantastic. I sold all my expensive separates, many expensive power cords, my standalone DAC. I guess my point is that the G192 is a stellar "Swiss army knife". Buying it as a media server only might not be worth the money. Aurender, Lumin, the Signature Rendu, etc. might be better and cheaper options if you just want a media server, although I have heard none of those units. The only server I have demo'd was the Laufer Teknik Memory Player, which sounded absolutely stellar in my system, easily the best I have ever heard as a digital source, but it is very large and very expensive. Bottom line is that Behold makes stellar audio equipment, but you should think of it as an entire system, not just as a digital server.

Isnt this a $50K piece of kit??

That needs to be said upfront. Its audio jewelry with a fantastic screen/display.

Correction, this is the runt of the litter at $16K. The $50k sibling is newer.

No DSD.

Hi Mcondon, what a great post, thankyou, I would like to find a streamer of excellent sound with a quality volume control to run direct to my amp and get out of cd-player's, dac's-transport's all together, I am not that interested in computer audio, that's silly to me, computer's do not have quality power supplies, tube's, quality capacitor's, etc..., plus usb cable's are a silly way to attempt to get state of the art sound, some usb implementation's inside of some of the best Dac's out there may sound good, however, the usb cable is a bust!, a media streamer that has balanced cable out-put with a quality volume control to run direct to amplification is what I would like to audition, is their such a unit on the market yet?

"01-26-15: Audiolabyrinth
Hi Mcondon, what a great post, thankyou, I would like to find a streamer of excellent sound with a quality volume control to run direct to my amp and get out of cd-player's, dac's-transport's all together, I am not that interested in computer audio, that's silly to me, computer's do not have quality power supplies, tube's, quality capacitor's, etc..., plus usb cable's are a silly way to attempt to get state of the art sound, some usb implementation's inside of some of the best Dac's out there may sound good, however, the usb cable is a bust!, a media streamer that has balanced cable out-put with a quality volume control to run direct to amplification is what I would like to audition, is their such a unit on the market yet?"

I think you just set the record for the longest sentence on Audiogon. That aside, I'm not sure what you are asking for. For computer audio, you use the PC as a transport only. But unless I'm mistaken, a streaming device is essentially a computer as well. The way you interact with a streamer is a little different, but you still have to rip all your CD's and they get played back essentially the same way. I could be wrong, of course, but I thought that's how it works.