Do server's belong in high end hifi?

I might be tempted by a server, if one would meet these criteria...


1. Same quality as a cd transport (into my seperate dac)
2. Absolutely silent. No feint fan hum!
3. One box solution without a pc attached to start up
4. Cost under £1000 - it's only a hard drive in a case! No Chord nonse required.


Who, where, what? Total newbie here... Thanks.

 

How about this?:-

http://www.plextor-europe.com/products/px-eh40l.asp?choice=PX-EH40L

You can map drive to it from something like a Squeezebox.

 

Hmm so the squeezebox can play directly from a mapped network drive? That is a very nice solution indeed Dev! Get a few of those drives and keep everything uncompressed. Squeezebox right to the DAC.

If you want to go for a full media PC, you can still get it silent, but it may well cost more than £1k. I use one of these http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=63 and one of these http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/other_misc/Tt_Fanless_PSU/index.html But that comes to about £300-400 in cooling already.

 

Here's a more manly beast:-

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4359257922.html

There are plenty of these drives available now, with a choice of sizes and cut down versions of various OS.

 

The kit looks impressive but a little bulky and messy. I presume this will be the downside.

Is real hifi possible?

 

Dev's solution is hardly messy One drive and a squeezebox!

 

I meant your small power station! A blind mans setup

 

Have a look at the Hifidelio for a one-box solution

Otherwise a NAS/silent server and Squeezebox

or a silent computer

Review of hifidelio, squeezebox etc. here: www.audiofi.co.uk/reviews

 

the whole point of a music server is to have it stashed in a cupboard or in the loft somewhere running 24/7. the bit you interact with is then just a display, remote reciever and possibly an internal dac. if you are willing to 'put up' with just very good digital audio compared to 90% of traditional audio then an sb3 on it's own will be good - if you want audiophile then you'll also need a dac and decent psu - or the new transporter or patric's modded box. the nas solutions as pointed out by dev are about as 'tidy' as you'll get but you need to think outside the box regards everything 'there on the rack' if you truly want invisible hi-fi. you could build a sbox into a wall and have in wall amps and speakers for a truly invisible install. go mad that's the whole point of this kind of thing.

 

What Julian said.

My server runs completely headless (clarkconnect) and resides nowhere near my hi-fi.

It would cost you around £50 to buy second hand + the cost of HD's. The OS is free btw, as is slimserver etc.

*Oh, to answer your original question, IMHO - YES*

 

Servers do belong in hi-fi systems today. Possible the best thing I've done to the system in terms of actually listening to the music. The ability to quickly find and play any CD in your collection, and leap from it to another one on a whim, chasing an idea of some sort of connection between songs/artists/albums whatever is a HUGE advantage of a music server.

The quality depends on your choices and budget, however I'd expect a squeezebox into your DAC to sound as good as, if not better than, your CD transport into the same DAC.

My server isn't silent, but it lives at the other end of the house so not an issue for me. You can of course get silent (or very very quiet) PCs.

Regards,

Stuart.

 

Yes. I can see similarities to the 80's LP vs CD changeover debates. Some Audiophiles will run with it and others NEVER will.

The main difference is that when switching from LP to CD, at least left you with a tangible "media". You loose that with a server and a lot of people don't like that. The way music is distributed in the future will be set up to slowly kill off the "media" side of the market anyway (cheaper for the record companies).

 

What do you do with all your cd's once uploaded?

 

Stick them in a box somewhere, whatever you want really (except sell them)

 

i'd not have any music i really love on my server without having the cd stashed in storage somewhere - it's the ultimate backup and also goves me a fighting chance if i suddenly come under the spotlight of the drm police.
i've never bought music as a download and while there is an alternative never will.

 

Most of the CDs are boxed up and stashed in the bottom of a cupboard. The recent purchases are in the lounge and car, waiting to be boxed.

This has created much space for new vinyl....

 

Hi Julian, this to me sounds kind of strange coming from you...are you saying even if the music becomes available at higher resolutions to what's on today's CDs, you will not get it online?

I'm assuming the record companies will not issue media for the higher res versions of the CD, only online. But they will sell the high res versions, I'm sure this is coming, the sooner the better. I'd definitley consider buying the high res version even if only available online. Unless the extra cost would be really really outrageous.

BTW, in answer to the original poster's question: absolutely! At least until music (and video) becomes online only, no media or files...but that's a bit further out in time than what we have today with server --> Squeezebox, etc. --> DAC --> preamp.

 

Any future high res format will be drowned in water marks, so rendering them useless to audiophiles. It's taken 20 years to get cd playback done well, without the added issue of filtering out extra digital crud.

 

Hi,

I am curious about stuuf. What does the squezebox do that makes it sound good?

I can run music off my pc through a SB X-fi elite pro (stupid name) exporting coded digital. If I then send it straight to a DAC and my hifi, what would I need a squeeze box for?

 

The Squeezebox would mean you don't need your PC next to the hifi and you can control what is playing using the built-in display and remote so you aren't tied to the PC.

It also means you can get more than one Squeezebox and play in multiple rooms.

Also, you don't get the interference from the components in the computer.