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Music Server for feeding Theta Gen VIII DAC

I've been away from audio for a number of years after putting together a system* that I was mostly satisfied with.  I took the system apart for a couple years for a living room remodel, then shortly after I set it up, my SOny ES CD player I was using as a transport died.  I now realize that I no longer know how to play music.  I would like to use some sort of computer server rather than a disc spinner for the convenience, but am overwhelmed by the choices available.  I want something simple with excellent sound quality.  Right now, I mainly want to rip my CDs to a hard drive.  I recognize that at some point in the future, I may want to use some sort of streaming, but right now, I'm not interested.  Having been to a few shops, candidates include the Cambridge CXN V2, Aurender N100C, and Naim Uniti Core.  The Aurender seems hobbled by a new change that sacrifices sound quality of non-MQA files, the Naim seems like it can't accept files downloaded from the internet.  The Cambridge seems to not have any identified problems, but I wonder if it's possible for a machine that is so affordable to provide sound quality on par with the others (although if it can, that would be great).  I have no idea what to do.
*Theta Gen VIII s3 DAC/Pre, AtmaSphere MA1 amps, Ascendo ZF3 speakers, Kubala-Sosna EMotion interconnects, Entec LF-20 subwoofers.
honest1
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david_ten
2,509 posts
 
@honest1   In your case, it may make sense to pay the premium for stellar support from an appropriate manufacturer and dealer. Once you are familiar with this area you can move forward with more independent choices, should you want to.
nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
105 posts
 
@honest1 you could consider storing your music files on an external hard disk or network server, so it is separate from both your music server and from your computer. That way, if you decide to change music servers that has nothing to do with your ripped music, and if your main computer crashes or needs to be upgraded, you can do so without it having any impact on your saved music files.

We're doing something similar ourselves, with music ripped from an iMac onto a Synology NAS running Minimserver. The LUMIN network streaming hardware loads and plays the music directly from the NAS, even if the iMac is turned off. You can also get a LUMIN L1 NAS that is preconfigured to serve music files.

Many of the other network streamers will support similar setups, even some of those that also have internal hard disks (although in that case you won't be using the network streamer's internal hard disk). So you do have options.

The other benefit to using something like a NAS is they can be set up with RAID which protects against data loss in the event of a hard disk failure. So you won't have to re-rip all your files. It won't prevent loss in the event of a catastrophic disaster, or if your computer gets infected by malware that deletes files, but it's better than a typical setup.

As @david_ten said, getting help from a local dealer or the manufacturer could be your best bet.
celander's avatar
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celander
1,036 posts
 
OP, send a pm to Mike Powell (@mikepowellaudio) regarding server options. He’s got a number of YouTube videos devoted to the topic. His YouTube handle is OCD HiFi Guy. Mike is a dealer of audio gear and an expert server designer. 
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