Music server quality.

Ckorody:

Thanks for your excellent insights and info. I'm intrigued, to say the very least. The ultimate (obviously) thing would be a UNIVERSAL server that rivals or exceeds the highest quality of each and every information storage medium (i.e. stores and plays CD, DVD, possibly SACD, HDCD, blue ray, etc.). I'm guessing that such a system does not yet exist, but would love to be wrong about that.

Thanks to Ckorody,* Thewebgeek and Eharlson for all the information so far!

*Who's Wayne?

I use an MBL 1511E DAC fed by a Mac Powerbook with the new intel chip. The new Macs don't have a fan but do have an optical digital out, so you can use a toslink cable to the DAC. I have a 500 Gb external hard disc. My 800 + CDs only use about half the space in lossless compression.

I just use i-tunes. The computer, hard drive and cable were under $2K. I was using a Sony XA 777 ES as a transport until I could purchase the MBL transport. But the server system sounds clearly superior to using the Sony and really has me wondering about the benefits of spending the money on the MBL transport.

The Slim Devices Transporter just got an A rating in the
4/07 issue of Stereophile. If you already have a PC, the Transporter makes more sense(less cables & boxes) than spending alot of money to upgrade a Squeezebox, M-Transit or Waveterminal to feed a DAC.

Sorry - Wayne is the resident genius at Bolder Cable - pretty much the leader in SB mods though there are some others now. Wayne has done a number of units for me. He also makes some wonderful cables.

http://www.boldercables.com/servlet/Search?category=MODIFICATIONS

I have a McIntosh 300 Music Server hooked-up to my Accustic Arts Dac1 MK4 using a Stealth Sextet digital cable and very happy.

I do use this when I don't want to just change one cd, I have not as of yet done any direct comparisons to my single cd drive unit but will down the road. I really like the Mac. very classy piece and easy to use. When I had any questions Mac was there to answer any and all which makes me feel confident in owning such a piece of gear.