Many of us at the SoundStage! Network (and a lot of other
people for that matter) believe that music servers, and probably even media servers, are
the wave of the future for sources in home-entertainment systems. Although I have only
been here for a day, I have seen a few music/media servers that caught my eye.
Weiss Roma
The Weiss Roma Network Player prototype is described as a
networking/archiving audio player and is an extremely high-quality PC-based unit that is
designed to be used with one of Weiss’s high end DACs, like the Minerva or Vesta. The
Roma uses a RAID 1 storage configuration for data safety and supports all manner of audio
file formats.
PS Audio PerfectWave Transport (on top)
Also of interest was the PS Audio PWT (PerfectWave
Transport), which uses EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to extract digital audio data to memory
prior to output. It uses an I2S connection that utilizes standard HDMI cables
to transmit these signals, and it is capable of playing back Reference Recordings
24-bit/176.4kHz HRx discs. The addition of an internal network bridge makes it capable of
being used as a high-resolution music server, and it utilizes PS Audio’s exclusive
GlobalNet™ Service built on a Cloud Computing platform for library organization,
access, and management. This means that the cover art and song titles for the entire
library can be accessed through the PS Audio Cloud Computing service, providing worldwide
access to a customer’s music library. And YBA was showing the new Encore YS201 server
that will retail for $3700 with a 500GB hard drive and $4500 with a 1TB hard drive.
These new systems and other excellent existing systems from
Linn, Naim and Sooloos are available to audiophiles, but the cost can be prohibitive.
Another option, and the one that I use, is a simple software-based media player on a
laptop computer. Using foobar2000 software, a freeware audio player, two 500GB external
hard drives (one for backup) that cost around $100 each, and the Trends Audio UD-10.1 USB
converter that sells for $179, I have a very simple music server to send digital audio to
my Anthem D2 audio/video processor. One thing to note if you are using foobar2000 is that
on my system, you have to enable the kernel streaming option to get bit-perfect output.
Otherwise, this is a very simple and inexpensive music server that suits my needs. Maybe
tomorrow at the show I will see something that I can use to replace this setup in my
system, but if not I still look forward to listening to some music on my simple music
server when I return home.
