An AV Magazine 'The Absolute Sound' Editor's choice of music servers at different price points.
I'm pleasantly to see a couple of familiar names.
I'm pleasantly to see a couple of familiar names.
A select list of Music Servers at different price points
- Thread starter captrajesh
- Start date
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Well...I find it funny that a 2013 list includes a few devices that are no longer in production
RIP Squeezebox --- and it should be a rant at logitech for their dreadful decision to kill the range.
Whilst I appreciate that people want things that look "hifi" rather than "pc" (and doesn't that behold look great?) it seems that they are willing to pay astonishing prices for the privilege! It's a bit of a hotchpotch collection too, claiming to be "music servers," but including a simple sound card. Two out of three of the Logitechs will not "serve music" without a computer or an internet source either.
Whilst its odd to see the Juli@ in that selection, I'm always happy to see it acknowledged that it is possible to get good analogue sound out of a PC, and that it is not actually necessary to spend a vast amount of money to do so. Good for Juli@
(More on that... an interesting roundup of soundcards from TAS here.)
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Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
The TAS sound card round up compares analogue and digital-to-DAC results with the different cards. Same argument as a CD player: if the external DAC is better, the reuslt can be expected to be better --- so no argument with finding that it is! However, the Juli@ got a great write-up for its analogue out, although somewhat surprising was the finding that the balanced was not good compared to the unbalanced. Of course, such a write-up is just one man's opinion, but more remarkable than the success of the the Juli@ is the list of things that he preferred it to. Surprised me!
It is never surprising, here, tht digital out is more "famous," because most people have swallowed the "DAC" marketing pill. Heck... I'm even thinking of swallowing it myself with a DAC+hp-amp combo on my shopping list :lol:
It is never surprising, here, tht digital out is more "famous," because most people have swallowed the "DAC" marketing pill. Heck... I'm even thinking of swallowing it myself with a DAC+hp-amp combo on my shopping list :lol:
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koushik
Well-Known Member
Be it Xonar STX or Juli@. No matter how good is the DAC implementation, a switched mode power supply will always be the bottle neck. Without a high current linear regulated power supply it can't perform to its fullest. And hence came the DAC pills to the rescue.
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
<Mystery Voice>
Haaa Haaaa... That's just what they want you to believe
:lol:
(and part of the idea behind external sound cards)
But it is also interesting to note that the TAS guy says that he did all his testing with an ordinary, regular, untweaked PC --- so his results should be a bottom line, and there are areas to improve on such as power supplies, silent fans and more (Oh, I think he said he did fit a better power supply: some of the mass-market ones make enough physical noise, let alone anything else!)
Haaa Haaaa... That's just what they want you to believe
:lol:(and part of the idea behind external sound cards)
But it is also interesting to note that the TAS guy says that he did all his testing with an ordinary, regular, untweaked PC --- so his results should be a bottom line, and there are areas to improve on such as power supplies, silent fans and more (Oh, I think he said he did fit a better power supply: some of the mass-market ones make enough physical noise, let alone anything else!)
koushik
Well-Known Member
This reminded me of Smart Alec.<Mystery Voice>
Haaa Haaaa... That's just what they want you to believe
I don't know who, you are pointing to, wants me believe that but I haven't read any crappy article to know this.
What do you believe then? A poor power supply can generate great sound? Or let's put it in another way, power supply quality doesn't matters?
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Please take the smilies more seriously than the statement before them: that's why they are there. However, I'm sure you know how marketing works. Of course, we can all be subject to it when it comes to our favourite stuff, and of course that means me too: wanting to believe, especially where large sums of money are concerned. Oh how I wish I was more sensible when it comes to my own shopping (not just hifi)!
I'm sure that power supplies matter. As I said, some of them make too much physical noise, let alone anything else. I'm also sure that the outright statement, which one sees a lot of, that good sound cannot come out of a PC, because of the electrical noise, is just wrong. It's the sort of dogma that the hifi world loves, and nobody says that the engineers at Lynx, RME, even ESI, etc, might just have thought of that. The thing is, though, that although I'm against the dogma, I don't deny the possibility, and I don't see anything wrong with an external PC interface on the hey-why-not basis. Mine is.
So yes, there is a heap stuff that the hifi marketing departments want you to believe, and there is another heap of stuff which "audiophiles" like to put on computers because they want the machine to reflect them. It's just so nice to see a down-to-earth write-up from The Absolute Sound, instead of the words, "forget it: by a DAC."
And I have a Burson Conductor on my wish list. So is life black and white? No. Nor are my opinions/theories/practices. Or my sense of humour --- but often that doesn't work so well via the screen <Blush>.
.
I'm sure that power supplies matter. As I said, some of them make too much physical noise, let alone anything else. I'm also sure that the outright statement, which one sees a lot of, that good sound cannot come out of a PC, because of the electrical noise, is just wrong. It's the sort of dogma that the hifi world loves, and nobody says that the engineers at Lynx, RME, even ESI, etc, might just have thought of that. The thing is, though, that although I'm against the dogma, I don't deny the possibility, and I don't see anything wrong with an external PC interface on the hey-why-not basis. Mine is.
So yes, there is a heap stuff that the hifi marketing departments want you to believe, and there is another heap of stuff which "audiophiles" like to put on computers because they want the machine to reflect them. It's just so nice to see a down-to-earth write-up from The Absolute Sound, instead of the words, "forget it: by a DAC."
And I have a Burson Conductor on my wish list. So is life black and white? No. Nor are my opinions/theories/practices. Or my sense of humour --- but often that doesn't work so well via the screen <Blush>.
.
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