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[jjohnston]

I am looking to put together an audiophile version of a hi res audio music server, player, bridge etc.  Does anyone have any recommendations regarding specific hardware that works with jriver media center?  I have the McIntosh D150 digital pre-amp.  Looking to store on the server and stream DSD files directly to the pre-amp.  Sony, PS Audio, Marantz, Cocktail Audio X40?

Thanks for you assistance.  Don't want to waste money   Any help is appreciated.

Jim

[blgentry]

At one time I would have told you that a dedicated music server from some company that really knew what they were doing was the only way to go.  I would have said that computers crash too much, are too slow, and don't have a clean interface for presenting a browsing and searching interface for music, in friendly way for living room use.

Today I've totally reversed my position.  MC with JRemote is a pretty amazing way to browse, search, and select music.  A good computer running MC, I think, is ahead of the music servers I know about.  But let me be clear:  I have NOT researched music servers in the past few years.  I have not compared MC to any of the players you list in your question.  I'm NOT an expert on this.

I just know that MC works really well if you set it up correctly.  As to what hardware to buy.... that depends on a lot of things.  How much time versus how much money you have to dedicate to this.  Whether Mac or PC is important or not to you.  If it will be dedicated to MC or do other things.

I don't have any concrete recommendations for you.  At least 2 commercial offerings I know of, ship their "music servers" as (essentially) PCs with JRiver MC pre-loaded on them.  Some of these are in the very high end category.  Think up to the $10,000 mark and above.  You could buy one of those (or the less expensive ones from the same companies that still run MC).  Or you could buy a Mac of some sort and run MC on it.  Or a PC and run Windows and MC.

Maybe someone else here will have some recommendations that are more solid.

Brian.

[jjohnston]

Thanks for the input I have a tendency to agree with you.  I am thinking of a mac mini that is strictly dedicated to jriver mc.  Don't want to commit $10,000.00 to a music server at least at this point. I will attach extra hdrives for media storage.  Mac mini with 8GB ram 2 TB SSD.  Anyone with additional help here is appreciated.  Also will use usb interface to the Mcintosh D150 pre-amp.

[Manfred]

Music Servers with JRiver are Baetis Audio or digibit (To my knowledge they have adapted JRiver to their needs) for example:
http://www.baetisaudio.com/Prodigy.php
http://english.digibit.es/index.php/aria.html

Baetis has an interesting presentation on their website about their experience what is for example the best audio interface.

If you have a big collection of music, video a NAS is a good solution to store your files. (also recommended by Baetis)

I have build my self a music server with a 12 TB QNAP NAS:
1 x Fractal Design Node 605
1 x Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless 400 PSU
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Mainboard; Killer LAN
1 x Intel® Core™ i7-4770T Processor up to 3.7 GHz, 45 W TDP 8MB Cache, 4C/8T
1 x 8GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 DRAM 1600MHz C9 Memory Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9)
1 x Noctua NH-UB9 SE2 (CPU Cooler) + 1 x Noctua NF-A9 PWM (replaces packaged fans)
2 x Noctua NF-S12A (Case FAN)
1 x Intel Desktop LAN (Dedicated Ethernet Interface to Devialet D-200)
1 x EVGA GTX 960 SSC 4GB GDDR5
1 x 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD Three-layer Cell Solid State Drive
1 x Samsung SN-506BB/BEBF Blu-Ray drive
1 x SOtM tX-USBexp Audiophile PCIe to USB Audio Card


I use it also for gaming and playing video with madVR. From 3 meters distance you don't hear any noise. From a sound quality perspective the dedicated Ethernet interface to Devialet D-200 sound best. USB 2nd with optical, Win 10 and new Realtek drivers very similar. Because you have a McIntosh USB or SPDIF (RCA/Optical) are the connections of choice.

On Computeraudiophile you also find some fanless builds under
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/section/c-p-s-489/

Best regards
Manfred

I would use only local storage if your collections fits to a ssd.

Best Regards
Manfred

[jjohnston]

Manfred,

Thanks a bunch it sounds as if you have a windows based operating system.  I will check Baetis and digibit websites.