Best server solution for sound quality?

[stosoorok]

Absolute waste of time. If you don't have the gear that is resolving enough (like in this thread, the commentators seem to have max 100-200 bucks worth gear) of course it does not matter what you put into it. I have 3 different digital transports (NAA) at the moment (similar price), all sound different. Okay, I got my answer so no more use of this thread.

[philippe_44]

Absolute waste of time. If you don't have the gear that is resolving enough (like in this thread, the commentators seem to have max 100-200 bucks worth gear) of course it does not matter what you put into it. I have 3 different digital transports (NAA) at the moment (similar price), all sound different. Okay, I got my answer so no more use of this thread.

As said, whatever floats your boat. You had answers, you don’t like it because it does not fit your preconceived opinion. People here took the time to answer, some of them are signal processing engineers with the mathematical background and 20+ years experience. And again, you absolutely can prefer things on subjective criteria, it’s fine - we all do that, without the need to rationalize it.

[slartibartfast]

Absolute waste of time. If you don't have the gear that is resolving enough (like in this thread, the commentators seem to have max 100-200 bucks worth gear) of course it does not matter what you put into it. I have 3 different digital transports (NAA) at the moment (similar price), all sound different. Okay, I got my answer so no more use of this thread.

No one but you has mentioned how much their system cost. The relationship between cost and performance is tenuous at best.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[philchillbill]

[Greg Erskine]

Absolute waste of time. If you don't have the gear that is resolving enough (like in this thread, the commentators seem to have max 100-200 bucks worth gear) of course it does not matter what you put into it. I have 3 different digital transports (NAA) at the moment (similar price), all sound different. Okay, I got my answer so no more use of this thread.

Most of us have been around for a long while and gone through these arguments many times.

A lot of the people here actually build the hardware and write the software. I have been told this means "our" minds are closed to these "out there" ideas. A case where University education and knowledge is a disadvantage!

It's best to ask these type of questions in like minded forums.

[cliveb]

I have two bits of advice for the OP:

1. If the hard disks that store your music are in the listening room, then a switch to SSD might conceivably improve SQ by removing some background noise.

2. Do a sighted comparison of different LMS setups to find out the difference in SQ. Then do it again as a blind ABX test. You may very well have a "Road to Damascus" moment.

[narabdela]

I don't want to be rude, but this is absolute rubbish as a comparison. Forget your education. Please close your eyes, free your mind and use your ears. I once were in the same situation. I have built many systems (amps, streamers and so on) and could not believe it either (ignored critical listening), until I started to use my ears.

Rubbish?...or the wonderful world of expectation bias?

[v2k]

Absolute waste of time. If you don't have the gear that is resolving enough (like in this thread, the commentators seem to have max 100-200 bucks worth gear) of course it does not matter what you put into it. I have 3 different digital transports (NAA) at the moment (similar price), all sound different. Okay, I got my answer so no more use of this thread.

I don't think you are coming back but I have gear worth about €1500, does that qualify me to answer? Anyway, for anyone else coming this way wondering the same thing, what do you think Spotify, Tidal, Qubuz etc use for storage, the cheapest they can get their hands on or custom made audiophile hard drives? If they use CAT8 cables it is because they need the bandwidth, nothing else. The reason the world has gone digital is that it is robust and cheap, audio included. Now this doesn't take away from the joy of owning nice stuff but that is another topic.

The poor horse is dead but I can't help myself, if three different transports feeding the same DAC from the same CD sound different I'd say there is something wrong with two of them.

[d6jg]

I don't think you are coming back but I have gear worth about €1500, does that qualify me to answer? Anyway, for anyone else coming this way wondering the same thing, what do you think Spotify, Tidal, Qubuz etc use for storage, the cheapest they can get their hands on or custom made audiophile hard drives? If they use CAT8 cables it is because they need the bandwidth, nothing else. The reason the world has gone digital is that it is robust and cheap, audio included. Now this doesn't take away from the joy of owning nice stuff but that is another topic.

The poor horse is dead but I can't help myself, if three different transports feeding the same DAC from the same CD sound different I'd say there is something wrong with two of them.

I also wondered where the £/$ value was set in the OPs mind. Around the house I probably have in excess of £3k's worth of kit in various rooms but my LMS storage is ancient - probably more than 10 years old. I'm running LMS on an 8Gb HP Microserver with a single SSD for OS and db but the storage is on a 4 disk QNAP TS419 Raid 5 via NFS. I also have a Pi3 pCP development server connected to the same same NAS with the same mount point. Between the LMS servers and my Players there is at least one gigabit switch and in some cases two plus of course a whole host of Cat5/Cat5e cabling and some players are connected via highish end Mesh WiFi (Draytek AP903s which work flawleesly with old SB devices by the way). Most of this infrastructure has been in place for a number of years but I haven't detected anywhere where a 1 has arrived at a DAC as anything other than a 1. 0's sound nicely rounded.

[sodface]

0's sound nicely rounded.

[atrocity]

Are your Word documents any different if you load them from a Samsung SSD vs a SanDisk USB Stick?

I don't care enough to find it right now, but somewhere out there is A Very Serious Article wherein someone claims audible differences depending on the brand name of the hard drive storing the bits.

[philippe_44]

I don't care enough to find it right now, but somewhere out there is A Very Serious Article wherein someone claims audible differences depending on the brand name of the hard drive storing the bits.

Some people seriously believe that:

- the earth is flat
- COVID vaccine contains 5G
- Trump won the election

So there is nothing that should surprise us.

[Zombie]

- COVID vaccine contains 5G

I have even seen the schematic of the 5G chip that is inserted in the body. It's a Boss Fuzz box.
Dunno how the 6,3 mm plugs come through the needle, though...