Hi

I am looking for recommendations for my set up.
I want a music server with wireless networking capability and good hard drive (200 GB or more) wich i can use as transport and output digital signal to a decent DAC. I have a separate stereo amplifier and have B&W 703 speakers.

What is the good combination for me. I'll like to stay below $2500- 3000 range?
I will prefer something that wil be installable in audio rack.

thanks

for that price i would recommend an olive music server with a benchmark or bel canto dac. the cambridge azur music server is pretty good too, but no flac support as of yet.

Well, I'll toss in my opinion and of course recommend what I purchased.

I did so after much research and was also going to purchase a dac, combine it with my Mac mini, or purchase another transporter.

After learning a new wireless music transport was released which had a world clock and an internal dac under one hood, besting even the Lavry and Benchmark (per owners who sold their dac's after a/b testing),
I decided to give the 30 day trial a listen.

The Slimdevice Transport cost $1999.00 (mine shipped with a free $299.00 Squeezebox) and can be found here..http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html

You can learn more from this forum http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7

And read a Soundstage review here http://www.soundstageav.com/onhifi.html


This gives you room for a pretty good sized hard drive, as well as money left over. Or, perhaps a NAS.

Highly recommended.

Mark

Thanks for recs.

Mark how have you connected your hard drive. What software do you use to store your CD's on hard drive. I will like uncompressed audio storage. Whats the best way to do it?
Do you have any problems listening to songs if you connect wirelessly to hard drive.

The reason I want server to be network capable is , so that I can organise my songs or make playlists from my PC and control the server through my PC. From that point of view Olive seems better option.

Thanks
Mani

How is PS audio Digital link III? Its selling for 995 new.
How does it compare to Bel canto or bench mark?

I was just curious, if i use Olive as transport and good DAC;s, Will the sound quality be any inferior to high end dedicated CD player? If so why?

Thanks
Mani

in my case, i have chose the olive for the simple reason that i don't want to have a computer for my setup. the transporter needs a computer to acces the songs and run its software, so you will always need a computer in your setup and it will always have to be on. the olive on the other hand is a standalone unit, that is really a component. you rip the songs directly to its internal harddrive and it stores them there. if you ever run out of internal hdd space, you can buy an external drive and connect it directly to its usb drive. i am not sure if you can rip the music from the olive to the external drive though, everyone i know who has done this has ripped it first from their computer and then transferred it to the external drive. in any case, if you want a one box solution and your interested in the olive, the opus supposedly has an amazing analogue section designed from resolution audio. the digital out on that player howver is inferior to the musica/symphony so if you want to go the dac route, then save your money and don't get the opus. hope that helps. i will be ordering a music next week from my dealer.

there is one technical problem I didnt think of. I currently have my DVD player, Sat box, CD player etc hooked to my pre amp which connects to 5 channel amp. Now once i get the music server and DAC, how do I hook up my DAC to the amp. Can I use a Y adapter to hook both inputs from pre amp and DAC to L and R channles of amp? Any remote controlled audio switches?

Thanks
Mani

As everybody, I am going to suggest what I have put in place :
I went a completely different way :
- an Macmini or Imac
- a cordless mouse & keyboard
- an airport express
- a good DAC linked via Toshlink to the Airport and to your amp.

You have the hard disk, the wireless, the easiest way to manage and backup your database i.e a screen, a mouse , a keyboard. Your music can be accessed by devices located in other rooms.

The way I did it was to have the macmini "hidden" with the rest of my Hifi. I have a 10m DVI cable, so only the screen is visible next to my listening position. I use a bluetooth mouse. It is perfect. Everyone agrees that the airport express is a good drive, the analogical outputs are not audiophile, its digital output is good (at least as good the digital out of my Denon 3910).