Part III
Custom Music Servers: Desktop or Fully Integrated

Part II of this series was all about canned music servers. Purchase, plug, and play. In the final piece of this three part series I will discuss custom music servers and give some editorial comments about each. Let's start with the same premise that we began the Part II with, Most audiophiles just want to listen to great sounding music and possibly admire a great looking hi-end system. Custom high end music servers are not going to allow as much absenteeism in the area of configuration and upkeep, but they have the capability to provide features and options that canned system owners can only dream of. I separate custom systems into two categories, desktop, and fully integrated. The desktop custom music servers are mainly for users who listen to music while using their computers for other purposes. This area of hi end audio is only going to get bigger as manufacturers start to realize people are fed up with standard Altec Lansing and Logitech wafer thin desktop speakers and their internal laptop / desktop DACs. I will cover this later in the article. The other category of custom music servers is the fully integrated hi-end music server. These are starting to grow like wildfire for both audiophiles and home theater aficionados. The fully integrated custom music server is part of a users hi-end system 100% of the time. In most cases it will be connected to the other components in the rack with either an S/PDIF or USB cable. ...

This is the first in a series of articles about hi-end music servers. The convenience of music servers is beyond question. Look at the success of the "game-changing" iPod. A portable music server that weighs a few ounces and has the masses purchasing music from the convenience of their home, office, dorm etc... For many iPod users and music listeners in general convenience is all that matters. If the product sounds good it is just a bonus for those who even notice. For decades most audiophiles have resisted convenience in favor of sound quality. For example, walking over to the turntable to move the needle and change the song has been the method of choice for many audiophiles. Enter the music server. A gigantic no-no in the hi-end audio world for many years. Fortunately audiophiles no longer have to make the choice between quality and convenience. Now they can have their cake and eat it too with a hi-end music server. ...