Rusty Jefferson

As I posted above, in my system the SSR beat the CAPS v3 in all respects. This includes using the S/pdif output of the SSR. It's very good. There is a (at least 1) dealer who will let you demo one for 7 days. If you're considering a purchase, try it in your system.

Based on the reviews by Chris, and Ted B, I contacted Sonore about an audition of an SSR. Adrian put me contact with a dealer who had a demo unit he was lending out for 1 week trials. I don't have a NAS for storage of music files yet, just a PC running JRiver. I plugged the SSR into my router, my DAC, and a wall outlet. Turned it on, enabled DLNA in JRiver, and in less than a minute it was working. Couldn't have been easier with this installation. I'm sure I'll struggle a little getting the NAS and interface going, however. I have demoed a CAPS Carbon V3, and was just a couple hours from ordering parts for a friend to build me a CAPS V4 when I saw the reviews. The SSR beats the CAP servers in all ways, even running music from my Windows PC. I'm told the performance will improve even more when I move the library onto a NAS and get the Windows PC out of the chain. In my system, it is as good, or possibly better than using my CD transport, and that's all I ever wanted from a music server. It was a easy decision for me to go with the SSR, as I didn't have another server, and the SSR was only a couple hundred dollars more than the CAPS build. I just received my new unit last week and I'm very happy with the performance. I understand it will now stream Tidal, as well as stored music. That's all I need, should I ever invest in a streaming service. I have not auditioned any other model renderer, so I can't give an opinion as to head to head performance. I was disappointed that in the comments section of the SSR review, even though many people asked Chris to rank the SSR vs the Aries, he didn't. Especially since he used essentially the same language to describe them both. I did not demo the Aries, and trying to coordinate both devices being here at the same time on loan seemed an unnecessary hassle. As of this moment, it's the best sounding computer based server/interface I've auditioned.

+1 You used the same language here as the review for the SSR. ".....sounds as good or better than anything.....including CAPS...." This device has more flexibility and costs less. Does it sound as good in your reference system as the SSR? 95% as good?

Chris, The page you linked to "On a Higher Note" shows supported Windows operating systems only going through Windows 7. Your equipment list shows a Carbon C.A.P.S. with (presumably) Windows 8, as mine is. Any problem using it with Windows 8? Thanks

Chris, First time poster, long time follower. Thanks for all your hard work evaluating/designing these seemingly simple yet very complex servers. I have heard a dozen computer based systems that sound terrible, from an audiophile standpoint. A few months ago, a friend I listen with and trust auditioned a CAPS v2. Said it was outstanding compared to the server he was using and I had heard. I decided to wait for this release to get involved. I'll have a tech friend (but not an audio guy) purchase and assemble the Lagoon parts for me, and will purchase the RWA power supply separately. Will the power supply be plug and play, or are there changes to the assembly? Thanks