Music Server or Apple Mac?
25/01/08 20:06 Filed in: Music
Server
Over the last five years Wicked Digital has sold a
number of different dedicated music servers
from the likes of Imerge, Hifidelio and
Cambridge Audio. Personally I
have never sold them with a clear conscience
because I have always believed that a
Macintosh Computer made far more sense and
certainly provided much better value. So I
always tried to steer the customer in that
direction but in most cases I failed to alter
the thinking and they have bought the Music
Server anyway.
So let's look at why I think the Mac is a far better solution, by giving you the run down on my own setup that I have been using for some time. But first, let's look at the differences.
My system starts with an Apple Mac Pro, the top of the line workstation from Apple. Why this model? Simple it offers massive processing power, by way of 4 Intel Xeon processors, huge internal hard drive storage which can be configured as a RAID and room for 32GB RAM, yes I said 32GB of RAM!
Now if we look at the typical dedicated music server, they have nothing like the processing power of the Mac, have a single hard drive inside that is usually limited to 250-500GB, with drive upgrades costing ten times the price of the drive! RAM upgrades? Forget it! RAID? Forget it! Software upgrades? Very slowly if at all. Upgrade path? What's that?
So the day you buy your dedicated music server you are stuck with what ever features it has for the life of the machine generally. Software upgrades are few and far between, hardware upgrades non existent. In contrast to that, the Mac has an ever evolving operating system that is clearly better than ANY other OS out there, is as stable as it gets and of course upgradeable. The hardware too is upgradeable and by comparison to the dedicated music server it is far more cost effective to do so.
The operating systems on the dedicated music servers are the major part of their problems, on top of which they are generally limited by an inbuilt screen the size of the screen on your mobile phone. Those that do have on screen displays that put an interface on your Plasma to control the server, tend to be very slow to use, Imerge even warn you in the manual that the on screen display will slow down the control of the unit.
Now about that interface... A Mac at a full 1920 x 1080 on your LCD or Plasma, versus a tiny little screen on the front of the server? Easy, big screen always wins. So that would limit you to the servers with on screen display, but as I said they are frustratingly slow in use, the Mac is not.
The quality of audio output from the servers is another area that can leave you short. With the Mac you can choose ANY DAC you like, either a built in card, an external DAC via SPDI/F or USB, such as the Benchmark DAC1, or simply plug it directly into your home theatre amplifier and use the DAC in that.
The music server on the other hand has an OK sound generally, some even claim to have audiophile grade DAC's but this is generally not the case, so you end up using an external DAC, having wasted the money you paid for the internal DAC in the first place.
Now about the storage issue. The Servers are limited to a single drive inside, the Mac can take four drives internally and you can RAID them for security. So again, a server with a single 500GB drive, or a Mac with 4 1TB Drives in a RAID configuration to provide a multitude of storage options, from two times 1TB RAID's, one for storage and the other for automated backup using the built in TimeMachine software. Or you can even RAID them so that you have a 4TB storage system (without backup).
Backing up is yet another drawback of the dedicated server, they use either network backup (slow) or cumbersome proprietary (ie: Expensive) external drives which you have to connect and backup to manually. Mac wins again.
I can hear everyone saying: "But what about multi room playback that servers like the Imerge and Sonus systems can do?" The simple answer is also very cost effective, Logitech Squeezebox at RRP $399 (Or the new Logitech Squeezebox DUET model) each provide music in every room with full remote control in every room and it accesses the Mac's iTunes playlists etc. Perfect! Compared to the Imerge solution, each playback unit is around $2000, the Sonus units have no remote, so if you want a remote in each room as well, then you are up for about $1500 per room. Mac/Squeezebox wins.
OK so what about my own system? I have a Mac Pro laying on it's side, with four 500GB drives configured as two 1TB drives using RAID, plus an external RAID of 2TB for automatic backup. I have 5GB of RAM and I connect my Mac to a MOTU Traveler Audio Interface (Which serves as a multitrack audio interface for music recording etc) and I connect the MOTU to my DAC using it's AES/EBU Digital Output. I could conceivably connect the analog output's of the MOTU to the input's on my Pre-amp, if I did not already have a high end DAC.
Using iTunes I manage a library of music and video totaling about 550GB in size. I have album covers on all CD's I have imported, which by the way I have imported using Apple Lossless Format. The quality of sound coming out of this system is simply superb, I can access any song in a matter of seconds and all of my CD's are packed away securely never to be used again as I simply do NOT own a CD player any more.
So my system is huge on power and ability, it is totally upgradeable in a cost effective way, it has a brilliant interface in iTunes which makes managing my music collection simple, I have access to buy music from the iTunes store, and with the use of FrontRow and a remote control (optional on the Mac Pro) I can sit back and play any of the 20,000 plus songs in my collection with ease, all for way less than a fully configured Imerge server. Did I also mention it makes a superb DVD/CD Player as well? Mac wins!
So let's look at why I think the Mac is a far better solution, by giving you the run down on my own setup that I have been using for some time. But first, let's look at the differences.
My system starts with an Apple Mac Pro, the top of the line workstation from Apple. Why this model? Simple it offers massive processing power, by way of 4 Intel Xeon processors, huge internal hard drive storage which can be configured as a RAID and room for 32GB RAM, yes I said 32GB of RAM!
Now if we look at the typical dedicated music server, they have nothing like the processing power of the Mac, have a single hard drive inside that is usually limited to 250-500GB, with drive upgrades costing ten times the price of the drive! RAM upgrades? Forget it! RAID? Forget it! Software upgrades? Very slowly if at all. Upgrade path? What's that?
So the day you buy your dedicated music server you are stuck with what ever features it has for the life of the machine generally. Software upgrades are few and far between, hardware upgrades non existent. In contrast to that, the Mac has an ever evolving operating system that is clearly better than ANY other OS out there, is as stable as it gets and of course upgradeable. The hardware too is upgradeable and by comparison to the dedicated music server it is far more cost effective to do so.
The operating systems on the dedicated music servers are the major part of their problems, on top of which they are generally limited by an inbuilt screen the size of the screen on your mobile phone. Those that do have on screen displays that put an interface on your Plasma to control the server, tend to be very slow to use, Imerge even warn you in the manual that the on screen display will slow down the control of the unit.
Now about that interface... A Mac at a full 1920 x 1080 on your LCD or Plasma, versus a tiny little screen on the front of the server? Easy, big screen always wins. So that would limit you to the servers with on screen display, but as I said they are frustratingly slow in use, the Mac is not.
The quality of audio output from the servers is another area that can leave you short. With the Mac you can choose ANY DAC you like, either a built in card, an external DAC via SPDI/F or USB, such as the Benchmark DAC1, or simply plug it directly into your home theatre amplifier and use the DAC in that.
The music server on the other hand has an OK sound generally, some even claim to have audiophile grade DAC's but this is generally not the case, so you end up using an external DAC, having wasted the money you paid for the internal DAC in the first place.
Now about the storage issue. The Servers are limited to a single drive inside, the Mac can take four drives internally and you can RAID them for security. So again, a server with a single 500GB drive, or a Mac with 4 1TB Drives in a RAID configuration to provide a multitude of storage options, from two times 1TB RAID's, one for storage and the other for automated backup using the built in TimeMachine software. Or you can even RAID them so that you have a 4TB storage system (without backup).
Backing up is yet another drawback of the dedicated server, they use either network backup (slow) or cumbersome proprietary (ie: Expensive) external drives which you have to connect and backup to manually. Mac wins again.
I can hear everyone saying: "But what about multi room playback that servers like the Imerge and Sonus systems can do?" The simple answer is also very cost effective, Logitech Squeezebox at RRP $399 (Or the new Logitech Squeezebox DUET model) each provide music in every room with full remote control in every room and it accesses the Mac's iTunes playlists etc. Perfect! Compared to the Imerge solution, each playback unit is around $2000, the Sonus units have no remote, so if you want a remote in each room as well, then you are up for about $1500 per room. Mac/Squeezebox wins.
OK so what about my own system? I have a Mac Pro laying on it's side, with four 500GB drives configured as two 1TB drives using RAID, plus an external RAID of 2TB for automatic backup. I have 5GB of RAM and I connect my Mac to a MOTU Traveler Audio Interface (Which serves as a multitrack audio interface for music recording etc) and I connect the MOTU to my DAC using it's AES/EBU Digital Output. I could conceivably connect the analog output's of the MOTU to the input's on my Pre-amp, if I did not already have a high end DAC.
Using iTunes I manage a library of music and video totaling about 550GB in size. I have album covers on all CD's I have imported, which by the way I have imported using Apple Lossless Format. The quality of sound coming out of this system is simply superb, I can access any song in a matter of seconds and all of my CD's are packed away securely never to be used again as I simply do NOT own a CD player any more.
So my system is huge on power and ability, it is totally upgradeable in a cost effective way, it has a brilliant interface in iTunes which makes managing my music collection simple, I have access to buy music from the iTunes store, and with the use of FrontRow and a remote control (optional on the Mac Pro) I can sit back and play any of the 20,000 plus songs in my collection with ease, all for way less than a fully configured Imerge server. Did I also mention it makes a superb DVD/CD Player as well? Mac wins!
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