Will the server only work with psaudio equipment or will it work in any context (using upnp for example)? Thanks.
The server doesnāt have inputs other than to connect network shares of USB hard drives.
No. The server is designed to work with all brands of DACs and systems and will be a true friendly player in the high-end audio world.
Thanks. Can you be a little more specific as to how it will integrate with DACs ? Will there be digital outputs, or will it work with an external network player (if so, using what protocol), or both ?
Sure. It will have all the digital outputs one might imagine: USB, S/PDIF (RCA coax)/ AES/EBU (XLR balanced), I2S. We wonāt include TOSLINK since that format is bandwidth limited. It will include for communication WIFI built in, Ethernet, and multiple USB inputs where you can attach storage drives. There will also be an internal 2tb hard drive users can replace with larger versions if they want. It will be able to connect to UPnP based devices if so desired, NAS, or other computers on the network.
Sounds great, thanks for the details.
Paul
I just want to express my appreciation for the time you devote to answering questions in the forums. And I want to express the hope that PS Audio will develop a high quality switchbox with at least four HDMI in, one out, and ideally also four balanced and RCA inputs, one out, all remote controllable. The back of my rack simply is not accessible enough to allow disconnecting and reconnecting HDMI cables to change sources.
Kind Regards and thanks again
Thanks and it is our pleasure. I am not sure an HDMI switch box is something we could lend much to. It sounds like a cool product but I am guessing with limited applications? Or, am I missing the boat here?
Paul
Thank you for quick response. My dilemma is simple. I will purchase the server when available. And then will have three PS audio units with HDMI I2S outputs, a transport, a Nuwave phono and the server. But my perfectwave dac will only allow two to be connectedā¦. I imagine others will be in the same proverbial boat.
I know I could use a relatively inexpensive HDMI switchbox. But I would really prefer a unit where I would have greater comfort in quality.
That explains at least the HDMI switch request. I ask for the balanced switch as I absolutely love the BHK preamp but cannot purchase it as I have more sources than it allowsā¦ā¦ So for now I am staying with my Levinson 326s.
Kind Regards
Jeez, youāre right! Never occurred to me. Thank you. Weāll need to figure something out.
Paul, thank you again for your quick response. This is the reason I asked about an input on the server, with the hope that eventually I would be able to rip vinyl with the Nuwave phono via I2S directly to the server data baseā¦. Alternatively I would have less need for the Bridge. Perhaps one could add two HDMI inputs on a unit that will fit into the DAC in place of the Bridge. But if I understand correctly that would mean no MQA 
For a while, I thought that purchasing a Stellar Gain Cell Dac and using it as a switch only (unity gain mode) would provide what I would need (extra line level inputs and at least one extra I2S). However that would introduce another set of circuits in the signal path and good as this unit is, it may not have quite the DAC provided by the DirectStream DAC. Talk about audiophilia nervosaā¦ā¦.
If you start thinking about a high quality switcher, something that would prove very valuable could be along the lines of the high quality switcher produced by Pioneer in their Series 20 components in the late 70ās. This unit had line inputs, three phono inputs, and four tape loops allowing taping from any of the four to any combination of the other three( http://www.weissichnicht.org/silverpioneer/styled-23/styled-27/ ). Todayās components would require say four each of HDMI (I2S), RCA and Balanced with outputs in each of these formats.
Right. The Bridge is where the MQA decoding takes place.
I get this. Iām waiting for you guys. In the meantime an iMac with 2Tb drive in my office, WAV files, Audirvana, LAN Rover (donāt stream yet as too many issues) to DSD. iPad using remote for navigation. Works great. Sounds better.
I built a Mac Mini after Paulās music server series ( Paul remember those lol ). Modded mini to have max ram, 2 SSD ( 1 for music files only ), bridge II, Roon, Ipad control. Bluetooth free. External power supply. I love the convenience factor to this day, and it sounds really good, that is until I use my DSMP to the DS DAC. I canāt wait to have both. The convenience and sound quality.
I will likely buy the new PS Audio server when it comes available, providing itās not a 2nd mortgage level of expense. I just want a single box solution to my clutter of computer chassis, cables, power supply boxes, external HDs for my music files, computer monitor, USB decraper and the whole mess. As long as it really sounds as good as a somewhat dialed in Mac Mini, Iāll be happy. One thing that was on my wish list would be the option to have internal or even user installable SS drives with 2 or more tb capacity. I understand that some recently introduced SS drives sound far better the their spinning competitors.
Hi Paul.
Good to read through the posts since my last entry and to see the progress.
I took a punt recently with a Roon subscription and was surprised to see how it managed with .WAV files. As it searched my files on my NAS it somehow managed to recognise what album they belonged to. This then gives me the power to navigate, via my control interface, my music freely rather than via a folder menu. No other software gave me this option unless I used flac.
The facility within roon to then edit albums is also very useful-especially when one might have duplicate albums or better more relavent album artwork on file. Sometimes an album isnāt recognised, but this is overcome by manually identifying it. Great stuff.
The new PS Audio server is still an appealing product for me as its a one box solution and will sound great Iām sure. If it also has roonās control over wav files and editing ability, Iāll be scraping my pennies together!
All the best.
I am holding off the purchase of another server waiting for this.
Paul, will you be kind enough to divulge how good the ripped CD playback performance will be as compared to the PWT?
Just hope that it will be available later this year
Not yet since I havenāt been able to test it. It should be better than the PWT if all things in the universe line up in our favor. But, should is a tough wordā¦ I see no reason to believe we cannot bet the PWT. We did in the new DMP, so I bet we can do it again.
For a local library:
- The Aurender app does a good job of meeting items 1 and 3. For a MAC user, at least, it also does a good job of meeting item 2.
- For a classical fan the iTUNES library āsongsā view is very good if the āgroupingā is used to include the Opus number in the Metadata. The Aurender app does not use āGroupingā in its view.
- For a classical user with a large library a view which readily enables all versions of a particular work is highly desirable. Being able to view all available versions of a work by Composer<Opus Number<Work Name would be invaluable.
- I imagine that many classical users (certainly that applies to me) use iTUNES as their master database. If a new music server was able to use iTUNES as an input database that would be excellent for such users.