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The most challenging part of this game was the direct confrontation between my old Jadis drive and new computer source. As there had been no great improvement over the Squeezebox Touch, the result was quite predictable. As the French say, c’est difficile d’avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre. Somewhere you have to balance pros and cons. From what I experienced up to now, the computer audio thing always lacked the finesse of truly great CD transports. The Music Server was no exception. While it delivered the sonic goods you might expect from other contenders with in my opinion superior ease of use, it could not produce the same airy precise resolution of my transport. But that shouldn’t imply that it wouldn’t outclass many other good CD transports. The Jadis drive is simply special in that it always had better resolution of low-level details, more perceptible decays and a more laid-back airy presentation versus various computer audio solutions I already tried - except for the Audionec which belongs in a very different price class.

There’s already been much talk about the quality of CDs played back by conventional CD players versus files made from the same CDs ripped to and then played back from a hard-disk server. Many experts have expressed a preference for computer-based solutions with a possible justification that CD transport’s random bit errors affect sonics. I personally don’t think it’s that simple. In my experience CD transport error-correction systems are able to resolve most of this issue and bit errors seem virtually nonexistent.

I think the most critical issue resides in the jitter level or timing inaccuracies. I don’t profess to understand why my Jadis dinosaur still outclassed the sophisticated new W4S device but I think its S/PDIF output generates lower jitter than most hard drives. Replacing the Jadis with a less prestigious CD transport then was my attempt to understand if my preference was linked to a particular unusually excellent CD transport or to the general differences between direct CD and hard-drive playback. When I compared the digital output of my Samsung DVD player with the Wyred4Sound server, the dedicated Californian music computer performed a notch above the Korean drive. The CEC TL51XR belt drive fared not much better, still leaving the Californian surfer in the lead. I would have liked to assess the sonic skills of the Wyred4Sound Music Server with a true audiophile power supply and perhaps even a jitter attenuator or external S/PDIF reclocker. Perhaps next time.

Trouble shooting. My overall assessment of the Music Server was on a fully positive track when what shouldn't happen did. I unplugged my loaner to take a few pictures. When I plugged it back in half an hour later, it wouldn’t reboot as though it had suffered a disc failure. Since I thought there had been no particular issue in my handling of the machine during the photo session, I suspected a power issue. Opening up the box I did not see anything wrong. I tried some downtime but when it wouldn’t reboot two days later the only solution was to return it to Atascadero for further analysis. Now the Wyred4Sound found a short in the Y-harness power adapter cable used to power off both hard drives from a shared power port. With a new Y-cable the unit rebooted as expected instead of shutting off when the motherboard had protected itself after the mishap. I asked if this could have resulted in particular sonic issues. When they believed that it shouldn’t have and I’d already had sufficient time to form a clear opinion, I decided against troubling them for a second shipment.


Unfortunately computers are more prone to this kind of trouble than conventional audio gear. Clearly it can’t be easy for a typical audio maker like Wyred4Sound to get a foot into the computer troubleshooting scene with a limited stuff having to cover the big diversity of potential failures and bugs. I thus must recognize and salute the accessibility and effort of W4S’s technical staff which was very impressive. Ditto for the support from French distributor Epectaz which also was of great help.

Conclusion. Wyred4Sound has released a very user-friendly product. If I ignore the final failure which was sorted out in short order, their new music server seems an ideal solution to get non-computer folks into a nice dematerialised system without challenges due to insufficient IT backgrounds. Ease of use is outstanding and the VortexBox platform allows for great flexibility during ripping. Compatibility with iTunes—in my mind the default option to metadata management—is efficient and capitalizes on integrating pre-existing libraries which isn’t the case for all competitors.


I would recommend iPeng for the main controller and playback option. MPaD is too spartan and not completely reliable (the version I used was 1.7.1). The auto-ripper worked nicely and I found it a more efficient option to keep the metadata editor outside the server. Most the time I had unsatisfactory result with internal editing options and the liberty of tagging directly from another computer on the network was my personal guarantee that I'd spend little time correcting things. Another way to get music onto the Music Server is to rip CDs using whatever software you prefer (XLD, iTunes, dBpoweramp) and output the files directly to the Wyred4Sound server. Readers who've already ripped their music collections will be pleased to know that a simple file copy from existing drive to Music Server is all that's required.
In terms of sonic accuracy, even if I am still looking for that audio server which will finally cure me of my vintage transport, this Music Server performed very well by outclassing my Apple MacBook and iMac with very easy bit-perfect playback at all sample rates. The I²S feature is another cherry on the cake. That's for the pros. The cons are related to potential reliability issues which apply to all such machines; the still absentee power supply upgrade; and overall documentation. All of these are perfectible items and works in progress that I hope will be improved quite soon. The also provided Blue Moon-awarded DAC 2 was a very positive experience too and this D/A converter in my opinion remains one of the very best performers in its class and an incredible value for the price. Highly recommended!

 
Turn the page for Glen's comprehensive second opinion report on Wyred's Music Server.
Wyred4Sound website