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Support. You don’t need to be a Unix guru to use this server. You don’t even need to possess any Linux command line knowledge. If you do hit a bump in the road to getting up and running, you can give Jenkins permission to connect to your home computer via a Citrix-based remote login client which he says he finds far more expedient than email explanations. Such support is second to none.
Control. In the DS Reference’s playback engine room sits Music Player Daemon (MPD). It can handle PCM up to 32 bit/384kHz and DSD64/DSD128 via the DoP standard all played back bit-perfectly with zero gaps or glitches between songs. Gapless playback isn’t as common as you might think but here it’s all present and correct. Hallelujah!
As this is a headless server, it can sit on your shelf or hifi rack without the need for the usual monitor, keyboard and mouse appendages. Only IEC power, Ethernet and USB connections are required to get up and running.
System configuration is executed via Vortexbox’s standard web interface. With no keyboard or mouse attached, playback isn’t a point and click affair as per JRiver or iTunes. An MPD client is required. Antipodes recommend mPAD for the iPad, mPOD for the iPhone and MPDroid for Android devices. Clients also exist for Windows (Cantata) and OSX (Theremin, see below) both of which provide potential for slamming the door on household WiFi. A long list of control clients can be found here.
I sat in my listening chair with MPDroid in hand. What I like most about this app is its ability to browse the music library via its folder structure and not just a database of indexed artist and album tags. Play/pause was instantaneous. Gone was the 2-3sec. buffer-loading lag that presents itself with iTunes/Audirvana+ on a MacMini. At my writing desk, Theremin reigned supreme. Here folder structure browsing isn’t browsable.
DAC dates. Deep inside the Fedora-based Vortexbox OS lies Andrew Gillis’ beta kernel specifically designed to keep DAC play as broad as possible. A single script on top makes it plug ‘n play for nearly any DAC you throw at it. Onboard audio always turns up as device 0 and a connected USB DAC as device 1.
The DS Reference ships with Mytek and Hiface v1 drivers pre-compiled and installed. All other USB interfaces are handled by the native Linux driver.
I plugged 'n 'played the following DACs without issue:
