Editors’ Choice: Best Music Servers

Roon is a computer program that runs on Windows and Macintosh computers and plays back computer-audio files. What distinguishes Roon from other playback programs is the voluminous information it provides about your music. Want to read an album’s liner notes? How about the lyrics of a song being performed? Or maybe some information about a composer? Roon provides you with the data. Roon’s first job is to sound good, which it does in spades. Roon makes computer audio file playback easier and more fun, factors it desperately needs. By far the most sophisticated music management software, and an indispensable vehicle for exploring music. VF, 258; AT, 286, SS, 315, 334

This inexpensive little device provides wireless streaming to any audio system. Although the Cobblestone wouldn’t be considered for a reference system, it simply and inexpensively adds Internet radio, smartphone streaming, and NAS playback capabilities to a secondary, “lifestyle,” or background music system. The Cobblestone produces listenable, if not riveting, sound. The Cobblestone’s overall harmonic balance is slightly dark, with forgiving highs and a warmish upper bass and lower midrange. When compared in a direct A/B with the Sonos Connect’s analog output SS found that Cobblestone was the Sonos’ equal in every sonic respect except one—the Cobblestone could play 96/24 files while the Sonos could not. SS, 268

Perhaps the most significant improvement in stereo in the past 20 years. BACCH4Mac corrects a known but little discussed form of spatial distortion inherent to traditional stereo reproduction. The result is a dramatically improved soundspace and more believable soundstaging on standard stereo recordings from 1958 on. There are almost no downsides because the processing is working mainly with the existing stereo signal by subtracting parts of the signal that shouldn’t be there. This isn’t some kind of artificial, approximate, guesswork processing. You may have to revise your technical understanding of how stereo works to understand why BACCH is so effective. TAS YouTube

This is a music server, meaning that it can stream music from music services, store music files locally, rip and catalog CDs to the storage system (1TB of SSD) and output them to a DAC or through the onboard DAC. It also includes software called Innuos Sense, which allows access to and display of local music integrated with your favorites on streaming services. It also works as a Roon endpoint or core. But the Innuos Zen Mini does much of what Roon does, if you want to save the cost of a Roon subscription. We tested it with the LPSU linear power supply, though you can save that cost as well and use the included switching power supply. Sound is excellent, and we found ripped CDs sounded as good as or better than direct play of discs. For streaming, we found the Zen Mini has a low noise floor, which translates to better soundspace and soundstaging. Dynamics are also well rendered. Overall, the Zen Mini nicely reveals the advantages of high-resolution re-masters when compared with the 16 bit/44.1kHz originals. Which is as it should be, but often isn’t. TAS YouTube

This streamer has a built-in DAC and a built-in secret. The secret is the LEEDH volume control, which is a lossless digital volume control. That means you can use the T3 as a preamp if you only want to use streaming as a source. That might strike you as hard-core or normal. If you’re in the latter camp, the T3 is just about perfect. A very sleek remote is optional, and we think necessary for use as a preamp. The T3 uses top-of-the-range ESS DAC chips and is Roon-Ready. We greatly enjoyed the sound quality which has excellent depth, layering, and instrumental separation. We also thought the Lumin app was very usable, at least if you only play from one streaming service (e.g., Qobuz). Doing so saves you the cost of Roon, of course. There are lower cost options that can be cobbled together to give you these features, but they never seem to work quite as smoothly or sound so satisfying. TAS YouTube