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Old 12-03-2016, 11:17 PM
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Weirdcuba Weirdcuba is offline
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Default Silenzio, buying decision and experience

Well, I fell into the deep end with many in these parts and purchased a Silenzio. The decision was multi-layered, with lots of different influences in different directions. There are many choices out there in the digital server market and there are lots of options, besides just sound quality. No matter what you do, at the heart of a digital server beats a computer of one variety or another, so that means there are options, not just in the component, but how the computer is configured.

I was moving from two places. I had tried the mac mini via wifi (used both Roon and JRiver) and that was not satisfactory from a SQ perspective. The user interface on JRiver pushed me to Roon and I really really enjoy the Roon interface. So, I plunked down for the lifetime membership and am also running my Auralic Altair in the bedroom system via Roon - so Roon narrowed the field significantly.

The second component I left behind was the Bryston BDP-2 (without the sound card upgrade). I had the Bryston before it was Roon ready and it had an OK user interface, but not great. I also had the BOT-1 for ripping CDs, but didn't really use it much. I found that it was not useful for CD playback (which was OK, as I don't really enjoy spinning CDs very much). Then, when Bryston upgraded to Roon, I liked it much better due to the user interface, but the SQ simply was not where I wanted it to be - either streaming from the Mac Mini or via a hard drive connected directly to the Bryston (hard drive was much better). I suppose I might have upgraded the sound card, but really felt like I wanted to get reference quality playback and the ability to realistically rip CDs (as much new content is available only/mostly on CDs).

So, that put me into the server market. I definitely wanted the ability to draw from a NAS as my home network was evolving at the same time. I looked at several different options, but kept coming back to the Silenzio due to the positive references on AA. I also had to have the ability to rip cds in the same unit, since I had eliminated cd playback otherwise in the system. The requirement of one unit to rip and play really made the Silenzio one of the few options, and the ability to have a human being to talk to about it made all of the difference.

I will watch the comments and review of Dan's purchase and review of the Aurender, which I'm sure will be fabulous, but it's just a different solution to the issue. I also looked into the Antipodes and several other servers, but the silenzio just seemed like the right fit for my situation.

So, it showed up a week or so after I plunked down the cash (which was half or less than the other components I had considered (see comments above re five figure losses - didn't want to repeat that)). It's a plain black box, but built in a quite sturdy fashion - this is not a commoditized PC with cheap fit and finish. This is a hefty beast, without cosmetic embellishment, but with solid materials that are well assembled. It is totally unassuming in the rack, but it also just works.

Now, to the fun stuff - it sounds awesome. From the first moment, it blew all of my other combinations out of the water. I'm running a USB (WW platinum) connection to the DAC and streaming from the NAS via Roon, and it works great. I did have to requisition a monitor (as we're otherwise a mac household) to get it online, but now that it's up and running, the monitor is gone. It runs great via VNC viewer, which I use from the laptop as there's just more screen real estate than from the iPad. I've had it about a week now and I have not had to reset/restart/redo anything - I've left it on and it just works.

Ripping CDs is easy, but it does take time. The rips are great from a SQ perspective (much better than the commercial service that I used to rip my collection), but they take a while. That's fine for me though, as I really only wanted ripping capability to make sure that I could capture new CD content. I do want to go back and re-rip my collection because of the sub-par copies I have now, but I can do that over a long period of time.

Roon runs from the server and the music sits on the NAS. Controlled via the laptop or iPad. I back up the audio files to a USB drive that I'll take to the office to store as a double back up to the NAS. It is quiet - dead quiet, with black backgrounds and wonderful presentation of the music. I'm breaking in my new PSAudio DirectStream DAC at the same time as the Silenzio, and it just gets better every day. In my view, the Silenzio is truly reference quality - befitting of my big rig. Everyone differs and we can get to quite rarified air quite quickly in this game, but I doubt E hears many complaints about the sound quality of the Silenzio.

The biggest leap for me was into the Windows environment. We've been a mac only household since OSX came out and I have to admit that I like it that way (although getting way less enamored of Apple and the closed mac system than I used to be). That said, I use Windows at work and it's just not that big of a deal. Plus, if something blows, I can text/call/pm E and just see what's up. He is very patient (even with time zone differences). If you're not a computer guy, I suspect he would be an invaluable resource. I heard/read all of the stuff about "it's got to be a linux system with all other non-audio processes turned off to sound any good", but in my experience with the Silenzio, that simply isn't true.

The silenzio fits quite well with my system and sounds quite good to my ear. It appears to be reliable, and E is there if anything goes wrong. It's like all computers - I'll probably outgrow it in a few years, but at half the price of the competition, that's not such a bad thing to contemplate. I'm not a video guy (at all), but the bang for the buck on this thing would be even bigger if I were.

Highly recommended. No regrets. Come on in - at least right now, the water is fine.
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