geetee1972
pfm Member
When I built my new system last year, the last thing to arrive was the streamer, a custom LDMS Mini+ which I ordered from Lucas Audio Labs as Lucas is a good friend of the dealer I bought the rest of the system from. I had to wait about six months for the server and so prior to its arrival I used my Macbook Pro as a Roon Core as a streaming device. Just prior to the server's arrival, I was lucky enough to be loaned a pre-amp from Silvercore (I was not using a preamp at the time but instead used the variable output from my Golden Gate DAC to attenuate the volume). The preamp was £22k top model from Silvercore and transformed my system. Truly the improvement was remarkabe.
At the time I was thinking I was an idiot for having accepted it; at the point where I should have been looking forward to an upgrade from the server, instead the preamp would be removed and I would be left with a gaping hole that perhaps the server might be able to compensate for maybe half what the preamp had done.
I couldn't have been more wrong. The step up offered by the server into my system was as big a transformation as adding the preamp was but using the Macbook to stream.
Server based music and streaming is still very much in its infancy and there very few servers around that offer true high end performance; they are available, they're just not plentiful examples and they tend to cost five figures and sound only average. As such, this is an areas that is evolving rapidly and huge improvements are being made as we learn more about just how sensitive and ragile digital information is.
The LDMS Mini was a revelation and costs around the £7k mark depending on how you spec it. I've also heard the Maximus (£15k) and that is also utterly sublime. Honestly the improvement the LDMS Mini made was the single most revelatory improvement I've ever heard. It was truly remarkable.
One other thing; SPDIF/Coax beats USB every time for a fraction the cost and it also now possible to stream DSD64 via Coax. I recently did some back to back comparissons and the difference between the two cable formats was remarkable. The £2k Laboga Ruby USB cable was easily bettered by the £150 RCA (it wasn't even a dedicated Coaxial cable!) out of the SPDIF.
So to answer your question - trading the TT for a music server, ideally the LDMS Mini would be my unerring recommendation.
At the time I was thinking I was an idiot for having accepted it; at the point where I should have been looking forward to an upgrade from the server, instead the preamp would be removed and I would be left with a gaping hole that perhaps the server might be able to compensate for maybe half what the preamp had done.
I couldn't have been more wrong. The step up offered by the server into my system was as big a transformation as adding the preamp was but using the Macbook to stream.
Server based music and streaming is still very much in its infancy and there very few servers around that offer true high end performance; they are available, they're just not plentiful examples and they tend to cost five figures and sound only average. As such, this is an areas that is evolving rapidly and huge improvements are being made as we learn more about just how sensitive and ragile digital information is.
The LDMS Mini was a revelation and costs around the £7k mark depending on how you spec it. I've also heard the Maximus (£15k) and that is also utterly sublime. Honestly the improvement the LDMS Mini made was the single most revelatory improvement I've ever heard. It was truly remarkable.
One other thing; SPDIF/Coax beats USB every time for a fraction the cost and it also now possible to stream DSD64 via Coax. I recently did some back to back comparissons and the difference between the two cable formats was remarkable. The £2k Laboga Ruby USB cable was easily bettered by the £150 RCA (it wasn't even a dedicated Coaxial cable!) out of the SPDIF.
So to answer your question - trading the TT for a music server, ideally the LDMS Mini would be my unerring recommendation.
