Against this background at Ayon the idea matured to provide the audiophile music lover with an extensive plug-and-play solution. A solution one needs not be afraid of and that is absolutely not complicated as it refrains from implementing a NAS-system and this way shortening the subject network to a large extent and on top of everything sounds good. For this, one wanted to install a second completely self-sufficient platform based upon another streaming module of StreamUnlimited. But the at Ayon’s estimated JRiver Media Center turned out to consume too many resources for this project for the “smaller” streaming modules. So, one asked quite cheeky at JRiver whether one could receive an appropriately downsized variant of the software also running performant on ARM-platforms. As was almost expectable for quite a while there was no answer from JRiver. But one should not underestimate the Austrian persistence, and Ayon simply followed up. And then one fell on open ears at JRiver with this project. Nevertheless, it took more than another year until the first prototype of a completely slimmed JRiver-version purely for audio reproduction was available. Then JRiver yet integrated the Ayon proprietary setup into the software. This special version now is called “JRiver Blackbox“ and is distributed by JRiver exclusively to manufacturers.

In the “JRiver Blackbox Server“-version the S 10 II now has another streaming-module by StreamUnlimited and a 1-TB-SSD with preinstalled “JRiver Blackbox“ including license on board. In addition, the “Server“-version requires a significantly modified power supply to precisely provide the necessary voltages. And while one is at it, then one can easily build in here and there better components for resistors and capacitors and improve the selection level of the tubes.

Of course, I have an ardent interest to see how the “Server” version acquits in practice. But how does the music arrive on the hard disk of the S 10 II? The hard disc cannot be addressed via the home network. First, we need to completely separate the S 10 II from the mains by means of the standby-button and the power-off switch. Now the above-mentioned USB-SSD labelled USB-port comes into play. We simply connect it with our PC with an USB-cable. It is as if we would connect an external hard disk. Then on our PC appears another disk drive. Afterwards we establish on this drive a new folder named “music” into which we copy our music files. You have noticed? We did not need a network! Afterwards we restart the S 10 II and JRiver automatically imports our files. Regarding installation and operation, the “Server” version certainly is an excellent choice for music lovers who do not want to be annoyed with computer or network problems.