Fanless Music Server for Audiophiles Launched: The Undentia Cirrus7-SE

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The Undentia Cirrus7-SE Music Server packs Intel's six-core CPU.

Undentia
(Image credit: Undentia)

Undentia, an audio specialist from Sweden, has launched what it calls a music server for audiophiles. The Cirrus-7SE Music Server is based on a regular 10th Generation Intel NUC motherboard which runs silently thanks to a specially designed passively cooled chassis made by Cirrus7. 

For many years true music lovers preferred records on vinyl and SACDs, but since many new releases are digital only, they have to buy them in various lossless formats like FLAC and then keep those files somewhere. Media servers are not usually located in the same room where content is enjoyed, so they may feature loud hard drives and/or cooling systems. But since there are people who might want to locate a media server near their audio equipment, they would probably prefer something passively cooled and preferably without any other loud components. This audience is exactly the target market for the Undentia Cirrus-7SE Music Server.

(Image credit: Undentia)

The Undentia Cirrus7 SE Music Server was designed together with Cirrus7, a maker of fanless PCs from Germany. The machine uses a custom Cirrus7 Nimbini v3 Media Edition chassis that measures 6.2 x 6.2 x 4.7 inches (157 × 157 × 120mm) and acts like a huge cooling system. Inside the PC is Intel's NUC10i7FNH motherboard that carries Intel's Core i7-10710U 'Comet Lake-U' processor (6C/12T, 1.60 – 4.70 GHz, 12MB cache, 15W TDP) with UHD 620 Graphics core.  

The default configuration of the Cirrus7-SE Music Server comes equipped with 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, a 250GB Samsung SSD 970 Evo, and the Roon Rock operating system optimized for media servers, but it is also possible to pre-install Microsoft's Windows 10. The Udentia Cirrus7-SE Music Server has a standard set of I/O technologies that includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GbE, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.0, an audio jack, and an IR receiver. While formally this PC is aimed at audiophiles, it can naturally be used like a regular desktop PC or like a media server, especially when it is equipped with a high-capacity 2.5-inch HDD or SSD.

(Image credit: Undentia)

Undentia sells the Cirrus7-SE Music Server is available for 14,950 Kr, or about $1795 with taxes. Interestingly, a similarly configured PC from Cirrus7 is priced at $1254 which is certainly a better deal if one plans to use the system like a regular desktop and does not need the Roon Rock OS pre-installed.

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gg83
    250gb ssd is enough to hold 1 album in FLAC format. Lol. Would you store the music on a NAS or something and stream it to the "music server"?
    Reply
  • OriginFree
    gg83 said:
    250gb ssd is enough to hold 1 album in FLAC format. Lol. Would you store the music on a NAS or something and stream it to the "music server"?

    Even allowing 50gb for the OS, formatting and other software that leaves 200gb.
    Assuming that's 200GB, that is one Loooooong album.
    Reply
  • krimarai
    What's so music oriented about it? If it came with preinstalled good audio card, amplifier, and cheaper CPU to balance out the cost it would be more reasonable to call it audiophile's music server.
    Reply
  • Nick_C
    An audiophile and their money are soon parted - just organise a sighted listening test, bump the "better" system's output by a few tenths of a dB, then enthuse about all the things that can be "heard" in its output.... ;)

    250GB is enough to hold around 28 days of CD sourced FLAC.
    Reply
  • hallby81
    krimarai said:
    What's so music oriented about it? If it came with preinstalled good audio card, amplifier, and cheaper CPU to balance out the cost it would be more reasonable to call it audiophile's music server.
    That's exactly what I was thinking. Where is the included external sound card (lets face it, this thing isn't going to get an internal card). Its a stretch at 1800 dollars to call this a "music" media center.
    Reply
  • gg83
    OriginFree said:
    Even allowing 50gb for the OS, formatting and other software that leaves 200gb.
    Assuming that's 200GB, that is one Loooooong album.
    I was exaggerating. 1 album is about 1gb at 24-bit. Its very easy to hit 200gb with a halfway decent music collection. I hit a tb when AudioGalaxy was around.
    Reply
  • Wtcher
    krimarai said:
    What's so music oriented about it? If it came with preinstalled good audio card, amplifier, and cheaper CPU to balance out the cost it would be more reasonable to call it audiophile's music server.

    Adding an audio card and amplifier would limit it as an audiophile device (though yes, it would turn it into an all-in-one media device). At the high end, audiophiles include people who have already spent 7 figures on the amp by itself.

    Keep in mind the audiophile industry has people buying thousand dollar rolls of CAT6 (I've seen it in person... alright, it was $999 for ten or twenty feet, I think?) and thousand dollar audiophile-grade PC power cables (yes, from your wall outlet to your PC; https://www.gcaudio.com/products/category/power-cords/ has a selection).

    I've also witnessed people eschewing optical cabling because "the light bouncing around in the cladding introduces delays".
    Reply
  • Fleshharrower
    Hi friends. This is a solid waste of money. I run my own Intel NUC with an external HDD array with 6TB of raid 1 storage. The NUC itself is a few generations older and i5 based but it was less than $400 . The Roon Rock OS itself is free but the subscription is either $12.99 USD per month or $699 per year. I don’t use Roon myself as I have windows on the box and use it to serve my old DVD and CD rips (from my library). Frankly most of the time the box is playing Amazon HD Music streams these days as both the convenience and quality are there.
    For a sound card...as an audiophile, we usually use an external DAC via USB or coax/to slink then into our external amp(s). In my case, this part of the setup is where the money went.
    Reply
  • jose81216
    All the respect to the people who designed this, but I honestly don't thing it was intended for audiophiles or media server. They could had cut the CPU to 2C/4T and pump the storage to at least 2TB NVME or SSD drive. Also where is the DAC? I'm confused why are they calling this an Audiophile music server.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    jose81216 said:
    Also where is the DAC? I'm confused why are they calling this an Audiophile music server.
    Any audiophile looking to use this would want to buy their own DAC. Their is no DAC that could get bundled with this that would make more than a couple people happy. As tribal as PC enthusiasts are, it's 1000 times worse with audiophiles.
    Reply