I had a Hifidelio (sold in the USA as Olive Musica) for some time.
I liked the product tremendously, I love music, I like computers and now you have the whole in one box.
Over time my enthusiasm faded. The sound quality was only moderate, the proprietary software a bit buggy and the performance poor.
After a year I sold the unit.
Now this is my opinion about the Hifidelio so subjective and not necessary valid for any other brand but what do you get?
A box with the looks of audio gear.
Inside you find a processor, a hard disk and a sound card.
That is exactly the same as any ‘normal’ PC.
if you go this in general a bit expensive way:
• check user forums, the software is often proprietary so might be a bit buggy
• check backup facilities, some use a backup strategy making it impossible to transfer your music to another system. They probably do so to avoid problems with copyright but you are lost the moment you want to move to another system.
• Check what is inside. This is a bit hard to do but as it is a computer, how does its price tag compares with a well designed silent PC and a good quality sound card or external DAC.
Music servers:
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/HD_players.html
Hifidelio:
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HiFidelio/intro.htm