OK. A couple of hours later and all of the dropouts have stopped. Didn't make any changes so I am going to assume the initial poor performance was the result of initial indexing or something like that. My impressions have changed completely. Just listened to the first few songs without dropouts and they sound wonderful. Nice to be able to control everything from my phone as well. If I can get away with using my older macbook air as the server and only have to put out for the cost of the software I think it will be a no brainer for me. Will likely start with the yearly subscription when my trial expires but for about 10 bucks a month this could be an addition I will be happy to make. Providing of course that the reliability continues.