Esteemed Arcus has a potent player in the game of CD ripping audio servers. This one can copy CD onto its internal hard drive, back it up onto a network attached storage and play it back in a number of formats, including Flac and Ogg-Vorbis.
Wireless communication is done using a USB Wifi dongle. Not exactly elegant but at least it lets you move the antenna to higher ground for good reception. Identifying itself over uPnP, other streaming clients can take advantage of the device.
The Hifidelio streamer supports ripping and recording CDs. And not only that. It can rip to Flac format. On the connection side it has the usual analogue and digital audio connections but also boasts a 4 port switch and 2 USB ports. For displaying CD information it connects to FreeDB for artist and track titles.
Hifidelio entertains two lovely ladies called Leonore and Veronica. Leonore is a web based interface to the device that lets you control it remotely as well as edit playlists. Veronica is a VNC based remote control that can run on anything supporting VNC, such as a Windows Mobile based telephone. Just imagine: manage your playlists from your mobile phone! Neat!
One thing that stands out with Hifidelio is an incredibly active user community, discussing everything from music to firmware updates.
The Azur 640H carries most of its weight in its ability not only to play CDs but also rip them to the internal 160GB hard drive and record new ones. Add to that Cambridge Audio’s reputation for unadorned clear audio and innovation and you have a truly cool streamer. The 640H can stream wirelessly from internet stations, local network resources or from other 640H devices. Interconnected servers simply share their file lists in what is effectively a distributed system. It supports MP3 and WMA but can not rip to Flac.
Big brother Azur 740H adds a bigger disk, Flac support and the ability to play different playlists in up to 3 different rooms, when connected to Cambridge Audio’s Incognito multi-zone system. Rumour has it that this new addition to digital sound heaven should arrive sometime mid-2008. Well, that is now. Let us have it already!
There is no way that you can not have heard the name Linn if you have moved in audiophile circles and whattayouknow? They too have made a media player! I don’t know anyone who has one, nor do I know of anyone in my immediate vicinity who sells them. I can only assume that it sounds wonderful enough to muffle the sound of the bank repossessing the house. It supports Flac but it appears not to support MP3, which is interesting but hardly very surprising. The picture here shows the player with a Samsung touch screen and a Buffalo TeraStation NAS disk.
The DSM-520 is a neat little media streamer that not only uses a TV connection to present the user with a rich menu system for audio playback, it also uses the TV connection to stream video in 1080i HD quality. Connections include wired and wireless ethernet and digital audio and HDMI outputs and support for surround sound.
In terms of file format it includes Ogg-Vorbis support but not Flac.
This little device has been discontinued for some time but is still worth mentioning, as it was among the first devices to fit into this category of sound equipment. It was this model that laid the basis for Philips’ first endeavour into media hubs, the SLA 5500 [below].
The device supports MP3 and WMA files and can receive streams directly from internet radio stations or from an uPnP compatible media server such as TVersity. It has a built-in wireless ethernet and no wired input. Output is a mini-jack. The remote control is fairly well laid out and of better quality than most in this price group. Both devices suffer from a very poor LCD display.
Touting their Music player as “the audiophile music-player” indicates the target audience for this media player – people who care about sound.
The design is anonymous and non-intrusive but not exactly pretty. The feature set, however, is in another order of things. A special DAC design based on Burr-Brown converters should improve s/n-ratio, reduce jitter and improve channel separation. Of course, a DAC without a digital source makes little sense – and sources there are aplenty. It has an FM radio and can be extended with an optional DAB radio and a CD player. It connects via ethernet [cabled or wireless] to streaming audio sources, networked files and files on a USB device or on a CD-ROM.
Supported file formats include Flac and Ogg-Vorbis in addition to the mandatory MP3 and Windows Media Player formats. Flac uses lossless compression that does not degrade sound quality and Ogg-Vorbis is an alternative to MP3. Of course, bitrate still has a saying but that goes for all formats.
A very interesting piece of machinery, albeit in a rather high price class. Considering the components used, this is hardly surprising.
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Barebone device | |
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Cheap good featured | |
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Actual hi-fi device | |
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High end hi-fi | |
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Out of this world | |
 CD drive |
 Wifi |
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 Flac audio |
 Digital IO |
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 Ogg-Vorbis |
 uPnP support |
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 Video |
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Please note that the ratings are not objective in any way nor are they a measure for quality. They are a measure for what I think the target group for the device was intended to be; my expectations if you will.
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