Logitech Squeezebox Duet


duethandset This is a clever device, in that it detaches navigation from the device completely and uses only the remote. The remote control has a small color LCD display which shows everything from playlists to album cover artwork. More Squeezeboxes can be linked together between rooms and either play different tracks or in-sync.

Just like with the Transporter, Logitech-owned Slim Devices once more shows true excellence in spec writing. One thing, however, they managed to keep somewhat hidden, is the fact that the Duet [unlike the Transporter] only supports streaming from their own SqueezeCenter server software. You cannot, in other words, stream from just any media enabled NAS disk or directly from a file server.

Like its bigger brother it supports Flac and Ogg-Vorbis. Indeed a neat device, even considering its obvious short coming.


Squeezebox Duet Squeezebox Duet

Logitech Transporter


transporter The Slim Devices Transporter followed in the footsteps of the insanely popular Squeezebox that came to appear as pack leader when the first media streamers began popping up. Despite its resemblance with a mid-eighties teenage lamps-are-cool amplifier, it sports some pretty amazing specs, including balanced XLR output and an Asahi-Kasei AK4396 DAC.

On a note aside, Slim Devices must be commended for an outstanding spec-sheet, in terms of writing. Instead of listing all sorts of numbers that mean nothing compared to sitting in front of it and listening, they disclose such little nuggets as physical characteristics of in- and outputs, that remote control commands are discrete and that firmware can be flash updated and many others. Seemingly trivial stuff but fairly interesting if you want to pair the device with what you already own.

Slim Devices Slim Devices

Hifidelio Pro-S

hifidelio 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.

Hifidelio Hifidelio

TViX HD M-7000A

tvixm-7000a Korean DVICO has come up with a very nice modular package that supports streaming 1080i HD TV as well as audio, including Flac coded music. The clever thing about the TViX M-7000A is in part that it acts as a network device where you can add or remove media using standard operating system file operations such as Windows Explorer. Another part of the cleverness lies in its modular build. A DVB receiver matching the base of the device can be added in one simple operation in a fashion suggesting future add-on possibilities.

A slick user interface displayed on the attached TV makes for an easy but full fledged means of navigation. In the department for curious features it boasts a connection for an HDV camcorder.

TViX TViX

Linn Klimax DS Digital Stream Player

linn_klimaxds 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.

Linn Linn

D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player


dlink_dsm520 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.

D-Link D-Link

Terratec Noxon


noxon

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].

philips5500 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.

Terratec Terratec

T+A E-Series Music Player

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.

T+A Elektroakustik T+A Elektroakustik

Barebone device Barebone device
Cheap good featured Cheap good featured
Actual hi-fi device Actual hi-fi device
High end hi-fi High end hi-fi
Out of this world Out of this world
CD CD drive
Wifi Wifi
Flac Flac audio
Digital IO Digital IO
Ogg-Vorbis Ogg-Vorbis
uPnP support uPnP support
Video Video

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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