Amit:
A Squeezebox is a elegant solution for streaming audio across the house. There are other products such as Sonos, but for the price, a Squeezebox is unbeatable. You can keep your music server/HTPC/PC anywhere you want, and listen to music anywhere else in the house. The quality of music will depend upon the associated equipment - amplifier, speakers, etc.
There are dedicated music servers available such as Olive's Opus 4, but they are yet unattractive in price. A PC is a more elegant solution with limitless expansion possibilities.
In addition to the above, there are a number of reasons to seriously consider using a PC based system over a dedicated CDP.
1. The New USB
We have been looking at USB as a not so sexy technology, but that is going to change. In a few years, USB may make all other connection types redundant. USB 3.0, dubbed Superspeed, is ready to deliver 3.2 gigabits per second of actual data, In addition, USB 3.0 is full duplex, meaning it can transfer data at full speed in both directions. USB 3.0 will bring a number of advantages to audio video:
a. USB 3.0 is fast enough to transfer 1080P signals without any compression. For movies, this means you can store and transfer data 'live' and in real time.
b. For audio, you can store and play uncompressed WAV files. In addition, since USB 3.0 is full duplex, the transmitting station can actually send a checksum that can be used by the receiving station to verify the validity of data packets. Suddenly what was so common in data networking will become common in audio transfer. An external DAC can, for example, request a re-read of the audio file if it is unhappy with what it has received. This will bring external DACs to be as good or even better that on-board DACs on current CDPs. And, given the fact that data does not change irrespective of how many times you read it, this combination may beat a disc based player hands down.
c. USB 3.0 carries 150mA as against the current 100mA of trickle charge per port. As against the max of 500mA for USB 2.0, USB 3.0 can carry 900mA. This could mean the removal of external power sources for sensitive items such as DACs.
d. USB 3.0 will most probably replace HDMI, making it the single connection between all units in the player-amplifier chain.
2. The New WiFi.
By 2012, two new protocols are being introduced - 802.11ac and 802.11ad. Both these can carry data at 1 gbps or faster over the air. This makes the possibility of having central media servers even better with the capability of streaming even 1080P signals anywhere across the house.
802.11ac is an update over 802.11n. With 802.11ac, networking will move from a max 600mbps to more than 1 gbps. At such speeds, you will have the capacity to actually transmit multiple streams - meaning you could be playing different songs in different rooms from the same server.
802.11ad goes one step further. Leaving behind the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless spectrum, 802.11ad has adopted the 60GHz spectrum. Since there is no other user in this spectrum, you can stream data across multiple channels at speeds even greater than 1 gbps. This brings in the possibility of sending and receiving uncompressed audio and video signals.
The combination of 802.11ac and 802.11ad coupled with USB 3.0 will make a central media server the in thing over the next few years. I would not be surprised if the compact disc dies with the entry of these technologies. Software owners will have to find other ways of selling their content. Maybe a flash drive in stores, and, of course, paid downloading.
3. DAC
DACs are becoming very common place and, fortunately, less expensive. Every now and then, a new product comes into the market that makes you sit up and take notice. One such product is the Music Streamer Plus from HRT (
High Resolution Technologies web site). A small box, the HRT MS+ has just three connections - an USB on one end for input, and two analog RCA connectors on the other end for output. No power, no controls, nothing. The HRT has the following specs:
- Single-box DAC analog converter.
- Formats supported: all PCM-output audio codecs (AIFF, WAV, MP3, etc.).
- Digital input jack: USB only (type B plug).
- Analog output jacks:
- RCA. Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, +0/-1.7dB.
- Maximum output voltage: 2.25V.
- Signal/noise ratio: 107dB, A-weighted, ref. full output.
- Power requirement (via USB bus): 250mA.
Internally, the HTR uses a 16-bit PCM2706 as a USB transreceiver. The actual DAC is done by a higher quality 24-bit PCM1794 which has it's own 8x oversampling and digital filtering. Current to voltage conversion is done by dual-differential NE5534 op-amps. There is also a Burr-Brown OPA2132, a dual op-amp driver for other tasks.
This is what Art Dudley of Stereophile has to say about the HRT MS+ in the November issue of Stereophile.
QUOTE=Art Dudley - Stereophile, November 2009
Every now and then an affordable product comes along thats so good, even wealthy shoppers want it. Past examples in domestic audio include the Rega RB300 tonearm, the original Quicksilver Mono amplifier, the Grace F9E phono cartridge - even Sonys unwitting CD player, the original PlayStation. Based on word of mouth alone, one might add the HRT Music Streamer+ to that lauded list.
Speaking of incongruities, one might also blush at the thought of comparing
any budget product with one that costs 12 times as much. For better or worse, thats what happened when I pitted HRTs Music Streamer+ ($299) against the Wavelength Cosecant USB D/A converter ($3500). The motorist whose first car was a Ferrari can be forgiven a certain
perspective; happily, the Music Streamer+ proved to be more Mazda Miata than Dodge Neon.
The MS+ combined solid musical basics - very good timing, momentum, and drama - with a sound that softened rather than spotlit the flaws in weaker recordings. It also had less openness and air than either the Wavelength Cosecant or my Sony SCD-777ES disc player, and its sense of spatial depth was modest rather than abundant.
That said, the Music Streamer+ was consistently satisfying in its own right. On "Queen Jane Approximately," from Bob Dylans
Highway 61 Revisited (CD, Columbia CH 90324), the HRT converter played the song with good musical flow-the rhythm section retained a sense of leaning into the music rather than plodding along-and without a trace of the top-end glare that has, in my experience, followed that particular disc to other players. By contrast, the Wavelength Cosecant widened the range of various sonic
distinctions: The vocal emerged a good deal farther from the mix, as did various nuances of playing-the arpeggiated electric-guitar chords in particular-and spatial depth was distinctly greater.
The same sets of qualities followed the products through other types of music. When I listened to Hilary Hahns recording of Vaughan Williams
The Lark Ascending, with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (CD, Deutsche Grammophon 28947 48732-6), the sound through the MS+ was fl atter overall: dynamically, spatially, and even texturally, the solo instrument in particular seeming a bit veiled when compared with the performance of the Cosecant. Notably, however, the MS+ did a fine job with low-level details, and very capably retrieved most of the room sound attached to Hahns violin. In a similar vein, the MS+ uncovered all of the exotic percussion and other soundscape embellishments from Pink Floyds "Remember a Day," from
Relics (EMI/Toshiba TOCP-65737), and did a consistently good job of unraveling lyrics from pop music of all styles and pedigrees.
As with so many other music lovers, poor-sounding records account for a large part of my collection; thankfully, the Music Streamer+ served most of them well. The glaring flaws of early digital found full flower in that first wave of CDs by the Beatles, of which
A Hard Days Night (Parlophone CDP 7 46437 2) was surely the worst. (Just listen to the high-frequency artifacts that pile up around the cymbals in "Ill Be Back"!) [I thought that was Arnold's punch line. I did not know the Beatles had sais it before] The MS+ rendered those and similar recordings as tolerable as Ive heard, without too much softening of vocal and instrumental timbres. Only flaw when dullness was itself the record's flaw- Richie Havens recent and otherwise superb
Nobody Left to Crown (CD, Verve Forecast B0011631-02) comes to mind-did the HRT converter confound rather than enhance my enjoyment.
Incidentally, on some pop-music recordings in particular, the Music Streamer+ seemed to have a shade more bass content than the Wavelength Cosecant. Plucked cellos and harps throughout Joanna Newsoms
Ys (CD, Drag City DC303CD) sounded weightier with the MS+, as did the electric bass on the aforementioned Dylan and Beatles albums. The effect was slight, and without such penalties as timing errors or a lessening of detail.
Four final notes: The Music Streamer+ did not invert the polarity of its output signal; its output voltage was slightly lower than that of the other USB DACs Ive tested so far; it was blessedly free of hum; an it required a week or so of frequent use before sounding its best.
Conclusions
So much for an objective description. Now for an unabashedly subjective conclusion:
Buy it.
If you own a computer, if you dont already own a USB DAC, and especially if you cant afford the state of the art-either because youve already spent too much on a high-end CD player or you just plain dont have that kind of money for hi-fi gear-then stop whatever youre doing and buy a High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer+ right now. Given the musical pleasure it can bring, this moderately imperfect device is immoderately underpriced.
Certain levels of performance can be had only for tens of thousands of dollars, and thats as it should be. The HRT Music Streamer+ offers something that can be had only for less: a peaceful refuge from the expensive storm of digital progress. The MS+ is a well-made product thats also enduringly
effective. That may not be as sexy a word as
powerful or
rare or
exclusive, but its one whose significance is likelier than most to increase over time.
Would I spend $299 for access to exponentially more music than I have, played back with good if not
great sound? You bet. If theres another way in which so little money can bring so much music to an existing system, I havent heard it.
END QUOTE
At $299, an HRT combined with a PC playing WAV or FLAC files will, I am sure, give most CDPs a run for their money. HRT MS+ is only an example. There are many other such products available in the market.
I have over 400GB of music files on various hard disks. I am also ripping all my CDs, even the new ones I buy. The concept of playing music bu genre without having to find, place, and pack CDs, to me, seems an elegant solution. As I said, elsewhere, there is certain amount of ground work needed, but once that is done, it is as simple as using a mouse and getting great quality music played for you.
Cheers
