http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/tests-reviews/2010/11/experts-guide-great-gifts-2010?pnid=49930
High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer II $150 Music fans who keep on top of cuttingedge technology have had a few starts and stops to deal with during the past decade. That’s right, I’m talking about SACD and DVD-Audio. But while releases in those high-resolution disc formats have slowed to a trickle, a steady rain of highrez music has been issuing forth from the online cloud. A number of music Web sites like HDTracks offer high-resolution 96/24 and 88/24 downloads of select titles.
To play these on your A/V system directly from a computer, in most cases you’ll need special software (MediaMonkey is a popular option for Windows; as for me, I use VLC on my Mac) along with an outboard USB digital-to-analog converter that’s capable of handling high-rez fi les. (A number of newer network-capable A/V receivers are also quite up to the job.) Some such DACs cost several thousands of dollars. But the High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer II does the same stu. and costs only $150. The candy-bar-size (think Toblerone) MSII has only two connections: a USB port on one side and a stereo analog output on the other. The unit draws power over USB, so there’s no need for a power cable. While its look may be unassuming, what goes on inside the MSII is quite high-tech indeed: Unlike regular USB-DAC connections, the MSII enables an asynchronous link where the DAC, and not the computer, establishes the clock for passing digital audio data.
Listening to the 96/24 FLAC files that I downloaded from HDTracks with the MSII connected between my laptop and A/V system, I heard an effortless, unstrained quality that I don’t normally associate with computer-based audio. Classical music was especially easy on the ears, but at the same time sounded detailed and dynamic. The era of high-rez music isn’t over; it’s just migrating online. And products like the Music Streamer II now let you experience it on the cheap.
