Streaming. It's the latest buzz word in hi-fi but opinion varies as to whether we are really seeing much benefit from this new technology other than convenient storage of music on a single device. It's true that while the iPod and iTunes (and its many clones and copies) have changed the way we listen to music it could also be argued they have sent us back 40 years in terms of the quality of the music. The vast majority of users are happy to convert their CDs to compressed mp3 files which are missing vast amounts of the music information, but do allow smaller files sizes for storage and more reliable streaming. Many are unaware that CDs can be 'ripped' in a lossless format whereby an exact copy of the CD data is retained. It's a situation that has seen sales of quality audio equipment diminish for several years. But could that be about to change?

When HD televisions first became available they were generally derided for their picture quality. This was because we were only seeing standard definition TV pictures blown up to a larger resolution, which is the equivalent of blowing up a small photograph and seemingly losing all the detail in the picture. Now HD transmissions and blurays are commonplace, HD TVs have really come into their own and show what a huge step forward they were.

Something similar is now happening with music. With storage capacity increasing (one, two, or even larger, terabyte drives are now common and relatively cheap) and broadband speeds increasing its now possible to store and stream large music collections losslessly (uncompressed). But there is even better news on the way. Many artists are now making their music available in 24 bit files, which is even greater quality than CDs 16 bit. Finally you will be able to hear the quality as it was intended to be heard by the artist, and arguably the format that actually gets us back to the quality of a good analogue turntable!

Attempts have been made at this sort of quality in the past, with formats such as DVD-Audio and SACD. But neither of these formats captured the imagination of the public like storage and streaming have. Website's selling 24 bit files are still relatively unknown and it will take a company such as Apple to offer these downloads for sales to really take off. But for now, exciting times are ahead and quality audio equipment is available now to get the best from streaming...

The Sonos Wireless Hi-Fi System lets you stream all the music on earth in every room. Start with one room, then expand anywhere to fill your home with wall-to-wall sound. Control all your music with free apps for your Android™, iPhone®, iPad® or use the dedicated Sonos controller. The Sonos system has become one of the most popular selling audio products in recent years due to its ease of installation and expansion possibilities. Whether you are starting from scratch or integrating into an existing audio system, there is a Sonos product to fit your needs. Sonos will stream from your computer or hard drive, streams internet radio and a number of other music services such as Napster or Spotify.

The Pro-Ject Stream Box DS is the first Box Design DS model to utilise the new, sleeker S body finish. By utilising a chip-set normally associated with products at a far higher price-point, Pro-Ject have produced a musical playback device that will play back all of your digital music sources in a stylish and user friendly way. Whether you want to play from an iPod, listen to internet radio, link with your NAS drive, or unlock the potential of your HD music stored on a hard drive, the Stream Box DS can help you. The inclusion of a remote, and a large high-visibility screen makes navigation and playback a joy, while the multiple connectivity options mean the Stream Box DS is a worthy client for any high fidelity application.

The Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC is universal music controller for digital and analog sources. It has: seven digital inputs (2 x digital ipod/iphone/memory stick or USB drive, 2 x coax, optical, USB, network connection) and three analog inputs. The CLiC has both fixed and variable output. The CLiC will operate from wireless or Ethernet. At its heart, the CLiC has a very low noise, low jitter up to 24bit 192 kHz, reclocking upsampling DAC. This has outstanding technical performance with extremely low distortion and excellent linearity. True state of the art performance!

 

 

These multi-award winning systems are in stock for demonstration today, and we can also obtain streamers from Olive, Marantz and Denon.