HRT Music Streamer.

Innovative small and affordable - it’s recipe that is hard to beat and here is another example - for just $250 you can dramatically improve the sound of music from your computer or laptop.

Now some will ask the obvious question of ‘why’ thinking that there is something inherently flawed in the digital storage of music, especially if under the impression that all MP3 or downloaded material is of dubious quality. The present day reality is completely at odds with this - a computer can store music at a considerably higher quality level than the CD standard, music recorded off CD and saved in an efficient format such as Apple Lossless is every bit as good as the original disc, and higher quality downloads are becoming the norm rather than exception. We are quickly getting to the point where many music enthusiasts of all ages will use a computer as their primary means of storage and playback. Personally i think this is a great thing - we have an explosion of interest in music, the ability to easily play and transport and share vast libraries. And in an impressively short period of time, both sound quality and cost issues have been solved.

If you still have any reservations about iTunes I suggest you read this. - the latest version of Itunes is easy to use, rich in features, sounds great and its FREE! Why wouldn’t you…?

This is all a preamble to the introduction of a very cool new product - The HRT Music Streamer. HRT stands for High Resolution Technologies and the first thing to note is that we insist on truth in advertising. HRT are what they say. The music streamer is a simple little box with a USB input and a pair of RCA audio outputs. In other words it is a digital to analogue converter. You simply plug one end into your computer or laptop, the other end into any audio system and play music.

Two things make the HRT Music Streamer special - its high performance and its low cost (from just NZ$250 including GST). While these are claims you will have heard before, seldom have we seen so many column inches devoted such diminutive and affordable products.

Reviewer Steven Stone called the Music Streamer "The biggest bargain I've heard in a long time... Try it and prepare to be amazed". In the Music Streamer + review Steven wrote "I was floored by how good it sounded. No, not good, stunning."

"Holy Cow! This thing sounds so good I might even stop hating music-via-computer!" Ken Kessler Hi-Fi News April 09

"You plug your laptop into the Streamer, plug the streamer into your system, play music and the your first comment uttered just a few bars into the recording is ‘cor!’" Alan Sircom Hi-Fi + Magazine issue 64

"If you’ve been holding off giving the rip-and-download scene a go due the cost, check out the High Resolution Technologies MusicStreamer. It may open up both your ears and your living space." Soundstage.com May 09

It’s completely seamless, with a whisper-quiet background that will shock you, highlighting how noisy your on-board system really is. Sounds are easily delineated from one another and sit in an expansive plum-pudding of a soundstage.Hi-Fi+ Magazine, Issue 64 www.hifiplus.com

While we've had plenty of time with other USB DACs - for instance the Perreaux SXD2 and Cambridge Audio DACmagic, the new HRT devices - especially the better Musicstreamer+ have quickly raised our expectations. There is uncannily high levels of quality to be had - in fact it's been alarming that with albums we've recorded from original CDs, we're hearing things at home that we can't remember hearing on any system, regardless of the cost of CD player. While I'm not saying the HRT is a substitute for a Meridian CD player, I've yet to find a CD player at the same cost as my laptop plus HRT that even comes close. If I ever had to start a system from scratch again, I know that as of now, my source would be a new Mac and the HRT - I could see no reason to get all romantic about vinyl or start buying CDs when they are even more likely to be obsolete than the black record in another couple of years.

If the concept of the MusicStreamer is hard to grasp, think of it in analogue terms: A good moving magnet phono cartridge like an Ortofon will cost around $175-$350 and give you much better sound than some scuzzy old stylus. There will be less background noise and you'll hear stuff that was fuzzy before. That's the basic Music Streamer. If you opt for an entry level Moving Coil Cartridge - the Dynavector 10X5MK2 at NZ$650, you'll be up at another level with much more clarity at all parts of the frequency range, and there will be real depth and scale with the music - that's the MusicStreamer+ version. They really are just todays version of a transducer - rather than turning squiggles in vinyl into music, the take data from your computer. Simple and highly effective

We have both versions of the HRT Music Streamer - the entry level version at $250 for everyone to try and the serious version which at $550 is still only the price of a decent turntable cartridge. You’ll need a set of audio interconnects to connect these - we can happily recommend the Pudney ($60), Kimber Tonik ($150) or SlinkyLinks (from $400) depending on which HRT model you opt for and how good you fancy the rest of your system is. And while you have have spare USB leads, we also have better breeds of USB cables from both Pudney and Kimber.

Because the HRTs are so small,foolproof to connect and in our estimation so startlingly good we have no problems at all in giving you a 30 day money back guarantee - so give us a call or e mail us today so we can send you one and you can find out just how good they are for yourself.