HRT Music Streamer Mk2.
Innovative small and affordable - it's recipe that is hard to beat and here is another example - for just $299 you can dramatically improve the sound of music from your computer or laptop.
Now some will ask the obvious question of 'why' thinking that there is something inherently flawed in the digital storage of music, especially if under the impression that all MP3 or downloaded material is of dubious quality. The present day reality is completely at odds with this - a computer can store music at a considerably higher quality level than the CD standard, music recorded off CD and saved in an efficient format such as Apple Lossless is every bit as good as the original disc, and higher quality downloads are becoming the norm rather than exception. We are quickly getting to the point where many music enthusiasts of all ages will use a computer as their primary means of storage and playback. Personally I think this is a great thing - we have an explosion of interest in music, the ability to easily play and transport and share vast libraries. And in an impressively short period of time, both sound quality and cost issues have been solved.
If you still have any reservations about iTunes I suggest you read this. - the latest version of Itunes is easy to use, rich in features, sounds great and its FREE! Why wouldn't you…?
This is all a preamble to the introduction of the latest version of a very cool little product - The HRT Music Streamer - now in Mk 2 form. HRT stands for High Resolution Technologies and the first thing to note is that we insist on truth in advertising. HRT are what they say. The music streamer is a simple little box with a USB input and a pair of RCA audio outputs. In other words it is a digital to analogue converter. You simply plug one end into your computer or laptop, the other end into any audio system and play music.
HRT Music Streamer II NZ$ 299 now in the new 'curvy' design
HRT Music Streamer II+ NZ$ 599
Two things make the HRT Music Streamer special - its high performance and its low cost. 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."
"One area where the MS2 easily surpasses the previous model is in the bass. There’s an incredible precision and focus to bass sounds...it was easy to hear the differences in bass guitar tone between the Wrecking Crew musicians, McCartney’s Rickenbacker on a Beatles track, and that Peter, Paul and Mary’s Leaving On A Jet Plane has both an electric bass and an upright underpinning the song. Excellent stuff!" Mike Jones - Audioenz.
"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
The new versions of the HRT streamers have two critical advantages over many other products. Jitter is a dirty word in the world of Digital to Analogue conversion and while there are many ways to compensate for it, the best way is HRT's use an asynchronous USB connection. In simple terms Asynchronous means the DAC controls the flow (and timing) of the digital audio stream from the computer which minimises jitter and results in better detail retrieval and overall smoothness in sound. The other update is to full speed 96khz/24 bit* capability.
*Don't get too caught up in the specification game - 96khz is the maximum rate you can get out of a USB connection - while we have 192/24bit converters, these only operate at this level for optical and coax connections and have to drop down to 96khz for USB streams. And this is still twice as fast as the CD sampling rate.
While we've had plenty of time with many other USB DACs - the new HRT MK2 devices - especially the better Musicstreamer+ are only matched by the best of the NuForce range - the HDP. There are uncannily high levels of quality to be had - 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$670, you'll be up at another level with much more clarity at all parts of the frequency range, and there will be real depth and scale with the music - that's the MusicStreamer+ version. They really are just todays version of a transducer - rather than turning squiggles in vinyl into music, the take data from your computer. Simple and highly effective
We have both new versions of the HRT Music Streamer - the entry level version at NZ$ 299 for everyone to try and the serious version which at NZ$ 599 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 Kimber Tonik (from $120) 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 like the New Kimber USB 1m $90.
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.
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