Qsonix Q100/110 Music Server

Just Press Play

As I scanned the market for music servers to review for this special feature, the Qsonix Q100 stood out from the crowd. When it comes to music servers, the user interface is paramount, and Qsonix had what appeared to be a vastly more friendly and intuitive interface than that of the competition. Most servers rely on text-based lists, menus, and sub-menus rather than on a graphic presentation that shows you album art. It’s like the difference between DOS and Windows operating systems.

I was also drawn to Qsonix for its forward-looking approach to integrating its hardware platform with Web-based music delivery, particularly the tantalizing possibility of accessing highresolution music via downloads. Why wait for a physical format such as HD DVD or Bluray Disc for high-resolution music when you can simply download universally compatible audio files?

The Qsonix Q100 reviewed here will have been updated by the time you read this to the Q110. The newer unit sports a much quieter fan, a front-panel USB port, and version 2.2 software. The software update integrates the Qsonix system with the MusicGiants on-line music store and adds a new feature called Tapestry Tapestry generates playlists based on various attributes you’ve selected). As described in the accompanying interview with Qsonix co-founder Mike Weaver, Qsonix has teamed with MusicGiants to seamlessly deliver music—including high-resolution audio—directly to the Q110 server. Owners of the Q100 can upgrade the software to version 2.2 (at no charge) or the hardware (for a fee) to Q110 status. Pricing for the hardware upgrade had not been finalized at press time.

The Qsonix system consists of two components. The first is an integratedamplifier- sized chassis that contains the hard-disk drive, CD drive for importing discs, computer circuitry, and audio electronics; the second is the 15" touchscreen control panel. The main chassis provides two separate stereo pairs of analog outputs and one S/PDIF jack. The dual analog outputs enable the Qsonix system to simultaneously stream two different playlists to different areas of the house. The S/PDIF jack allows you to bypass the system’s integral digital-to-analog converters and connect the digital output to an external D/A converter. An Ethernet jack provides high-speed internet connection (required), and an RS232 port allows the Q110 to integrate with whole-house control systems such as Crestron and AMX.

The Q110 is offered with three choices of drive capacity: 250GB (750 CDs), 500BG (1500 CDs), and 1TB (3000 CDs). Prices are $5995, $6795, and $7795, respectively, including touchscreen and four analog outputs (Q110). The capacity of CDs per drive is calculated with Windows Media Audio Lossless compression, which provides perfect bit-for-bit accuracy to the source. WMA achieves about a 25–40% decrease in the storage-capacity requirement, with no reduction in sound quality. As I mentioned in my review of the Sooloos system in this issue, some in the high end mistakenly presume that a lossless compression system degrades fidelity. In fact, music sourced from the Q100 sounds better than the same music sourced from a state-of-the-art CD transport. (See the accompanying article “Do Hard-Disk Drives Sound Better than CD?”) You can also select, when importing a CD, a lossy compression system that allows the system to store more music. The socalled “High-Quality” mode increases the storage capacity to 2250 CDs for the 250GB drive. This mode encodes the music with a bit-rate of 320kbps per channel, about a quarter the datarate of uncompressed CD-quality PCM. The “Normal Quality” mode increases the storage capacity to 4500 CDs by lowering the bit rate to 192kbps. I used the lossless option for my evaluation.

Importing CDs one at a time (about five minutes per disc) is tedious. Qsonix offers, in conjunction with MusicGiants, the “Concierge Collection” of prepackaged music. You can specify a list of albums you want, or MusicGiants will hand-tailor a library for you and deliver the music on an external hard drive. The hard drive plugs into Qsonix’s USB port and the music is transferred to the Qsonix drive. You can also use the USB port to add an external drive to back up your music library in case of drive failure.

Qsonix offers some interesting features, including the ability to burn a selected playlist, entire album, or compilation to a CD-R (Red Book format) using the Q110’s integral CD burner. You can access your music library from any other networked media device, as well as transfer music between devices. Anyone who has experience with computer-based audio files knows all too well that much of the meta-data is corrupted by wrong information, misspellings, and other errors (or the information is simply missing). Qsonix uses an “acoustic fingerprinting” technology that goes out to the Web to identify the piece of music and retrieve all new metadata, This meta-data come from All Media Guide (AMG), a company that provides CD information, album art, reviews, and other data. AMG’s meta-data have been hand-coded by a team of professionals and checked for accuracy, in contrast with the popular Gracenote CDDB system that relies on user-generated information. Moreover, AMG categorizes music according to a wide range of criteria (genre, mood, style, instrumentation, etc.)—information that can be used for creating playlists based on your particular tastes and mood. The Tapestry feature described earlier is based on AMG’s technology and data, and Qsonix’s implementation of this feature is the first in the industry.