Hifidelio Wireless Music Server Review

I have had a Hifidelio 160Gb wireless music server for a week now and
thought I would write a brief review to help/inform any potential buyers.
First I should say that the price is the UK of £799 is too high and I would
recommend the dealer Stassen-HiFi based in Venlo in Holland who sells them
for EUR 839 (approx £575).

I upgraded the music server to the latest 2.1.8 firmware very easily by
selecting the upgrade option on the settings menu. The following are a list
of good and bad points (in my view) plus some nice to haves that would make
it perfect! I have been told by Hermstedt support that a new software
version is currently being worked on which will provide a new web browser
interface.

Good points

Excellent quality sound from lossless files, comparable to Arcam CD92
player.
Styling is great with an iPod style screen and navigation scroll wheel.
Slot loading CD player makes loading CDs very quick.
Rips to AIFF, WAV, MP3 of FLAC format from CD.
Files can be converted after they have been imported.
Can import and play AAC format files.
Rips copy protected CDs.
Burns to regular CD-Rs.
Can record from analogue inputs (e.g. records, tapes).
Internet radio (more than 600 stations).
Streams music to and from iTunes or other UPnP compliant device (however
iTunes doesn't play FLAC).
Built in web server which shows music files by album/artist/genre and allows
meta data to be edited (but does not allow you to select music to be
played).
Has both wireless-g and Ethernet switch for connection to internet and home
network.
Free upgrade of firmware over the internet.
Large built-in music database.
Connects to freedb for new track information.
Music can be exported to an MP3 player such as an iPod.
Music can be imported from a PC just by dropping the music files into a
folder on the network.
Telnet support (waiting for the user name and password so not sure what is
available via telnet).
Support from hermstedt has been very responsive.

Bad points

Remote control up/down switches on/off SP1 speaker on Arcam amplifiers.
No fast forward/rewind from the remote control.
No video out for browsing music collection on a TV.
Occasional crash/hang (three times while ripping 300 CDs).
Bug with 320K AAC files being listed as 256K bit rate.
Slow and limited web server - often doesn't seem to update with the saved
track data.
Internet radio stream sometimes stops - would be nice for it to retry
connection.
File transfer over wireless connection seems much slower than using wired
Ethernet connection.
Can be fiddly selecting the correct track information where there are
several close matches.
Individual tracks can be selected from a CD for importing.
Music can't be exported to a PC.

Nice to have

Fast forward/rewind from the remote control.
Wireless signal level/bit rate needs to be shown on the network settings.
Faster wireless connection.
Remote control option from webserver so you can browse and play music from a
wireless PDA.
Upgrade of music database over the internet rather than paying for the
quarterly subscription CD.
Allow music to be exported to a PC similar to the way music can be imported.

"Simon Heather" wrote in message
k...
I have had a Hifidelio 160Gb wireless music server for a week now and
thought I would write a brief review to help/inform any potential buyers.
First I should say that the price is the UK of £799 is too high and I would
recommend the dealer Stassen-HiFi based in Venlo in Holland who sells them
for EUR 839 (approx £575).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sounds an interesting bit of kit
but wouldnt a small PC built in a very small and sexy case do pretty well
the same .....plus a lot more... AT A SIMILAR COST ?

bARRY

"Barry" wrote in message
...

"Simon Heather" wrote in message
k...
I have had a Hifidelio 160Gb wireless music server for a week now and
thought I would write a brief review to help/inform any potential buyers.
First I should say that the price is the UK of £799 is too high and I
would recommend the dealer Stassen-HiFi based in Venlo in Holland who
sells them for EUR 839 (approx £575).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sounds an interesting bit of kit
but wouldnt a small PC built in a very small and sexy case do pretty well
the same .....plus a lot more... AT A SIMILAR COST ?

True, but there are a few reasons I went for a dedicated device - it is
silent and low power (7 watts when on), has a large iPod style screen on the
front with scroll wheel and play/fast forward buttons and the audio output
quality is comparable to a similar priced CD player (I have now sold my
Arcam CD player). Basically it is just as convenient as using a regular
separates CD player but with all the features of a hard disc player.

- Simon.

Simon Heather wrote:
I have had a Hifidelio 160Gb wireless music server for a week now and
thought I would write a brief review to help/inform any potential buyers.
First I should say that the price is the UK of £799 is too high and I would
recommend the dealer Stassen-HiFi based in Venlo in Holland who sells them
for EUR 839 (approx £575).

Could you post this in uk.rec.audio ? A guy (Matt) has been asking for
info about these systems three days ago...

--
Adrian C

"5605" wrote in message
...
On 2006-02-18 14:57:47 +0000, "Simon Heather"
said:
Hifidelio thing


A Mac mini costs half as much and could also be used as a Divx/DVD/Movie
player. This item, whilst looking good, is drastically overpriced. After
all mp3/aac/ogg are still mp3/aac/ogg at the end of the day regardless of
your playback device. The inherent problems with the formats remain.

I think a new Mac mini is not much cheaper than £500 especially if you get
one with a 160Gb disk for comparable recordings - plus it doesn't have a
high quality stereo phono output or an LCD screen on the unit so you can use
it without switching on the TV. This product is aimed at buyers like me who
will spend £500+ on a CD player for decent audio quality. I think Apple
will enter this space eventually with a large non-portable iPod type device
and this would presumably be cheaper?

- Simon.

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:01:27 GMT, Steve Peake
wrote:

I think apples next big device is more likely to be something tivo like,
with more stereo type functions. That seems to be the next big market, if
it will be Microsoft/apple or a traditional manufacturer is yet to be seen.

That would be great news, as no PVR has yet come close to the original
Tivo ... so I would be lost if mine died!!

___
Dave
www.saynotooverseascallcentres.com