Here is another network music player, the Olive | Musica. (No, I did not insert the vertial bar into its name.) The Musica not only streams music from your Mac/PC via a 802.11g wireless network hook up, but can store tons of MP3/WAV/AIFF/FLAC audio on its own internal 160GB hard drive (there’s also a model with a 250GB drive). Olive anticipated some folks not having a computer, but just wanting to get your CDs straight onto the Musica, so there is a CD drive built in – just stick in the CD and it is automatically ripped, tagged and added to the library. Guess what, the CD drive is also a burner, so you can burn your favorite tunes to a CD for your car, or wherever. You can can even hook up your iPod and get your tunes on there. The streaming works the other way too – you can stream music from your Musica to your Mac/PC. The Musica also hooks up with your stereo system and is definitely geared to folks who care about their audio quality; for example, the RCA jacks are gold-plated. Certainly sounds like a worthy competitor to the Sonos and Roku Soundbridge products.
Features:
- Record, tag and archive CDs with the push of a simple button. The MUSICAS’s ultra-quiet 160GB hard drive holds up to 40,000 songs. Record in uncompressed (WAV/AIFF), lossless compression (FLAC) or MP3 format (up to 320 kBit/s).
- High-fidelity CD Player & Burner. Play your favorite CDs and burn customized playlists to CD from the hard drive.
- Wireless (802.11g) access point and 4-port Ethernet-switch provide complete network infrastructure. Access music stored on your networked Mac/PC or vice versa. Listen to thousands of free internet radio stations (internet service required).
- USB 2.0 interface. Upload music to your Apple iPod or other compatible MP3 Players. Stream music from or backup to external USB hard drives.
- Output to stereo system via digital (S/PDIF optical / TOSLINK coax) or analog ports (gold-plated RCA). Analog inputs (RCA) allow recording analog media such as tape or vinyl directly to the hard drive (pre-amp or receiver required).
Price: $1099 for 160GB model
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)