If you’ve got a hi-fi system you love, but it doesn’t speak Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay, or any other wireless streaming languages, NAD’s new CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer ($349) provides a super-simple and compact upgrade.
The London, England-founded, Canadian-based company, announced the compact audiophile-grade component today that allows you to add streaming capabilities to pretty much any music system. The CS1 can play high-res audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz (with its internal DAC also supporting MQA decoding) via various sources, with connectivity options that include Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and features support for Apple AirPlay 2, GoogleCast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Roon. Through Bluetooth, however, you can stream music from any app from a smartphone, computer, or tablet, opening up the playback options.
Additionally, NAD says that at launch time the CS1 will offer network sharing through DNLA/UPnP protocols, which means that you’ll be able to control your music using those familiar music apps of the services you subscribe to, and not have to use a dedicated NAD app for the CS1.
To get all this hi-res sound to your hi-fi system, the NAD CS1 features a set of RCA analog outs for versatile connectivity to components like stereo receivers, integrated amps, and powered speakers. Or if you have components such as AV receivers, and external digital-to-analog converters (DAC) that support optical and coaxial inputs, you can keep it digital and send audio that way at the 24-bit/192kHz resolution.
“Streaming has profoundly altered the way people discover and experience music,” Cas Oostvogel, Product Manager of NAD Electronics, said in a press release. “The CS1 makes it easy to add streaming to a legacy stereo or home theatre setup. Or someone could configure a low-footprint system for a den or home office by combining the CS1 with a pair of powered speakers. Streaming doesn’t get simpler than this.”
The NAD CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer will be available through NAD’s website and retailers in March 2023.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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