New York – Hard-drive music servers are becoming commonplace in custom installations, and new servers are turning up for the home and marine markets.
Linn Products, one of the first audio companies to tap the hard disk, has introduced a new Kivor product. The eight-zone Kivor Index comes in two versions: the Index 250 ($10,000) with 250 hours of uncompressed, full-bandwidth audio and the Index 500 ($12,500) with 500 hours of uncompressed audio. The server integrates with Linn’s Knekt multiroom audio system and can be controlled by third-party touchscreen controllers via an RS-232 interface.
Audio servers aren’t limited to land. ReQuest Multimedia plans to launch a nautical version of its ARQ hard-disk recorder. The system has been optimized to withstand the effects of salt air, humidity and bumpy seas. The 320MB device will ship in early 2003 at $10,000. The initial dealer is Intelect Integrated Electronics of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and ReQuest will add five or six dealers over the year.
For its part, Pioneer pushed back shipments of its DigitaLibrary, first shown at the 2002 CES, to March at a list price of $1,000.
