Hi-Fi: HRT Music Streamer Digital-To-Analogue Converter – Review – 78
The D/A converter is very much back in vogue, due mainly to the rise of computer-based audio. Everyone has a computer these days, and chances are most of us spend more time at the keyboard than sitting down and enjoying music or movies. Thus the USB DAC was born, perhaps out of the sheer frustration suffered by music fans tied to computers.
Most DACs, both USB and conventional, are complicated affairs, with tons of inputs and outputs making for a bulky unit – exactly what you don’t want on an already cluttered computer desk.
The HRT Streamer is a tiny USB DAC from American company High Resolution Technologies, and as simple as the HRT Streamer is, it certainly gets the job done unobtrusively.
There are only three connections on this tiny truncated pyramid-shaped device: a solitary USB input from a PC, and RCA left and right audio out – even the power is supplied by the computer. There’s really not much to get wrong.
It was laughably easy to get running. Thirty seconds and it was spewing out tracks (files) from my computer – all running through a Kingrex T-Amp and Klipsch bookshelf speakers.
And it sounded pretty good. Vocals were nicely rendered with good ‘air’ available throughout the recordings, while bass and drums were full of impact and resolution.
In a nutshell, if you require a basic DAC with no bells and whistles, the HRT Streamer is as cheap as chips and does the biz sonically. And isn’t that the bottom line?
GARY PEARCE
HRT Music Streamer Digital-To-Analogue Converter – Tech Specs
Bit Depth: 16-bit
Power: USB Bus (version 1.1)
- Compatible with iTunes/Windows Media Player
- Suitable for internet radio use
- Dimensions: Really tiny
- Weight: Mobile phone-like
Verdict
What more do you need for USB audio? Simplicity is the key with HRT’s Music Streamer
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