Burn, play, rip, store, and stream with your Fireball. Ouch, it all sounds frightfully painful. Actually, Escient’s new Fireball is an amazingly pain-free way to get the most from your music collection. The latest music server from the American specialist integrates your hi-fi with music stored on everything from a computer to an iPod.
The Fireball hard disk server combines colossal storage – there’s a whopping half terabyte hard disk that can hold up to 8500 hours, or almost one year’s worth, of music – with top-notch hi-fi circuitry, meaning you get audiophile-quality replay. CD burning and ripping is simple and swift, and the Fireball is compatible with FLAC, WMA, AAC and MP3 files.
You want more? No problem, the Fireball also browses, plays and transfers music stored on any computer, regardless of which way you swing – it’s both Apple Mac and Windows friendly. Moreover, it can import and manage songs purchased from online music stores, such as iTunes, or stream one the thousands of available radio stations directly via the Internet.
It goes without saying that, thanks to the optional Escient FP-1 universal dock, the Fireball can transfer music to and from an iPod or any MP3 portable – but we’ll say it anyway. This highly evolved dock also integrates your iPod into the Fireball system, seamlessly managing your Apple portable’s content along side media stored on your music server. A further valuable feature of the FP-1 dock is its ability to operate in a separate location to the Fireball hub, providing you with not just two entertainment zones, but also two distinct user interfaces.
When it comes to usability the Fireball continues to blaze a trail, offering the most sophisticated user interface on the market. This includes the ability to search for digital music on your network, and content aggregation on to a beautifully simple, intuitive interface. Add automatic identification of any CD you throw at it – uploading artist, album, and genre names as well as cover art – and it’s a breeze to manage to your music.
Not that Escient has forgotten your good ol’ analogue music collection. Plug a turntable or cassette into the Fireball’s rear and they too can join in the fun.
And those of a seriously techie bent will be glad to know the Fireball can be controlled from any PDA, plus it is completely compatible with all the multi-room control systems from Marantz, Crestron, AMX, Niles and many more.
The rest of us can simply be happy in the knowledge that the Escient Fireball’s coming means there is now one device to control all our music – wherever we store it – and play it back at the best quality.
Contact Escient UK on 01753 680023 or visit www.escienteurope.com