Bricasti Design M5 Network Player
Description
The Bricasti M5 network player is a network interface and media renderer that connects to your server via a local area network. With wide support for DLNA and other popular network protocols, the M5 delivers pristine lossless audio from your network to your Digital to analog converter; your music server can go anywhere you choose. The M5 connects to your LAN via Ethernet with SPDIF, AES outputs supporting sample rates up to 192k PCM, DSD 64 and DSD 128 over USB. A regionally approved WI-FI adapter is required for WI-FI functionality and is not included.
The M5 is robustly constructed of milled and CNC machined aluminum sections. There is no typical bent metal chassis and top cover found on most products. All sections of the construction, the front and rear panels, the sides and even the bottom and top plates start out as solid blocks of aluminum which are precision machined to shape, with exact tolerances for a perfect fit. These parts are then anodized and the text and markings are laser-etched for a clean and enduring look.
The intention of the M5 is to provide state of the art playback and transfer of digital audio data from your network attached drive or anywhere on the network the audio is stored. In this scheme, the audio is then “rendered” or streamed as real-time audio in the M5, then sent to the passive digital outputs, the AES or SPDIF. This approach removes the host server computer from the actual playing of the audio and eliminates typical issues found, such as noise generated from PC power supplies and switch mode voltage regulators in the computer, plus noise from power over USB when using a computer for this purpose. The result is quiet backgrounds, clear transients, and the elimination of noise and power contamination as the M5 has a fully linear power supply. Even the USB playback from the M5 will be an improvement over a normal PC, as all the power running the USB is directly from a linear supply with no switch mode regulators to create high-frequency noise.