Lansonic
DAS-750-PRO Digital Audio Server
 One of the most
remarkable achievements of digital audio is not, contrary to what you might have read in
the mainstream press, the ability to copy content for free; rather, it is the flexibility
users have gained in distributing that content.
This is, of course, mainly because of the ubiquity of the
computer, which is now as common as TV (which is to say that every household has, on
average, at least one). Computers can store our CD collections, arrange custom playlists,
and distribute music to multiple rooms (or even distribute different songs to different
rooms). All it takes is lots of storage and some programming skill.
Of course, not everybody has tons of free storage, although
the cost of large capacity hard drives is dropping at an astonishing rate -- as of
1/15/2002, Aberdeen was selling 60-gigabyte drives for $139 -- and not everybody has the
programming skills to write their own code. As a result, a new product category has
arisen: the digital music server. The Linn Kivor Tunboks is probably the best known
example of the genre, but it's far from the only choice. Lansonic markets its DAS-750 in a
variety of configurations, ranging from a model with a 60-gigabyte hard drive to one with
two 180-gigabyte drives. The DAS-750-PRO under review here came equipped with two drives
totaling 120 gigabytes and lists for $2995.
Wha...?
If you haven't been watching this product category, you're
probably asking yourself why anyone would want a digital music server. It's quite possible
you don't. If you only listen to music attentively, or if you're content to load your CD
player one disc at a time, or if you only listen to CDs as complete works of art, you
probably don't need one at all. But if you have a professionally installed multi-room,
multi-zone system running either Panja 3, PHAST or Crestron control system, or if you have
multiple computers running an Ethernet network, the DAS-750-PRO allows you to archive
hundreds of hours of music centrally and control how it's played back.
How many hours? That depends on how much hard drive storage
you buy and how you store the music. If you are content with MP3 running at 128kbps, you
could store about 2000 hours on 120 gigabytes. Personally, I don't think 128kbps cuts it,
so I reckoned I'd have to be content with a paltry 200 hours of uncompressed .WAV files.
But I was in for a shock: My DAS-750-PRO came equipped with a lossless compression
algorithm called SonaPaK™, a 2-to-1 compression scheme, so 400 hours was possible.
Why a shock? Lossless compression is a complex subject --
you either need to be super-brilliant, like Bob Stuart, or devote years of research to
pull it off. Where did a company like Lansonic come up with a lossless compression scheme?
Lansonic, it turns out, is a division of Digital Voice Services, Inc., a company that's
developed vocoders and software speech compression systems for over a decade.
Hunh?
 How you use the
DAS-750-PRO pretty much depends on whether you're a computer person or a music person. If
you're a computer person, you can set the server up through a wired or wireless LAN (local
area network) utilizing a built-in 10-Base-T (10 Mbps) Ethernet connection. Once this link
is established, you can configure the Lansonic to store any kind of file, including text
and/or images. All I was interested in were its music storage capabilities, however, so I
didn't pay attention to its potential for other fun and games.
The DAS-750-PRO can interface with Windows 95/98/2000 or NT
operating systems. Using a basic Web browser, it can be configured and controlled right
from the computer, which I found awkward and frustrating. But I have no network experience
and I'm not that much of a computer maven. Nor did I find the Lansonic's front panel
interface at all easy to use. It's tedious in the extreme.
I wound up controlling it through Lansonic's Web
connection, although it's also set up to work with any Crestron, PHAST, or Panja 3 control
system (which is pretty much all the most frequently used ones).
The PRO version of the Lansonic also contains an S-Link
connection, which means it can be controlled by (and control) Sony products. Thanks to
Lansonic's MusicLoader™ with CDID™, you can connect the DAS-750-PRO to a Sony
Megachanger and transfer the data digitally without having to actually "rip" it
file by file -- and you can do this for up to 400 discs at a throw. CDID, as you might
guess, identifies and labels the tracks automatically.
Now this is what we music lovers have been waiting
for! No hassle digital storage is definitely the way to go. BTW, when the DAS-750-PRO is
connected directly to a digital output, serial copy management (SCMS) is employed,
preventing second-generation copies of any SCMS protected files from being made. Nor will
it recognize or play CD-Rs/CD-RWs made from SCMS-protected material.
Once you've fed the Lansonic some digital data, you can
start developing playlists. Assembling the lists is a snap -- you just drag'n'drop from
the archived list, which appears in ID3 format: album, artist, and song.
This is where all the effort of setting up the DAS-750-PRO
pays off. The Lansonic is quiet, since it employs no fans. It just purrs along. Lansonic's
SuperQuiet™ technology is, ummm, really super quiet.
And damned if SonaPaK Lossless Compression doesn't seem to
work as advertised. I recorded files in .WAV and using SLC and they were
indistinguishable. To my ears anyway.
In a review of a traditional audio product, this is where
I'd describe the sound of the DAS-750-PRO at some length. But the Lansonic isn't so much
about sound quality as it is about convenience. The way I used it, storing .WAV or
SLC files, it was sonically indistinguishable from my reference Musical Fidelity A3CD CD
player. Period. If you chose to use it for MP3 files, it wouldn't sound as good, of
course, but you'd be able to store a lot more data.
No, the Lansonic lives and dies by whether or not it is
easy to use, and that's where it's still a work in progress -- with the emphasis on progress.
In a remarkably short time since its inception, the DAS-750 has evolved from a product
best suited to people who enjoy typing command streams to one that can now intuitively
interface with a Sony Megachanger with almost no intervention from the consumer.
Ahhh...
If I were reviewing the DAS-750 without its MusicLoader
with CDID functions, I'd almost question whether it was worth the effort --
especially for anyone with an uneasy relationship with computers. But Lansonic wasn't
content with that product and continued to develop the 750 to the point where it is now a lot
easier to use. It still has its frustrating aspects, but they are, I suspect, vestigial
and will disappear from future software upgrades.
In fact, once past my rather steep learning curve, I
enjoyed using the 750 tremendously. If you dream of a day when you no longer need the
physical medium of the CD itself, the Lansonic DAS-750-PRO can take you there now.
In contrast, the $259 Nirvis Slink-e megachanger interface I reviewed last year offers similar drag'n'drop playlist
capability for up to eight Sony megachangers. That's up to 3200 CDs centrally inventoried
and controlled. Even if you bought eight megachangers and a fully configured Nirvis
8-in/1-out digital bus, it would also cost about $3000, the same as the DAS-750-PRO -- and
you bypass all file compression questions and the need to rip at all.
On the other hand, that's old-school technology, relying on
the physical CD. Besides, eight megachangers take up a lot of space (although they do hold
six times the amount of uncompressed music as the DAS-750-PRO). I suspect that, as good as
the Nirvis system is, it represents a highly refined version of the old wave, while the
DAS-750-PRO is the harbinger of things to come. As such, the news is good.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
Lansonic DAS-750-PRO Digital Audio Server
Price: $2995 USD
Warranty: One year parts and labor
Digital Voice Systems, Inc
234 Littleton Road
Westford, MA 01886
Phone: (978) 392-6336
Fax: (978) 392-8866
E-mail: info@lansonic.com
Website: www.lansonic.com
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