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Innovative New Music Server Launches on Indiegogo

Innovative New Music Server Launches on Indiegogo

A start-up called Nativ has just released details of its forthcoming music server in its Indiegogo campaign. The company’s suite of products for accessing your music library and streaming files appears to be an elegant solution that also has the potential for good sound. You can read the product description on Indiegogo, but two key features of particular interest to The Absolute Sound readers are MQA decoding and Roon music-management software. It combines mass-market appeal with apparently audiophile sensibilities, and could be the harbinger of an entire new class of audio products.

The following is a press release from Nativ.

Hong Kong | April 12, 2016 – Nativ™ today unveiled its new high-resolution music system, merging revolutionary technologies and beautiful design to deliver an extraordinary music experience. At its heart is Nativ Vita™, an innovative music player with a stunning 11.6” touch-screen and simple access to all music of the world. It features built-in support for popular streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify, and seamlessly plays music from your smartphone, computer or NAS. Nativ Vita™ integrates the latest wireless technologies to stream high fidelity music to virtually any wireless speaker or headphone, or delivers music in bit-perfect quality to your A/V receiver or DAC. Connect Nativ Vita™ to your TV and enjoy the latest music videos, or conveniently navigate your library on the big screen. Nativ today also introduced Nativ Wave™, a state-of-the-art Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and headphone amplifier that converts the music on Nativ Vita™—or any other digital source—to beautiful sound. Nativ Wave™ is designed for the future of High-Resolution Audio and supports all major formats, including DSD, DXD and the groundbreaking MQA technology.

“Nativ is a great addition for anyone that loves music.” says Michael Li, CEO and Co-Founder of Nativ. “From audiophiles with high-performance audio and A/V systems to the casual music fan with wireless speaker solutions. Nativ enhances your existing gear with great new features and allows you to experience music like never before.”

High-Resolution Music Player And Touchscreen Control Center
Nativ Vita™ is the world’s first high-end music player with a 11.6” touchscreen and pioneering user interface to conveniently access all of today’s music. Play popular streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify or Tidal directly from the built-in LCD, and stream stunning music videos to your TV via HDMI or wirelessly with Google Cast. Nativ Vita™ supports Apple Airplay, Spotify Connect, Google Cast and Bluetooth aptX® for seamless integration of your mobile devices, and plays music from your Mac, PC or NAS through its ultra-fast 802.11ac and Gigabit networking technology. Network music libraries can also be navigated with the pre-installed music interface from Roon*. Large music libraries can be stored directly on the built-in hard disk or SSD drives with up to 4TB capacity.

Nativ’s high-resolution LCD uses the latest IPS technology for a brilliant picture from any angle, and acts as a central control interface to stream high fidelity music to virtually any wireless headphone or speaker, including popular solutions like SONOS and Bose SoundTouch. Audiophiles will appreciate the high-end digital output stage with independent ultra-low noise power regulators, galvanic isolation and a special in-line filter to eliminate jitter and noise from the audio signal. All music is delivered in bitperfect quality to your A/V receiver or DAC via the asynchronous USB interface or four high-quality outputs for SPDIF and AES/EBU. Nativ Vita™ is designed for High-Resolution Audio and supports playback of DSD up to 11.2896 MHz (Quad-DSD), DXD and PCM files up to 32-bit/384 kHz.

Nativ Vita™ is also the world’s first high-end music player to come with a built-in multidirectional microphone and innovative voice control. Simply tell it what to play, adjust the volume or skip to the next track.

Another industry first is Nativ’s open platform allowing developers to take advantage of its state-of-the-art technology and build interesting new features that go beyond pure audio applications. With its giant touchscreen interface, innovative voice control and flexible connectivity Nativ Vita™ is predestined to become the central control point for your smart home.

Fully Balanced DAC And Headphone Amp
The 2nd pillar of Nativ’s new high-resolution music system is Nativ Wave™, a high-performance DAC and headphone amplifier. Nativ Wave™ connects Nativ Vita™—or other digital sources like your Mac, PC and TV—to your amplifier or A/V receiver to deliver audio in breathtaking clarity and detail. Inputs include a cutting-edge asynchronous USB 2.0 interface with a 16- CORE DSP from XMOS, and four high-quality terminals for S/PDIF (RCA, TosLink, BNC) and AES/EBU (XLR). Audio is processed in bit-perfect quality or upsampled to DSD (128x Fs).

Nativ Wave™’s fully balanced DAC design is based on two Burr-Brown 24-bit/192kHz DSD1792A for outstanding musical accuracy with exceptional resolution and dynamic range. It features entirely separated left and right channels, each with its own dedicated linear power supply, analog circuitry and master clock. The sophisticated audio clock features two of the world’s best ultra-low phase noise oscillators by Crystek. Analog processing is done through high-performance operational amplifier modules, with Germanmade WIMA® FP Polypropylene Capacitors delivering superior clarity and dynamic ability.

Nativ Wave™ supports all major High-Resolution Audio formats including DSD up to 11.2896 MHz (Quad-DSD), DXD, PCM files sampled at up to 32- bit/384 kHz and the new MQA format.

To address the growing popularity of headphones Nativ Wave™ incorporates a high-end headphone amplifier that is based on the same sophisticated dual-mono DAC design. It features an advanced 100% solid-state topology and delivers high output power of up to 1.75W over various loads, driving even the most demanding headphones. The amp’s high-speed buffer with a slew rate above 2000 V/ms prevents odd order distortion anomalies. Volume control is performed purely in the analog domain and delivers perfect resolution and dynamics at any volume level.

Clean power to the DAC is delivered by Nativ Pulse™, a high-precision linear power supply with dedicated supplies for the analog and digital sections, 25 separate ultralow noise linear regulators and a multi-rail toroidal transformer to suppress power line disturbance and keep noise contamination to a minimum. With more than 50,000-Farad of storage capacitance Nativ Pulse™ delivers virtually unlimited impulse current and an excellent transient and bass response, allowing Nativ Wave™ to go from absolute silence to explosive dynamics in the blink of an eye.

Design
All Nativ products are hand-build in small production lots and crafted from premium-grade 7000 series aluminum, Japanese-made Asahi® glass and solid American Oak or Walnut. An optional wall-mount allows you to place Nativ Vita™ and Nativ Wave™ on the wall in just a few minutes.

Pricing & Availability
Nativ is launching its products through a crowd-funding campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/nativ-high-res-music-system-touchscreencontrol. During the campaign Nativ Vita™ and Nativ Wave™ are available in limited quantities for as low as $699, saving 50% or more over the official retail price.

Robert Harley

By Robert Harley

My older brother Stephen introduced me to music when I was about 12 years old. Stephen was a prodigious musical talent (he went on to get a degree in Composition) who generously shared his records and passion for music with his little brother.

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