New Products

Almost all high-end audio products focus on stereo music, fovcing those who dig 5.1 music – and, of course, movies – to use audio products designed primarily for home theater. With its new XR server, Baetis is taking aim square at audiophiles who are into 5.1, and might occasionally enjoy the guilty pleasure of Iron Man, too.

According to Baetis, the XR is designed to have the shortest possible signal path, and boasts the industry only galvanically isolated and dedicated BNC-type SPDIF connector. The company says that because the SPDIF output doesn't reside on a sepearate sound card, it achieves better performance than most media servers. And yep, it has HDMI output, too, so it works as a full-function media server.

The unit plays its stored media through specially configured JRiver software, and it can rip and play CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. It's compatible with standard high-res PCM files as well as with native DSD files, which are the latest rage among devoted audiophiles.

The unit is available now at dealers and online for $5,995.