Hot wired: File storage the easy way

Hard drive DVD recorders and pocket-size mp3 players are not the only examples of home entertainment products which store large quantities of files in a convenient, easy-to-access way.

A number of hard drive-based home audio systems are available from specialist hi-fi retailers, and the advent of multimedia PCs has meant a flurry of smart new applications being developed.

As small and convenient as CDs might be, a hundred or so of them start to take up a fair bit of space in the lounge.

Digital music servers or sound servers are the solution.

Essentially, sound servers are CD recorder/players with a whopping hard drive built in and typically offering multi-room functionality. This means you can simultaneously be listening to different music in different rooms all playing from the one server.

At the top end of the sound server spectrum sits the Kivorfrom Scottish hi-fi-of-excellence brand Linn.

For a shade over $40,000 you can have a fully blown Kivor stereo system wired into as many as 16 different rooms (zones) of your next super home or super yacht.

The wiring cost is extra, as are the speakers, but let's not get picky. You get an excellent CD recorder attached to 2.7 terabytes (2700GB) of storage, which means you will have 2700 hours of uncompressed music available on demand. At about an hour for each CD that's, let's see, 2700 CDs. You can easily delete any tracks you don't like and create more space.

You could invest less than half that on a junior model, but either way, the appeal of Kivor is that it sounds better than most CD-based systems.

The CD transport used to record from is top quality and you can record CDs in the same uncompressed state they were recorded.

In contrast, most sound servers rely on mp3 compression to shrink the size of each audio file enough so that they can handle a multitude of tracks.

Most sound servers quote their song capacity based on mp3 compression being used, so remember that if you want to maintain the original audio file size you will be able to store much fewer songs.

Digital sound servers are typically bought for homes yet to be built as they need to be wired into each of the zones.

Wireless systems mean a further compromise on sound quality and don't enjoy a great reputation.