Press Brief. Overview. Relay Ultra-fidelity Bluetooth Receiver CD quality sound from any Smartphone or Tablet

Transcription

1 Press Brief Relay Ultra-fidelity Bluetooth Receiver CD quality sound from any Smartphone or Tablet Overview Mass Fidelity's Relay streams music wirelessly from any Bluetooth enabled device, such as a smartphone or tablet, to any audio system. It allows listeners to enjoy a limitless universe of high definition digital music through their existing hifi audio system. Relay is a true high fidelity component that brings out the full sound quality potential that is hidden inside the Bluetooth protocol. Mass Fidelity 1 Copyright 2013

2 Need case: There has been a revolution in the way people access and enjoy music. The proliferation of smart devices, music streaming services, and digital music files have made it more convenient than ever before to access a virtually limitless library of music anywhere, anytime. Left behind in this revolution is, regrettably, the traditional hifi audio system that can be found in virtually every home. One-box speakers, docks and table radios whose sound quality ranges from pretty good for the size to absolutely dreadful have usurped the hifi audio system's place in the home. Even average quality hifi audio systems deliver far better high impact bass, midrange warmth, high frequency clarity, and lifelike stereo separation than any wired or wireless dock or table radio on the market. But traditional audio systems don t allow easy access to the full range of music source options. Listeners these days simply don t want to change CDs or "hard wire" their smart devices to their hifi system. They want the freedom to switch music source with the swipe of a finger and wander about the house, untethered. They want choice. They want freedom. And we believe they want superior fidelity as well. We at Mass Fidelity are music lovers who appreciate the freedom and choice afforded by smart devices and who also appreciate the involvement and emotion that only a high fidelity audio system can reveal. We were determined to find a way of having it all convenience and fidelity. It is from this inspiration that Relay was born Mass Fidelity 2 Copyright 2013

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4 Uses: Access streamed music services such as Spotify and Pandora on your smart device and play it through your hifi audio system Play music files locally stored on your smart device through your audio system Play audio stored on a networked music library Attach to self-powered loudspeakers for a simple but high quality wireless audio system The perfect choice for a vacation home without a wireless network Choose and control music sent to hard-wired remote speakers Connect Relay to multi-channel home theater systems to broaden the choice of music sources Turn any audio device with an AUX input into a wireless system Choose and control music while you wander freely from room to room* Use your browser to read about the artists while you listen to their music *Within 10M (30 ft.) range of receiver Feature highlights: Bluetooth personal-area network wireless audio Takes only1 minute to set up and start playing music No wireless router network required Makes any audio system wireless Ultra-fidelity professional grade digital and analog components and circuit topology Easy pairing no app required Party Pairing makes it fast and easy to switch between Bluetooth devices Turbo Pairing saves time to re-pairing 24 Bit Burr-Brown DAC 24 bit Cirrus Logic digital audio processor with 128dB dynamic range and % THD aptx and AAC decoders Chassis machined from solid aerospace-grade aluminum Gold plated audio output jacks Analog and 24 bit digital audio outputs High quality stereo RCA-RCA and RCA-3.5mm signal cables included Universal voltage power supply with international plug adapters included Mass Fidelity 4 Copyright 2013

5 Why Bluetooth? With the vast array of wireless audio options such as Airplay, Sonos, Roku and countless others, why did we choose Bluetooth especially when Bluetooth has a reputation for poor sound quality and limited operating range? Fair question. Every modern smartphone, tablet and laptop is Bluetooth equipped so it affords instant compatibility for millions of people. There is no need to own or be within range of a wireless router. There s no need to synchronize playlists and accounts between devices. There is no need to download an App to make it work; in fact it only takes 1 minute to set up and start playing music. Bluetooth is a familiar technology to millions of people so it is not intimidating and difficult to set up, as are the router-dependant systems. The surging popularity of portable Bluetooth speakers attests to the public s enthusiasm for the technology s convenience. As for fidelity and range limitations, Bluetooth s reputation springs from poor execution in the cheap Bluetooth audio devices on the market. The capability for true high fidelity and robust range is there if you know how to do it. Bluetooth s A2DP-profile can sustain 1.5Mbps constant RF input and allow bursts of up to 3Mbps; that s more than enough data to stream uncompressed better-than-cd-quality audio. The trick to actually getting all the sound quality it's capable of delivering is to preserve all the information and keep overall system noise ultra low more on that later. Mass Fidelity 5 Copyright 2013

6 Unlimited Music Access Relay can play any audio source a Bluetooth-enabled device can access, opening up a virtually unlimited choice of music to enjoy through a hifi audio system. The choices include music files stored on the device itself, music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, internet radio stations, podcasts and even music libraries connected to a wireless home network. If the phone or tablet can get a hold of the file, the Relay will play it. To access audio files on a home network with ios devices enable "Home Sharing" on the mobile device and every music file on your home network is instantly available to playback on the Relay. For Android devices use a music player app such as BS Player to access networked music libraries. Mass Fidelity 6 Copyright 2013

7 Connectivity Relay has two gold-plated RCA jacks that can operate either as analog or digital outputs. Simply connect the supplied RCA-RCA signal cable from Relay s L&R outputs to the RCA analog inputs of any audio system. For systems that have 3.5mm mini jack input, use the supplied RCA-mini cable. Listeners who prefer to use an outboard DAC or the digital input of a surround receiver can do so by holding the rear-panel control button for 5 seconds until the pilot light turns orange. Connect either output jack to the digital input of the amp, receiver or DAC. Relay can feed two digital streams at the same time. For example you can feed one digital output to a surround receiver or your system s primary DAC and the other to a headphone amp/dac combo unit. Easy Pairing Pairing a smart device to Relay is a snap. Push the control button on the back of the unit briefly; the pilot LED will glow white. Relay automatically goes into pairing mode and initiates the software that synchronizes Relay and the Bluetooth device. Make sure Bluetooth is activated in you smart device, select Relay from the list of available devices and ta da, you re ready to rock. In households where more than one person uses the system or when guests want to share their music through Relay and the hifi system, PartyPairing and TurboPairing come into play. Party Pairing eliminates a step in switching from one source device to another. Just turn Bluetooth off in the first device, turn BT on in the second and select Relay as the device. There is no need to reset Relay and press it s control button a second time. The Relay can connect to only one smart device at a time; however it is capable of remembering up to six devices. Once a device has paired with Relay, TurboPairing remembers it to speed up pairing at a later time. Once more than six devices have been paired the oldest device is discarded. To add a device back into TurboPairing memory, simply reconnect the device. Mass Fidelity 7 Copyright 2013

8 Telephony With Relay you'll never miss a call even if you re using your phone to listen to music. Incoming calls and notifications take precedence over audio playback. If the phone rings, Relay gently mutes the music volume and allows the call to be answered. Advanced Technology Mass Fidelity founder Benjamin Webster spent three years researching Bluetooth technology and perfecting the means of coaxing every iota of sound quality from Bluetooth streams. Ben focused his efforts on six areas of performance: Range Bluetooth is by nature a shortrange system. In order to give users true freedom of movement Relay needed to push the envelope of RF sensitivity. The key was carefully tuning the circuit board layout and grounds to minimise noise. While other B/T devices claim 10 meter range, most fall short of that under real life conditions. Not the Relay. Bluetooth Module The Relay's Bluetooth module receives the RF stream and decodes both aptx and AAC encoded signals before passing the signal on for digital audio processing. Digital Processing A dedicated Cirrus Logic processor takes the Bluetooth 2.1EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) signal and converts it into a high definition 24bit/48kHz stream that directly feeds the digital outputs or the analog stage. Analog Stage The 24bit/48kHz digital signal is fed into a low noise, audiophile-grade Burr Brown DAC that decodes it into a low noise, dynamic 2V analog output. Firmware Custom proprietary code synchronizes the three chips digital clocks to ensure against timing errors for pristine sound quality without dropouts and digital artefacts. The firmware also controls all pairing functions and the relay that switches between digital and analog output modes. Power Supply The internal power supply (as distinct from the external AC to DC transformer) features linear low-drop out regulators to ensure that the Relay s voltage-sensitive semiconductors always receive the sufficient low noise voltage to deliver the full potential of high definition performance. Mass Fidelity 8 Copyright 2013

9 Premium fit & finish The Relay is a premium product in every sense convenience, performance and fabrication. The chassis is milled out of a seamless block of aerospace grade aluminum. The brushed finish and gently radiused corners put Relay's appearance on par with the finest high-end audio components. Chassis milled out of a block of aerospace grade aluminum Bead blasted finish Even the supplied accessories demonstrate Mass Fidelity's commitment to premium quality and pride of ownership. The signal cables are custom designed and audibly superior to typical off-the-shelf cheap cables supplied with most A/V components. Custom designed RCA-RCA cables Custom designed RCA-3.5 cables Mass Fidelity 9 Copyright 2013

10 Sounds Better than Wired Besides allowing users greater freedom of movement the wireless Relay sounds better than typical wired hookups. To many that s an outrageous statement, but we can defend it. The vast majority of consumers would hard wire their smart devices to an audio system by either using a dock that pulls analog out of the device or most commonly by hooking up to the headphone output jack. In both cases the digital signal is processed by the ultra-cheap low fidelity DAC and amplifier used in all mobile devices. With Relay the digital signal is processed by a high-end DAC and microprocessor. It s no wonder Relay sounds better! And to prove it, we invite you to take The Relay Challenge. Take the Relay Challenge We believe that Relay s performance is so spectacular that owners of cost-no-object audiophile systems will be thrilled with its performance. Words are cheap. Great deeds come dear. Hear for yourself just how superb Relay sounds by taking the Relay Challenge. Load a smart phone or tablet with a high-resolution music file in a format such as Apple Lossless, FLAC, or WAV. Choose a piece of music that you also own on CD (it may be easiest to simply rip a CD into itunes or other music server using a high resolution codec). Put the CD in your CD player, pair the smartphone or tablet to Relay. Start playing the CD and Bluetooth device simultaneously and switch inputs on you audio system between CD player and Relay. Be careful to match volume levels between the two sources by using the volume control on the smart device. You will be astonished how close Relay sounds to the CD. For added fun, do a blind A/B for a friend and ask her to guess which one is which.? Mass Fidelity 10 Copyright 2013

11 BEFORE YOU LISTEN The operating system of your device may not be set to deliver high quality sound via Bluetooth. The get the best performance from Relay and any other Bluetooth devices please follow the instructions below. For iphone, ipad and Touch (2 nd generation and newer) There are known problems with Bluetooth audio when using ios 6.0, 6.0.1, and If you are using one of these ios versions, your ios device will pair successfully with Relay but may exhibit problems like audio dropouts, noises and poor fidelity. For best possible audio performance please update your ios device to the latest version (ios 6.1 or later). To do so, go to Settings>General>Software Update and download the latest update. Apple desktop and laptop computers OS X uses a low bitrate as its Bluetooth playback default. To check the setting of your OS, open the Terminal app (usually found in Launchpad/Other), type in this line of text exactly as shown (case sensitive): defaults read com.apple.bluetoothaudioagent then press Enter. More than likely you will see editable bitpool values set at 40 or under in which case you need to edit the values. To edit the bitrates, type this exact text into Terminal: defaults write com.apple.bluetoothaudioagent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 53 then press Enter. (Terminal is very sensitive to the exact command syntax and punctuation. Cut and paste the text in this doc to be sure.) There is a good video tutorial on how to make the change here: Follow the same procedure for resetting the Max Bitpool rate to 64 with this script: defaults write com.apple.bluetoothaudioagent "Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" 64. If you encounter any connection problems, reset the bitrates downward a little at a time until the problems go away. Mass Fidelity 11 Copyright 2013

12 Android Android devices have not had Bluetooth issues similar to those of ios devices but just in case make sure you have the latest operating system loaded. Setting volume In order to get the best performance and lowest noise from your system it s best to turn the volume on your smart device fully up and then use the volume control on your hifi stereo system. Pair your smart device to the Relay. Play some music from your device to ensure the hi-fi stereo system is working, and then stop the music. Turn the volume on your stereo down to the lowest volume setting. Turn the volume on your smart device to the highest setting. Play the music again and slowly increase the volume on your stereo until you've reached the maximum desired listening volume. Now you can use your smart device to control both content selection and system volume! Mass Fidelity 12 Copyright 2013