Plinius, the New Zealand-based hi-fi company, is bringing two of its network media players to the UK through RPD Distribution: the £4900 Tiki (above) and £6375 Toko.
The Tiki is essentially a network capable digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) which connects to your home network via ethernet to play music files stored on a server or NAS drive.
Plinius says using ethernet has several advantages: it's more robust than wireless connectivity, can handle long cable runs around the house and can be used to hook up the media player to a multi-room system.
The use of ethernet also allows the clock signal to be generated within the Tiki, thus helping eliminate jitter that could be introduced by the server or between the server and the player.
There's support for playback of FLAC, AIFF, LPCM and MP3 files up to 24-bit/192kHz, and control is via a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) media controller or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) smartphone app such as the Plinius Arataki app (available from the Apple Store).
The Plinius Toko offers all the same features as the Tiki, but also includes a built-in CD player with slot-loading mechanism.
By Andy Clough
