Setup & Installation

The Blackbird comes in four different versions.  There is an 80 or 160 GB version that utilizes a SoundBlaster card for audio output ($499 and $599 respectively), and a larger 300 GB version ($899) in addition to this unit that uses the same M-Audio 2496 card used in the Blackbird under review.  The 160A came with a little plastic support stand, so if desired the Blackbird can be arranged vertically.

Connection.  The first thing I did with the Blackbird was open the quickstart guide — basically a leaflet.  There are only three steps: plug it in (2 connections + power), open the browser window on your computer, and type the address of the unit — that’s it.  And it went as smooth as it seems.  This brings you to the main selection menu.  From here you can select "Settings" and read the online user guide that describes full operation, options, etc.  The first thing I wanted to do was load some music onto the device.  Unlike other hard disk recorders that allow you load a CD directly into the unit, the Blackbird only lets you transfer music that is stored on a computer or separate USB external drive/stick.  This is one of the prime differences between the Blackbird and other hard disk storage devices.

 

Loading Music

There are four ways to load music onto the Blackbird.  The first works directly through the computer browser and requires a Java applet.  (It will prompt you to automatically load what you need.)  If you go this route you can drag and drop music from your computer right into the Blackbird.  I chose option #2—make the Blackbird a network drive and drop files directly onto the drive without using the Blackbird browser interface.  The directions show a single backslash, but I needed two to make it work.  Once you restart the browser for the Blackbird the new files show up.  The third option is to use FTP file transfer.  The fourth involves using a USB flash drive.  You can plug the drive directly into the Blackbird and download songs from it.

 

Audio Settings

In the Installation section of the User Guide there is an explanation of the audio settings.  The unit supports both analog and digital audio.  The soundcard normally comes with a breakout adapter that has a coaxial digital output on it.  This adapter was missing from my review sample, so I used the coaxial digital output that is hard-wired directly on the unit.  It was necessary to select the "mainboard digital" option from the menu to activate this output.  >From my reading of the manual, it seems that the output with the adapter would be on regardless although I was unable to test this.  Unfortunately, radio stations and mp3 files worked fine through it, but WAV files only worked through the analog outputs.  Even though I had selected the digital output, the analog outputs still worked.  I assumed this problem was specific to my review sample.  It was necessary to stop the stream and restart for the setting change to take effect.

 

Upgrades

The unit supports software upgrades, but there are tons of warnings about doing the upgrade.  You could lose your all your music files and even destroy the control software if you make a mistake.  This was enough to ward me off from trying it.

 

Operation

Once I had a few hundred songs loaded into the machine (which took only a few minutes), I was ready to start listening to music.  I sat down at the computer in my office, opened the browser, and clicked "Artists."  The main screen looks very plain with seven choices that are large, blue, and underlined.  The interface is simple and may put off some users who are used to more pizzazz (like iTunes or Windows Media Player).  Immediately the user is taken to a screen with buttons at the top indicating home, stop, mute, playlist, and skip.  There is also a way to quickly jump to: song list, artist list, genres, playlist selection, or Internet Radio.

I clicked on a Tori Amos song and sure enough I heard music playing in the other room.  I queued up a couple of songs which is as simple as clicking the letter "Q" next to the song.  The Blackbird automatically creates a playlist and you can then delete or rearrange songs on the list.  You can save the playlist if you choose to.  If you want you can choose another song to play instantly and the change will happen within a second or two.

If you click on a song you can get information including: title, artist, album, genre, year, track name, file location, and file date if available.  This was fine with mp3 titles that had the information imbedded in the file, but for WAV files it was useless.  It did have the title of the track and file date and location, but no other information.  More importantly, there was no way to add this information unlike other hard disk recorders that offer this option.

The Blackbird had 558 Internet radio stations already preset.  If a station is not listed, then you can input the URL and add it to the list.  Some stations were dead links and did not play anything.  Unfortunately, there is no way to easily search or view the stations in categories.  You have to look through the entire list to find something of interest and then you can play it or add it to your list of favorites.  If you click on the radio station then it brings up whatever information is available about that station, but when you go back you are at the start of the list again and have to surf down to find the last place you left off.  I could not figure out how to delete a song from the list of favorites once it was added.  If you are familiar with Media player (for instance), then you will be disappointed in the difficulty in finding stations of interest with the Blackbird.

 

Sound Quality and Audio Codecs

The M-Audio 2496 is not a new soundcard.  There are probably hundreds of reviews of it online.  I bought one back in 2001 (for $150) to use in my HTPC (Home Theater PC), because it was considered to be one of the better cards.  At the time, the SoundBlasters didn’t have a conventional digital output and I needed this for an easy connection to a surround processor.  Another advantage of the M-Audio card was that it didn’t resample the audio, so that data coming in at 44.1 kHz went out at that same rate.  These days, if the only purpose of the soundcard is for digital output there are many cards based on the Envy chipset (like Chaintech and Maddog) that sell for under $40.  These cards offer very good analog audio as well (from what I’ve read).  At the higher end are professional audio cards that typically sell for a few hundred dollars and up.  These cards are considered to be clearly superior for analog audio operations (like those from RME and Lynx).

Relative to a typical audio component, the analog output quality of the unit is going to compare with a CD player in the $500 to $700 range (or so).  This is fairly competitive with the quality of most of the hard disk recorder units I’ve had the opportunity to hear.  If you intend to use the digital output, then the quality will be mostly dependent on the DAC you decide to use — either and external product, or the DACs inside the preamplifer/processor/receiver, etc.

The Blackbird supports lossless and uncompressed WAV which is the standard format used on CDs.  This gives the best quality sound, but also uses the most space.  Next in the line of choices is FLAC.  As opposed to just straight "ripping" music from a CD to the computer, you’ll have to encode the material in the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) format.  FLAC is lossless so no information is tossed out, but it does use compression, so file size is reduced.  This can be anywhere from a 30-70% reduction.  OGG would be the next choice.  It appears to offer better quality than mp3 for any given file size.  It is lossy, so you can set the quality setting to determine what level of loss is acceptable when encoding.  Mp3 and the newer mp3pro are supported and are probably the most common types of music files that people have — the Blackbird supports them both.

The Blackbird does not support AAC, WMA, or RM files.  AAC is commonly used in the Apple iPod, and WMA is integrated into Windows Media Player.  A friend let me borrow an external hard drive that contains most of his music collection.  It plugs right into the USB port on my computer, but almost all the music and comedy tracks he has are stored in the WMA format.  They are about 1/10th the size of the WAV version and sound very good.  I was not able to listen to any of these files through the Blackbird.

For those looking to start a collection for the Blackbird from scratch, I would recommend either FLAC or OGG as these would offer either a completely unreduced sample of the music recorded, or the best "reduced" quality sample.  Here is a comparison on the OGG website for those interested in doing some audio comparisons: Codec Comparison Tests.

 

Music Player Hardware Alternatives

There are three different categories of product that come to mind that share some of the qualities of the Blackbird, but not in their entirety. 

The first, cheapest category is a computer media device.  Its purpose is to interface with a computer or network and retrieve its data/music from them.  This means that your computer must be on at all times, and the device will stream music from it.  This can reduce computer performance slightly, and these components require a connection to a TV, use of a remote control, or lack the ability to see the entire library of music easily.  Three devices that come to mind are the Slim Devices Squeezebox ($250 to $300), the Roku Labs M500 ($200), or the D-Link DSM-320 ($190).  The advantages that the Blackbird offers over these pieces are: built-in storage without the need to stream music, computer control via laptop or PDA, software that is resident and stable on the unit itself, and likely better (analog) audio performance from the analog outputs due to the superior audio card.

The second category is a computer itself.  It’s typically bigger and noisier, and its audio quality will depend on sound card choice.  The fans in the Blackbird were so quiet that they weren’t worth mentioning.  Arguably, you can buy a computer for very little these days (<$500), and you will need one to control the Blackbird anyhow.  If desired you could upgrade the sound card to whatever level of quality was desired.  The drawback will be the need to be somewhat computer savvy to set up the network so that a computer in a remote location can be the audio source (if desired).  Also, software will need to be selected that can provide reliable performance and flexibility for cataloging music, generating playlists, and easy use.  The typical advantages the Blackbird has over the computer are: size, noise level, reliable software, easy connection and setup.

The third category is a conventional hard disk recorder like a product from Escient, Audio Request, Imerge, or one of the few reviewed on this website.  The aforementioned are over $2000.  There used to be more offerings in the sub-$1000 area, but most of the machines have small hard drives or have been eliminated from the product lineups.  These products are designed to easily integrate with and audio/video system, have a more elaborate interface, have a built-in CD player that can rip the music directly, and don’t require a TV/computer for operation.  They also cost much more than the Blackbird and for the person who already has music on a computer (or likes to rip music at the computer) don’t really offer a large advantage (unless you find the computer control a hardship).  Another option these days is a portable unit.  The iPod is only a few hundred dollars, but most people complain about the audio quality direct from the unit’s outputs, there is no Internet Radio, and control is more limited.

 

Conclusion

Most of the time, writing the conclusion for a product is a simple matter.  The Blackbird proves to be a little different in that it can not be directly compared to another "similar" unit to determine if it is a good value or not.  The big question is:  Does it make sense? 

Its advantages are: small size, quiet operation, basically plug and play (if you already have music in a supported type on a computer on the network), on-board storage, Internet Radio capability, rock-solid software, and easy control via a computer and for transferring music.

Its limitations are: cheaper options (if on-board storage is not a concern), no way to label any files once imported, no WMA or AAC support, no direct interface, no direct video output, no included remote control, no display directly on the unit, no CD drive to rip music, exclusive computer control so you have to have a computer turned on somewhere, and no search/find feature with the radio stations.

If conventional hard disk recorders seem too expensive, you like the idea of computer control, but don’t want to mess with normal computer software, and like the fact that storage is in the device itself, then the Blackbird may make sense as a music player option.  If not, then one of the other devices will be the way to go.

 

 

Specifications

Type: 160GB hard drive handles both data-reduced and WAV, FLAC etc. unreduced audio files and communicates with wired or Ethernet connections

Features: Plays mp3, mp3pro, OGG, WAV, or FLAC format

Soundcard: M-Audio 2496 Soundcard

Outputs: RCA analog stereo outputs and coaxial digital output

Other: Ethernet or wireless connection; control via web browser from hard-wired, wireless, or portable (PDA or laptop) computer; 

File Transfer Methods: FTP, drag and drop, virtual drive, USB direct

 Windows, Mac, Linux compatible; external power supply

Dimensions: 11.5 x 2.5 x 10.75 (WxHxD in inches)

Price: $799

 

Manufacturer

Digital Techniques
13500 Watertown Plank Rd.
Elm Grove, WI 53122

Voice: (262) 860-1000
Fax: (262) 860-0199
Website: www.digitaltechniques.com