The shift from CD to NAS. Excellent Audio Quality, Simple and Convenient The New Style of Music Entertainment

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1 The shift from CD to NAS Discover the supreme sound quality of Network Audio for a new style of enjoying music. Network Audio is designed to be as simple as possible so that anyone can enjoy music by selecting a track from the tablet screen of the compact NAS connected to any of the multitude of high-quality network audio players coming onto the market. Excellent Audio Quality, Simple and Convenient The New Style of Music Entertainment Network Audio offers a new style of enjoying music. A single NAS (music server) stores thousands of songs ready for playback on a network audio player. Network Audio offers multiple benefits not possible with a conventional audio system. A network audio player brings you a smooth and rich sound. * The audio signal on a CD is processed at a sampling frequency of 44.1 khz with 16 bits, giving a maximum digital recording time of 74 minutes. * Thanks to the high-resolution sampling frequency of 192 khz and 24-bit system of Network Audio, there is far more information than on a CD, thus producing a supremely realistic sound. High-resolution audio sources are available from music distribution services

2 and DVDs supplied with audio magazines. Convert your CDs to Network Audio for noise-free listening. By copying (or ripping) the audio from your CDs to NAS and playing them back from NAS, you can enjoy accurate music free from the rotating noise of a CD with its read errors. Any tracks ripped from CDs as well as music downloaded from the Internet can be played back on Network Audio. Audio is now available in many forms and has never been easier to buy: * Conventional CD playback quality using lossy schemes such as MP3 and AAC * CD original quality (lossless audio) used for CD recording * High-resolution audio mastered with ultimate quality higher than CD quality In the Network Audio system, all songs are digitally stored on compact NAS. A single NAS server can store thousands of songs* that can be played back at any time by a network audio player. NAS eliminates the need to store CDs in your collection. * Assuming that a single high-resolution track is 100 MB and a NAS storage server capacity of 100 GB or more. To play a song, simply select a track from the names displayed on a tablet or album cover. You can enjoy music in new ways not possible before: * Play back a symphony that spans multiple CD discs * Create a playlist of your favorite songs for continuous playing * Listen to the same track from different audio sources and compare them If you have multiple audio devices supporting Network Audio in different rooms, you can enjoy listening to NAS music simultaneously on every device via the network: * From an audio player in an audio room * From an AV amplifier in a living room

3 * From a PC in a workshop The selected track is distributed from a single NAS to all rooms, eliminating the need to set up music in each room. You can choose to have different music in each room, or can listen to the same music throughout. Required Equipment and Connections

4 Let's start enjoying Network Audio: First connect your audio equipment to your network device, then try simple flow from purhcasing, storing, selecting up to program playback. Getting started the Network Audio System is easier than you think. Connect a network device to the LAN terminal of a network audio player with the LAN cable. The role of the required network audio devices and the flow from purchasing up to program playback are described below: Role of each device PC is necessary to download music sources to purchase them and to store music sources on NAS. It is also used for ripping the CD audio sources but not used during playback. NAS is Music Server that stores music sources, creates database of music sources and distributes them to network audio players. The LAN cables are used to connect the hub and the network devices for sending and receiving the digital signal. It is recommended to use the LAN cables that have the effective protection against noise since the induced electrical noise may adversely affect the playback sound of network players unlike the LAN connection with PC. The network audio player converts the digital audio signal that was distributed from NAS, to the analog audio signal, and sends it to amplifier. This is an important item that determines audio quality. The role of the amplifier, speakers and headphones remains the same as the conventional audio system. The equipment that has been used in the existing audio system can be used as is. The role of the hub is to separate the communication route between NAS and network audio player from that of the Wi-Fi station in order to eliminate the adverse wireless effect during music playback and to stabilize the

5 digital signal flow. This equipment is necessary to connect the network equipment each other. The Wi-Fi function is required to use the smartphone and tablet as a remote controller, and to playback the music from a remote location. * When the audio network is separated from a PC and is not connected to the Internet line, the Wi-Fi station is necessary. By installing the dedicated application for the network audio player in smartphone and tablet, they can be used as the multiple function remote controller for the network audio player. The role of the audio cables and speaker cables remains the same as the conventional audio system. Select the appropriate ones suited for your system. Flow from purchasing to track playback The following two methods are available when preparing audio data. Music data stored on CD can be copied to a PC. General ripping software * Windows: dbpoweramp, mediamonkey, exact audio copy * Mac: Songbook, X Lossless Decoder When the stored music data is copied to NAS, it is automatically added to the library. Songs are sometimes supplied with magazines on DVD; simply copy them to NAS. Audio downloaded from Internet music sites can be played back by copying them to NAS. There are many tracks on high-resolution and lossless audio sites available for download. Select your favorite songs from classic, pop, club, indies, etc. * Examples of music distribution sites: HD tracks, LINN Records, etc. Connect the NAS and the network audio player to setup a network as below: Connect the network audio player to an audio amplifier or to the headphones amplifier with the audio cable. When the name NAS is displayed on the screen of the network audio player, it indicates that preparation is complete. Select a song and press the PLAY button. * In the case where English name is displayed on the screen of the network audio player, when using a network audio player manufactured outside Japan, set the NAS language selection to English.

6 When listening to music programs with a pair of headphones, connect the headphones to the Phone terminal of the headphones amplifier. By installing an app on your smartphone or tablet, you can use it as a remote control for the network audio player. Operations such as selecting a NAS to connect to; selecting, playing, stopping, and pausing a track; and creating playlists can all be done via your remote control device. The easy-to-see screen and touch-panel operation assure full enjoyment of network audio. Network Attached Storage Wireless LAN station A large amount of music sources can be stored in a compact housing and distributed quietly. table communication with dual band

7 WZR-600DHP LS-WSXS240L/R1 * The use of SSD eliminates rotating block and makes this machine free from vibration. * The maximum operating noise is only 2.3 db. * The world s smallest size allows the installation of this machine at any place. *1 * The operating power consumption is only 9W, i.e., the power saving design of about US$1 per every 5 hours. * TwonkyMedia6.0 is used as the DLNA server * Can store than 2000 songs of the high resolution audio source of larger than 100 MB. *2 * Supporting dual band: a (5 GHz ban8d)/802.11g/b (2.4 GHz band)..the radio wave for music streaming and the radio wave for smartphone communication are separately controlled. * The high power with 11n enables the stable Wi-Fi communication from remote locations. * Supporting AOSS2 which assures simple initial setup with a smartphone only. *1. Assuming the NAS contains 2 drives of SSD. (As of October 19, 2012.) *2. Assuming that one song occupies approx MB with 192 khz/24 bits. The amount of data per one song is different depending on sound quality and length of audio source. The model with built-in hard disk enables easy installation and setup. LAN hub/lan cable Double shielded LAN cable, strong protection against noise LAN hub with built-in power supply, designed for silent operation BSL-WS-G2108M * Most suited for audio room installation due to the fan-less, silent design and use of metallic body * Stable data transfer is realized with the 512 k large capacity bucket buffer. * 8 units of the network devices can be connected at the same time. BSLS7NU series * Double shielded structure for strong protection against the communication error due to the Alien Crosstalk*. * Gold-plated, shielded plug suppressing oxidation of contacting surface while assuring the high precision contact * The connector made of new material with high durability which does not break even when it is bent 180 degrees. * Alien Crosstalk: The noise interference between the neighboring cables which occurs when multiple cables are bundledtogether. What is Network Audio? What is Network Audio?

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9 Digital audio terms for the enjoyment of Network Audio Numerals 11ac 11n Proper nouns DLNA FLAC Hub LAN cable NAS TwonkyMedia Wi-Fi Wi-Fi station Wi-Fi client Alphabets Alien crosstalk Bit depth Bit rate Database DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) High resolution audio source Hub LAN cable Library Music data NAS(Network Attached Storage) Network audio player Non-reversible (lossy) compression of audio file Online music distribution site Online purchasing Packet buffer Revesible (lossless) compression of audio data Rippling Router Sampling frequency Storage Streaming TwonkyMedia Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) Client Wi-Fi (wireless LAN)Station Wired LAN * In the order of numerals and alphabets 11ac (IEEE802.11ac) 11n (IEEE802.11n) Alien crosstalk One of the Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) standards for implementing communication with the highest speed of maximum 6.9 Gbps using the 5 GHz frequency band. This is the next generation standard realizing various advantages suited for the high vision motion pictures: The communication speed will not reduce even from a remote location. This standard allows multi-station WLAN throughout the frequency band. One of the Wi-Fi (wireless LAN)standards. This standard uses multiple frequencies at the same time enabling the high speed communication of 150 Mbps or higher. When the base station and client device support both standards of 11n and11a, they can realize less interference and better throughput using the 5 GHz frequency band, and can transfer the high resolution audio and high vision signals. Crosstalk is a phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on a cable creates an undesired effect in neighboring cable creating a communication error. It is sometimes called crosstalk or crossed-wire phenomenon. Bit depth Bit rate Database Bit depth of the high resolution audio source is 24 bits whereas CD bit depth is 16 bits, assuring the high quality sound close to the original analog sound. Bit rate indicates the number of bits that are allocated to music data per second. It is indicated in units of bps (bit per second). Higher the bit rate means better quality of the sound when analog audio signal is converted to the digital signal of the same audio format. On the other hand, the data size per music data becomes larger. A database is an organized collection of data in a way that facilities the use of the data. The network audio system makes a database of the songs stored in NAS, and creates a library to facilitate the selection of music numbers by creating libraries such as Music library by album, Music library by artist and Music library by genre.

10 DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) FLAC High resolution audio source DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) refers to both an organization and the name of the technology standard they created. They guarantee the basic communications when receiving the network audio and viewing TV through network subject that both the server and client are the DLNA certified products. FLAC is one of the audio signal compression systems to reduce the audio file size. The file extensions are.flac or.fla. Unlike MP3 and AAC, this is the completely reversible (lossless) audio data compression format enabling recreation of the original uncompressed music data. Thanks to its high audio quality, generally, the high resolution music sources and network audio are sold in FLAC format. It refers to the high quality music data that is digitized using a sampling frequency and bit rate higher than that of CD. Generally, it refers to the reversible (lossless) audio sources that are digitized with 192 khz/24 bits or 96 khz/24 bits that can be downloaded from music distribution site. Hub LAN cable Library Hub is a central connecting point that connects multiple network devices to a single communication line. Hub refers to the switching hub in many cases where a streaming signal on the network is analyzed and only the necessary signals are switched and relayed out to the respective devices. The LAN cable is the digital communication cable that is used to connect the network devices each other. Different types of the LAN cable are prepared having different physical and technical characteristics that help us to decide depending on the network environment. For an example, category 6 LAN cable is referred to as Cat 6. As the category number gets higher, so does the protection against noise at the highspeed communication. List of music data stored in NAS is called library. The library can be browsed on network audio player, smartphone or tablet to select a song. Music data NAS (Network Attached Storage) Network audio player Music data generally refers to the audio file that contains the digitized music. By putting (digitizing) music together into a file facilitates storage, control and delivery of music. NAS is a dedicated hard disk storage device that can be directly connected to a network. It is used as a server that is dedicated for storing and delivering files when multiple network devices share the same file. In the network audio system, it not only stores songs but also delivers the specified songs to the network audio player. It refers to the device that receives the music data distributed by NAS via network, and plays it back. Non-reversible compression (lossy) audio file Online music distribution site Online purchasing It refers to the audio file that is compressed by the scheme which does not allow perfect reconstruction of the original data during playback. This scheme achieves a high compression rate by thinning out the data of hardly audible part during the audio compression. The audio size per music data is reduced but the original sound cannot be reproduced during playback. The non-reversible (lossy) compression schemes such as This is the web site that distributes music data. Purchasers can download the music data by the same procedure as the shopping on the Internet, and can store in the purchaser s PC. The DRM-free (Digital Rights Management-free) file allows for free replication and format conversion of the downloaded music data. * Distribution of the replicated data is prohibited by law. It refers to the online purchasing and downloading of music data from music distribution site.

11 MP3, AAC, WMA and ATRAC are available on the markets. This scheme is best suited for listening to music with small capacity devices such as smartphone and portable audio player, and distributing audio files with small capacity distribution network. Packet buffer Reversible (Lossless) compression of audio data Ripping A packet buffer is memory space set aside for storing the data received by the hub, and sends the data at the optimal timing over networks in order to realize the smooth transmission and reception of data between the network devices. This is the audio data that is compressed with the schemes with which the original data can be perfectly reconstructed during decompression. The compression rate of this scheme is smaller than the non-reversible (Lossy) compression scheme so that the data size per music data becomes larger. The reversible (lossless) compression schemes such FLAC, Apple Lossless, AAL are released on the markets. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is used in the high resolution digital audio sources in many cases. Ripping is the process of extracting music or video stored on CD as a data file, generally using PC. The music data being ripped on PC can be played back with network audio player once the ripped data is copied to NAS. Router A router is a device that transfers data between networks. Router is different from hub in the sense that router assigns the IP address (device unique identification number) to each device, and can respond to the inquiry from each device. When a single router is installed in the location where even no Internet access is provided, the network audio can be enjoyed. When a router is connected to Internet, the multiple devices that are connected to the router can be connected to Internet at the same time. Sampling frequency (sampling rate) The sampling frequency of the high resolution digital audio source is 96 khz or 192 khz which is higher than the CD sampling frequency 44.1 khz. It offers the high quality sound close to the original analog audio. Storage Storage refers to the external memory device on which data can be stored. All the devices such as hard disk, SSD, SUB memory and SD card are collectively called storage. Streaming TwonkyMedia Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Streaming means listening to music or watching video in real time while receiving music or video that is delivered from server. Downloading is not necessary. This is one of the software to deliver audio files to the DLNA-compliant devices. This is the most popular software in the field of network audio and widely used software worldwide. In the network audio system, it makes a database of the songs stored in NAS, and creates a library. When a network audio player or a smartphone refers to the Twonky media library, select a music and specifies playback, the song will be Wi-Fiis the cutting edge technology based on the IEEE international standard in wireless communication. It is used almost interchangeably with Wireless LAN. This standard enables connection of the network devices each other in a wireless connection. IEEE802.11a (11a), IEEE802.11b (11b), IEEE802.11g (11g), IEEE802.11n (11n) and IEEE802.11ac (11ac) are used to build a wireless home LAN.

12 delivered. Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) Client Wi-Fi (wireless LAN)Station Wired network, wired LAN The Wi-Fi client is the network device that supports the Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) function, and can readily be connected to the Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) station. The Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) client sometimes refers to the device that adds the Wi-Fi function to the network device by connected to the USB terminal or the LAN terminal when the network device does not support the Wi-Fi function. Since the supported Wi-Fi standard and the antenna specifications can be different depending on the respective products, preparing the Wi-Fi station that matches the environment is required. In most cases the Wi-Fi station is the equipment in which the function as an access point and the function as a router are integrated at the same time where the access point relays radio waves of multiple devices to establish a Wi-Fi network, and the router connects the multiple network devices each other. Since the supported Wi-Fi standard and the antenna specifications can be different depending on the respective products, preparing the Wi-Fi station that matches the environment is required. It refers to the network that is constructed using the LAN cables. The network that is constructed without using the LAN cable but with Wi-Fi (wireless) is called Wi-Fi (wireless) network. Required Equipment and Connections