Introducing the Baetis Reference NAS/Ripper

Introducing the Baetis Reference NAS/Ripper

2 You own one of the very best audio systems in the world, and you use the very best media server the Baetis Reference -- for playing digital media files to your world-class DAC or Pre/Pro (or both). Why do you need the Baetis NAS/Ripper? You have made a commitment to digital audio and video of the very highest quality. In today s world, this means saving the ripped CDs, SACDs, and Blu-ray discs, plus downloaded PCM and DSD files, on a system that has very large storage capacity capacity that is separate from the media server itself in order to minimize digital noise/emi corruption of the media files while being played. Why large storage capacity? Because today s highest quality A/V files consist of ripped or downloaded 2-channel and multi-channel DSD and PCM files. DSD album files can take up 6 or 8G of space each, and 3 times that much if transcoded by the computer to PCM (WAV). Blu-ray movies and concerts average about 30G of storage space and can go much higher. Therefore a 3 or 4T (4000G) storage drive won t hack it, even before you start to consider the need for back-up of your valuable digital files. Suppose you own the following: 5000 ripped or downloaded CDs, with one-fifth of the albums in hi-def format 200 ripped or downloaded multi-channel SACDs 300 ripped Blu-ray concerts and movies At average media file sizes, this modest library adds up to about 16.5T of storage. 1 You then need another 16.5T of back-up for when one of your storage drives fail. Remember, all drives will FAIL, it is just a question of when. Of this total of needed storage space, more than half is taken up by the Blu-ray rips, so your space requirements are dramatically lowered if you don t want to play some of the world s best 96/24 multi-channel music via the server (you use only your Blu-ray player). In this case, you are trading off audio quality for less expense in storage capacity (no matter how expensive is your Blu-ray or SACD player). If you are a two-channel only audiophile and don t believe that some of the world s best music, including 2-channel music, resides on a Blu-ray disc, then your storage capacity issues are easily handled by ordinary NAS computers or a series of externally attached drives. But if you are on the frontiers of highest-end audio quality, you will be not only ripping Blu-ray concerts, but also downloading 192/24 PCM files and DSF/DFF files (the audio 1 This calculation assumes that each CD in ordinary 44.1khz/16-bit format requires 600megs (0.6G) of storage, while each 192/24 hi-def album download requires 3.5G of space. Meanwhile, a ripped multichannel layer SACD is assumed to require 8G of space. Blu-ray concerts and movies are assumed to use 30G of space each. In the example above, this totals to 16.5T of storage space. But don t forget the identical amount of back-up space, so this is 33T of necessary storage. Compression can be used on backup (e.g. RAID 5) but the impact of compression on A/V quality is uncertain (we are still doing testing within our own reference systems).

3 format on SACDs). Furthermore, you will have experimented with the very best way of playing a DSF/DFF file by transcoding the DSD file to WAV (PCM) prior to playback. The highest quality media servers do this transcoding via JRiver media software. The resulting WAV file is 3 times the size of the original DSD file. That s right, playing back a DSD file in native format is NOT necessarily the best way of playing it; it is very difficult for a DSD capable DAC to make the DSD file (compressed to one third the size of the WAV file) sound as good as the WAV file. But some DSD albums, when transcoded to WAV and saved on the storage drive can easily take up almost half the space of a Blu-ray rip! For this, your NAS better be much, much larger than the NAS boxes you can buy at the typical online computer store. But why buy a NAS built like an Abrams tank? Here s what makes our Baetis Reference NAS/Ripper very, very special. 1. The Reference NAS has our special hybrid cooling system used in the XR2. This means: a. The CPU and Motherboard of our NAS runs very significantly cooler than any other NAS on the market. This promotes longevity. b. The Baetis NAS, because of this special cooling system runs much, much more quietly than any other NAS on the market. In fact, it generates less noise than your audio system on standby. This means that you do NOT have to run the NAS in a separate closet or room off the main listening room. You can use it within the main room or even on the equipment rack itself. 2. We do NOT use the standard Synology or Windows Server 2012 operating system for the NAS. Nor do we employ the usual RAID setup. RAID systems, which run best on such operating systems, traditionally are for businesses that need 24/7 backup, with complicated file sharing protections including a password for just about anything you want to do. These NAS boxes have continuous duplication in the form of backup drives if you store 8 T of media, you need 16T of drives to store the media plus the backups (unless you use compression). Further, the drives, all of them, must be running 24/7 not the best thing in the world for longevity. Rather, our NAS is designed to have an external 4T drive to serve as backup for each internal 4T drive, only as the internal drive fills up. When the internal drive is filled, the external drive is stored in a closet (or a safe deposit box) where it can t be corrupted if the NAS itself breaks down. This external drive does NOT need to be run more than about once a month for backup (unless you do a lot more ripping than the most dedicated digital music/movie fan and need to have continuous duplication).

4 Probably more important, if you are like most of us, you have gradually built up a library of digital media PCM music, DSD music, and Blu-ray music over a number of years. You currently have these files stored on external USB3.0 drives (if you believe, as we do, in the audio quality benefits of NOT having storage drives in the media server itself.) So these external drives become the back-up for your Baetis NAS (and you use additional backup external drives for backing up new rips and downloads). 3. Because our NAS uses the Win7 Pro or Win8.1Pro operating system, we can help you load it with all of your audiophile software, including your registered copies of JRiver Media Center, Makemkv (for ripping Blu-ray discs), dbpoweramp (the best ripping engine for CDs), plus any and all Digital Room Correction filters and software, if you desire. Plus, the NAS has the same best-quality Japanese manufactured optical drive with Blu-ray capability, as in our Reference server. So, it becomes a Ripper as well as a NAS, in case you do wish to rip in another room while playing media files in your main listening room. Most importantly, because the Baetis NAS/Ripper has all the right software installed on it, you may use it as your back-up Media Server if for any reason your Reference Server is ever temporarily out of your system. No other NAS is designed and built to do all of this. 4. Like the Baetis Reference Media Server itself, our Reference NAS has footers made by Stillpoints to virtually eliminate vibration. This can make a difference when ripping CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs on the NAS/Ripper. You decide the NAS/Ripper is placed in the listening room itself, or it is placed in a separate room. The only requirement is that, for the very best audio and video quality, the NAS/Ripper must be connected to the Baetis Media Server via EMIprotected Ethernet cable (CAT 7), not via wifi. Internet can be via wifi, but once the media are stored on the NAS, it is best to have the NAS/Ripper and the Media Server connected via an Ethernet switch (hard-wired). Cat 7 is better than Cat 5 or 6 simply because it has substantially more EMI protection. We or our dealers can help you purchase the necessary Ethernet switch and install via our Remote Desktop Control software. Here s what the two units might look like if you place them on top of one another in the listening room:

5 In this photo, the Server (on top) does not have a Blu-ray optical drive as does the NAS/Ripper (on the bottom). But we highly advise having the optical drive in both, because this is the only major moving part of the system; thus, two is always better than one. If you own the new Baetis Reference Media Server (see our brochure for it here), you will eventually want to own the Baetis Reference NAS/Ripper (or more than one if you seriously rip Blu-ray concerts and movies). Please talk with us about the Baetis 3-year Customer Support Program, which includes Remote Desktop Control in which we can, via the Internet, teach you all you need to know about the two units comprising the very best digital front-end in the industry. We can bring you up to speed on the new frontier of digital highest-quality audio and highest-quality video, with just a few online sessions. We literally move the cursor for you, to achieve any objective. Then, we watch as you do it yourself. This is a much faster and better educational process than simply reading a manual. It is much more informative than having some guy walk into your house and make changes without you really learning a thing. Contact us to discuss: john@baetisaudio.com; 406-686-4282