Our competitive analysis
How does the RBX1600 stand up to the competition? Sure, we ask all those questions. Unlike other companies, however, we're putting our internal competitive analysis out for all to see.

It takes some research to really compare - and price - equivalent systems. Our goal was to find alternative stereo components with similar capacity to manage CD music and CD-quality rips (FLAC or WAV files). Before you read our conclusions, look at the data yourself. We think you'll agree that the StreetFire RBX1600 Digital Audio Server is not only groundbreaking stereo technology, but an excellent value as well.

Impatient? Then just show me the Final System Cost!

*Scheduled for 2005 release

Conclusions

Music Storage
The StreetFire RBX1600 Digital Audio Server uniquely scales up for large CD collections, but does not sacrifice hard drive-based FLAC and WAV music either. The SAVR simply does not span the transition from CDs to hard drive-based music. While Escient can control CD jukeboxes, Escient and AudioRequest only use internal hard drives, limiting your ability to grow your music collection by integrating your PC hard drive into your stereo.

Features
The feature set of the StreetFire RBX1600 is unmatched even by the wildly expensive AudioRequest units, though we thought that they had some other cool stuff. The SAVR, though just a low-end connection box, can be bundled with "Music!" software. Music! provides limited functionality, but has no advanced features.

Setup
The SAVR's low product cost reveals that you now must buy and integrate a whole bunch of other stuff. What a hassle! The RBX1600 and the Escient units appear pretty comparable, but you have to load the internal hard drive by ripping your CDs. One by one. Sigh. The AudioRequest components lacked an easy way to load the hard drives, and you are guided to use the professional AudioRequest-certified stereo installer's ripping station - at $3/CD. Ummm...

Backup
This area was shocking to us. Backup is an unrewarding chore that most people avoid - until they find religon when they lose a hard drive. It won't help our sales, but we take it seriously because it's the right thing to do. This is why we simply could not believe that Escient owners cannot backup their hard drive. We just had to call a dealer to confirm it. What is your recourse? "Well, you have to re-rip your CDs!" the Helpful Salesperson chirped. One by one. AudioRequest has the nice capability of synching to your second Tera drive which is really slick, if you happen to have another $15-25K lying around. At least the Music!/SAVR combo avoided this whole hassle - but then you can't play any hard drive-based music with it at all. With the RBX1600, your hard drive-based music simply gets backed up during your normal PC backup, because we work in concert with your PC's music files. You do backup your PC, right??

Costs
The StreetFire RBX1600 is not the least expensive product on the market. The SAVR is a viable low-end solution, so if your budget precludes a true music server, the digital router, the streaming, the ripping, and all the other cool stuff that we offer, go for a SAVR. When you get really frustrated, please think of us. The Escient units are pretty, but we just couldn't figure out why anyone would pay that much more for an Escient with fewer features. Oh, and don't forget to add in another $1,000 so the thing can actually stream. Then we get to AudioRequest. What can we say? If you're willing to sacrifice your car or blow a year of college tuition money on a stereo component, then the RBX1600 just isn't for you.

Final System Cost
The ultimate truth emerges. How much does it cost to get a basic 400 CD collection on-line with CD-quality audio? Does it scale to a mature system of 1600+ CDs with a robust backup solution? It's clear now that the SAVR is less of a money saver, especially for the feature set. For a more capable system, the RBX1600 came in at thousands of dollars less than the Escient entry-level solution - and the Escient did not scale up to a full system either due to the lack of a backup solution, capacity limitations, or both. The AudioRequest Tera models are pretty self contained once you get past the ripping cost, but for our money, the StreetFire RBX1600 Digital Audio Server is the category killer.

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