Who knows when the mood for Mozart might strike? With luck, the urge will hit when your CD collection is at hand. But it could just as easily occur on a sunny day in a Monaco marina, or during a Sun Valley après-ski. U-fortunately, even the new music servers, which contain your entire music collection on a computer-style hard drive for easy access, will work in only one location. The moment you leave the house, you are reintroduced to the cumbersome task of carting around your CD collection.

I am happy to report that a young, inspired company named ReQuest Multimedia has dedicated itself to solving this problem. ReQuest Multimedia considers itself more of a “music networking company” than a purveyor of audio electronics. Its music servers are designed specifically to distribute your music collection to all of your homes (and yachts and private planes and motor coaches) all over the world, with little or no effort on your part.

ReQuest has even created a server to meet the needs of yachters. I have the pleasure of using this server, called Triton, for a few months. Triton operates exactly like other ReQuest servers, but it also features a super-sized hard drive that holds enough music to keep you entertained during long voyages. In addition, it is built to withstand the vibration of marine motors and to tolerate the routine fluctuations in power that can occur aboard a yacht.

Reviewing audio and video products is often frustrating. I typically struggle to accommodate myself to their varying operating procedures, but the Triton proves to be one of the most simple, most intuitive products I have used. Even better, its capabilities are considerable—and growing. It seems as if every time I contact the company while preparing this review, its engineers have added some new capability to Triton.
Most music servers use computer-style MP3 data compression in order to store a useful quantity of music on their hard drives, but MP3 can noticeably degrade audio quality. Triton offers MP3 for those whose CDs number in the thousands, but most users will prefer Triton’s Free Loss-less Audio Codec (FLAC) compression scheme. Without using compression, Triton’s 300-megabyte hard drive can store 500 CDs. With FLAC, twice as many CDs fit on Triton’s hard drive without losing a single bit of sound quality. Triton’s hard drive is also removable, so your installer can easily repair or upgrade it without dismantling your equipment rack.

If you happen to buy a few CDs while in Monaco, you will find that loading them into Triton is unusually easy. Just insert the disc and Triton does the rest, automatically adding the CD’s contents onto its hard drive. Other music servers I have used require a few commands before they begin recording. Additionally, Triton copies CDs in half the time of other audio servers I have used—about 11 minutes for a one-hour CD—although it cannot play music while copying a CD.

A proprietary technology called Netsync lets all of your Audio ReQuest servers update each other automatically through the Internet. Add a CD on the server in your Florida home and Netsync immediately sends that music to all of your ReQuest servers, be they in Kansas or Kuala Lumpur.

The Triton server has a front LCD panel that lets you select tunes without using the server’s on-screen TV interface. (Click image to enlarge)

Accessing music with Triton proves incredibly simple. You can search by genre, artist and album title, or create custom playlists of your favorite music. Although Triton features a large alphanumeric display on the front panel, you will seldom use it. More likely, you will locate tunes with Triton’s on-screen menu, which will appear on any TV screen connected to the server, on any computer that shares the same network as Triton, or on a Crestron, AMX or Elan touchscreen. The screens can even display album cover art.

Although few Triton owners will use the supplied remote, it is quite handy and easy to use. (Click image to enlarge)

Triton is equipped with a surprisingly friendly remote control, but as a ReQuest representative told me, “Nobody uses our remote—everybody uses touchscreens or computer screens.”

One of the most appealing ways to control the Triton server is through a WiFi-equipped Pocket PC, which displays data on all the music recorded on the server. (Click image to enlarge)

Actually, I prefer to operate Triton with my Pocket PC and a wireless network, using a lovely piece of software called ARQ Pocket. It duplicates Triton’s on-screen menu on my Pocket PC, so I can select tunes from anywhere in my home. It even offers an on-screen volume control. An inconvenience of ARQ Pocket, however, is that Pocket PCs shut themselves off after a few minutes of inaction to conserve their batteries. This severs the wireless network connection. Once my Pocket PC has powered down, it takes about 30 seconds for it to re-establish the connection before I can control Triton again.

Like other music servers, Triton uses an Internet connection to gather album and song titles for CDs you have recorded. Unlike other servers, though, it carries an internal database, which holds information on approximately 820,000 CDs. Thus, an Internet connection is not absolutely required. Yachters whose Internet connections may be sporadic or nonexistent will surely appreciate Triton’s internal database.

In my months using Triton, I find only one minor annoyance: The FreeDB Internet database it uses to gather album information does not seem as reliable as the CDDB database most other servers use. For example, it amusingly misidentifies Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way as something called Far Out, and completely fails to identify a couple of obscure jazz titles that prove no problem for CDDB. But these troubles are infrequent and considerably less frustrating than the operational quirks I encounter with other music servers. If you prefer CDDB, you can copy your CDs onto a computer using CDDB-compatible software that ReQuest supplies; the tunes will automatically transfer to Triton.

The capabilities and convenience of Triton make it my favorite music server. Anywhere you have an audio system, an Audio ReQuest server, and a comfortable chair, you can enjoy a night with all your favorite music right at hand—no matter where in the world your CDs happen to reside.

DESCRIPTION
Hard-disk music server; stores music from CDs or Internet. Requires speakers and preamp/amplifier, and TV screen, computer, Pocket PC or touchscreen remote for viewing on-screen menus.
RECORDING MODES
Uncompressed, FLAC lossless compression, and MP3 at 320, 256, 192, 160, 128 and 96 kilobits/second.

CONNECTIONS
Rear: Stereo analog audio input and output, one each coaxial and Toslink optical digital audio output, one each composite video and S-video output, five-pin PC-style keyboard input, DB-9 connector for RS-232 interface with external control systems, DB-15 connector for VGA monitor, RJ-45 connector for Ethernet, USB keyboard connector, minijack for IR input. Front (behind panel): DB-9 input for computer configuration, USB keyboard input, port for removable hard drive.

DIMENSIONS
3.5 x 19 x 15.3 inches (hwd).

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $10,000 for Pro 300 master unit; $7,500 for each additional zone
CONTACT: 800.236.2812
www.request.com