Canadian high-tech startup Mass Fidelity is now shipping the company’s first product: the Relay wireless hifi receiver ($249, €199).
The Relay streams music wirelessly from any Bluetooth enabled device, such as a smartphone or tablet, to any audio system.
“We at Mass Fidelity are music lovers who appreciate the freedom and choice afforded by smart devices and who also appreciate the involvement and emotion that only a high fidelity audio system can reveal,” said Mass Fidelity founder Ben Webster. “We were determined to find a way of having it all—convenience and fidelity. It is from this inspiration that the Relay was born. “
The near-universal consumer familiarity with and adoption of Bluetooth technology in smart phones, tablets and laptops makes it the obvious choice for wireless music in the home. It requires no routers, apps or complicated set-up—simply pair the Bluetooth device to Relay and hit play.
Relay can play any audio source a Bluetooth-enabled device can access, opening up a virtually unlimited choice of music to enjoy through a hifi audio system. The choices include music files stored on the device itself, music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, internet radio stations, podcasts and even music libraries connected to a wireless home network. If the phone or tablet can get access an audio source or file, the Relay will play it.
The Relay delivers audiophile-grade performance thanks to its proprietary topography and firmware as well as premium components such as a Burr-Brown digital-to-audio converter (DAC).
The Relay is currently available in select U.S., Canadian, German and UK retailers and online worldwide at massfidelity.com.
