A network transport is quite a niche product – it essentially fetches your digital music from a NAS drive, network storage or streaming service and passes it to a DAC in order to play it. There's no built-in DAC, as you get with most music streamers, but that's no problem if you already have one elsewhere in your system, or you're happy to buy a dedicated unit and go the separates route.
Now new Polish brand Ferrum Audio has announced the Broen, a premium network transport that promises an "uncompromising digital audio performance".
It aims to provide a clean and precise digital signal path, alongside "flexible connectivity, intuitive operation and extensive streaming support."
It's built around Ferrum's Serce DDC (digital to digital converter) module, which should optimise every stage of digital signal handling. Because there's no analogue circuitry inside, Serce focuses just on digital processing, which, Ferrum claims, "delivers outstanding precision while maintaining complete separation between input and output domains."
Galvanically isolated audio outputs and ultra-low jitter clocks help preserve signal integrity.
It supports both wired and wireless networking – as well as wi-fi, it has a modular SFP port that can take either a standard Ethernet module or an optical module. That means it can hook up to compatible SFP network switches for less electrical noise and cleaner digital transmission.
Of course you'll need a DAC, and Ferrum is only too happy to sell you one. The Broen works seamlessly with Ferrum's Wandla range of DACs, thanks to the Ferrum Streaming Control Technology (FSCT). Connect a Wandla DAC to the Broen via USB, and you can control the latter from the former's touchscreen or remote control. Artist information, album details and playback status will appear on the DAC's screen.
At the heart of the Broen is the Volumio streaming platform. This brings a range of music services and playback options, including Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz (with their Connect variants), AirPlay, UPnP/DLNA, internet radio, CD, multi-room, AI-powered SuperSearch, Infinity Playback and enhanced album and artist metadata.
You can add more storage using the internal SSD slot, while over-the-air firmware updates allow new features to be added remotely in the future.
The Broen is out now, and costs £1995 / $2275 (around AU$3800). That's a similar price to the Lumin U2 Mini which we awarded five stars to last year.
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