Sonic Studio has demonstrated its new Amarra music server at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. Amarra is a FireWire-based media server handling PCM audio with up to a 192KHz bitrate that uses a Sonic Studio soundBlade derivative on the software side. The Amarra technology is similar to what is used to produce CD master files, promising audiophile-level music playback. It uses hardware side processing for sample-rate adjustments, equalization and volume control, and the server will integrate with both iTunes and Mac OS X.

Future Amarra features include a hardware-based digital crossover, NoNOISE II software for repairing archive and vinyl recordings, bit-perfect CD ripping, DSD playback and six-channel surround sound. The new server will be in stores soon, and pricing has not been announced.