Nativ is a home audio system that you control with a touchscreen. No, it’s like taking the giant touchscreen control panel out of a Tesla and dropping it in your home. Actually, it’s the kind of futuristic-looking thing we always thought we’d be using to control the entertainment in our homes. Wait, no, it’s more like taking a tablet, stapling it to a box of PC components, and placing it in a wooden tray.
Of course, it looks nicer than that. But there are some clever ideas here! I’m practically salivating at the idea of a media box with 4TB sitting on my kitchen counter. (Take that, Alexa.) It has something like a dozen ports, supports a suite of high-resolution audio standards (DSD64, DSD128, DSD256, DXD, and PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz), and supposedly has the hardware to back this all up. It’s basically an everything box, with support for services like YouTube, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal — all of which can be beamed to your TV via Google Cast. And it looks mercifully different from most current home audio solutions, which — let’s face it — are just speakers that come in different shapes and colors.