Sony have just announced their upgrade of the wireless / streaming / MP3 compatible / do-anything-with-your-music range in the form of the “GigaJuke” lineup.

The core of the system is based around an enclosed hard drive to store your music, together with an amplifier and speakers.

The complete package (pictured) is the “NAS-SC500PK” which includes a 160GB hard drive, amp and player. The unit is Wifi/ethernet enabled to pick up music from your network and comes with built in “Gracenotes” music recognition software so any CD you copy over should be automatically labelled and tagged.

The system can play MP3, WMA, AAC, PCM and ATRAC files. There’s no mention of FLAC on the list though

The “party” mode can synchronise up to 5 connected players in different rooms. You also get 100W of digital amplification and various ways of slicing and dicing your music collection by mood.

Rounding off the list is a built in dock for compatible Walkman players, an (optional) iPod dock for Cupertino’s finest and a USB port for everything else.

Also announced – the NAS-E300HD, which does the same job but has slightly less grunt with 80GB storage and 60W and doesn’t come with the multi-room server functionality.