Jim Lesurf wrote:

Don't know about all of that, but ripping direct from Cd brings the
'Brennan' to mind. No idea how good it is, though. The ads seem to
lean heavily on Brennan being a 'dome brained scientist' which ia a
little offputting at it keeps making the word 'Bose' pass though my
mind. :-)


The Brennan looks interesting and probably would be readily accepted by my
family since it looks a bit like the box it is replacing (apart from the
size). But, like you, was not impressed by the ad hype which was light on
facts and specs. Looking at reviews, the sound quality seems to be an issue
though nobody quantifies it. They talk of (to paraphrase) "A lack of depth
in the sound that is more than compensated for by the tons of cool
features." I'm also wondering about (uncompressed) library size with the
supplied 40 Gb HD although there is an 80Gb option.

Bose...aaah. I have a friend who supplies PA for events (I helped him with
the PA at NEC Crufts for many years) and he swears by Bose. Main reason,
though, is the mechanical and electrical robustness of their PA speakers
when installed on poles in muddy fields.

As for sound libraries....I think I will do a trial run with an old spare
laptop and optical drive. If folk here take to the setup I can upgrade it to
something more permanent along the lines suggested by Arny.

Thanks

TonyL