Tim Hobbs wrote:
Is there a product like a hard drive that connects to my amp that I
can store all my cds on as mp3 then choose the tracks/albums/party
mix/soft music please

there are or were hard drive based "hi-fi" separates from what I
remember, or there was a few years ago....
prob a bit expensive the 'Slim' at 299 looks neat.

ISTR that Sony do one although I believe it uses ATRAC rather than
MP3 encoding


Yes, mine swallowed 230 CD's and then suddenly decided that the first
170 were PCM, not ATRAC format, hence they don't play (20 seconds of
white noise actually). Only three weeks wasted! :-(

It's with Sony at the moment for repair, although unless they can tell
me what they fix I won't be accepting it back. I suspect a software
glitch, and hence it could recurr.

I've gone down the route of server + client PC + decent sound card + smart
looking flat screen/keyboard on the shelf alongside the amp and CD player.

The worst part has been finding some decent, good looking software to run on
the 'client' PC. Currently I'm using iTunes as it has a good looking user
interface but I'm looking at getting something written to spec to give me
exactly the functionality and user experience I want

more from the 'Stimpy school' of uk.rec.audio-ism:

Tim Hobbs wrote:
Is there a product like a hard drive that connects to my amp that
I can store all my cds on as mp3 then choose the
tracks/albums/party mix/soft music please

there are or were hard drive based "hi-fi" separates from what I
remember, or there was a few years ago....
prob a bit expensive the 'Slim' at 299 looks neat.

ISTR that Sony do one although I believe it uses ATRAC rather than
MP3 encoding


Yes, mine swallowed 230 CD's and then suddenly decided that the first
170 were PCM, not ATRAC format, hence they don't play (20 seconds of
white noise actually). Only three weeks wasted! :-(

It's with Sony at the moment for repair, although unless they can
tell me what they fix I won't be accepting it back. I suspect a
software glitch, and hence it could recurr.

I've gone down the route of server + client PC + decent sound card +
smart looking flat screen/keyboard on the shelf alongside the amp and
CD player.

The worst part has been finding some decent, good looking software to
run on the 'client' PC. Currently I'm using iTunes as it has a good
looking user interface but I'm looking at getting something written to
spec to give me exactly the functionality and user experience I want



How about one of these:

http://www.ahanix.com/dvine5.html

With the front VFD panel, plus a plugin for your media player so that
information is displayed on the little screen. It shouldn't be too tough
finding a programmer to do this.

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

more from the 'Stimpy school' of uk.rec.audio-ism:

Tim Hobbs wrote:
Is there a product like a hard drive that connects to my amp that
I can store all my cds on as mp3 then choose the
tracks/albums/party mix/soft music please

there are or were hard drive based "hi-fi" separates from what I
remember, or there was a few years ago....
prob a bit expensive the 'Slim' at 299 looks neat.

ISTR that Sony do one although I believe it uses ATRAC rather than
MP3 encoding


Yes, mine swallowed 230 CD's and then suddenly decided that the first
170 were PCM, not ATRAC format, hence they don't play (20 seconds of
white noise actually). Only three weeks wasted! :-(

It's with Sony at the moment for repair, although unless they can
tell me what they fix I won't be accepting it back. I suspect a
software glitch, and hence it could recurr.

I've gone down the route of server + client PC + decent sound card +
smart looking flat screen/keyboard on the shelf alongside the amp and
CD player.

The worst part has been finding some decent, good looking software to
run on the 'client' PC. Currently I'm using iTunes as it has a good
looking user interface but I'm looking at getting something written to
spec to give me exactly the functionality and user experience I want



How about one of these:

http://www.ahanix.com/dvine5.html

With the front VFD panel, plus a plugin for your media player so that
information is displayed on the little screen. It shouldn't be too tough
finding a programmer to do this.

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

"Stimpy" wrote in message
...
Tim Hobbs wrote:
Is there a product like a hard drive that connects to my amp that I
can store all my cds on as mp3 then choose the tracks/albums/party
mix/soft music please

there are or were hard drive based "hi-fi" separates from what I
remember, or there was a few years ago....
prob a bit expensive the 'Slim' at 299 looks neat.

ISTR that Sony do one although I believe it uses ATRAC rather than
MP3 encoding


Yes, mine swallowed 230 CD's and then suddenly decided that the first
170 were PCM, not ATRAC format, hence they don't play (20 seconds of
white noise actually). Only three weeks wasted! :-(

It's with Sony at the moment for repair, although unless they can tell
me what they fix I won't be accepting it back. I suspect a software
glitch, and hence it could recurr.

I've gone down the route of server + client PC + decent sound card + smart
looking flat screen/keyboard on the shelf alongside the amp and CD player.

The worst part has been finding some decent, good looking software to run
on
the 'client' PC. Currently I'm using iTunes as it has a good looking user
interface but I'm looking at getting something written to spec to give me
exactly the functionality and user experience I want

why do you need server client
can you not run a standalone pc

wrote:

I've gone down the route of server + client PC + decent sound card +
smart looking flat screen/keyboard on the shelf alongside the amp
and CD player.

The worst part has been finding some decent, good looking software
to run on the 'client' PC. Currently I'm using iTunes as it has a
good looking user interface but I'm looking at getting something
written to spec to give me exactly the functionality and user
experience I want

why do you need server client
can you not run a standalone pc

Because I don't want a huge, ugly, noisy PC cluttering up my music room;
this way I have a silent PC hidden in a small cupboard and dedicated to
playing music, with just the flat screen and keyboard visible. The server
lives elsewhere together with it's backup device etc

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 19:00:38 -0000
"Stimpy" wrote:


Because I don't want a huge, ugly, noisy PC cluttering up my music room;
this way I have a silent PC hidden in a small cupboard and dedicated to
playing music, with just the flat screen and keyboard visible. The server
lives elsewhere together with it's backup device etc

you can buy truely silent PCs nowadays and it'll use less electricity that way too.


--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

more from the 'Ian Molton school' of uk.rec.audio-ism:

you can buy truely silent PCs nowadays and it'll use less electricity
that way too.

Truly silent? Most 'quiet' home computers are still pretty loud! After a
lot of work I've got my main pc quiet enough now, quite a bit quieter than
most spinning CDPs but far from silent. It's still audible at night from a
meter away.

One of the computers I use most often is a Sun Ray - basically just a thin
X client to a Sun Unix server. Now that IS silent - no fans at all! If I
was going to build a 'HTPC' it'd be a ray!

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 01:01:56 +0000 (UTC)
Jim H wrote:

you can buy truely silent PCs nowadays and it'll use less electricity
that way too.

Truly silent? Most 'quiet' home computers are still pretty loud! After a
lot of work I've got my main pc quiet enough now, quite a bit quieter than
most spinning CDPs but far from silent. It's still audible at night from a
meter away.

I said 'can buy', not 'most'

and that doesnt mean expensive.

look at the Via M series - my webserver here (see sig) is on a Via M6000.

it is a *SILENT* machine. it has:

256MB RAM
4GB HDD
64MB USB flash disk.

the harddisk is spun down most of the time. it has *ZERO* other moving parts except for a DVD drive (for when I get round to making it play DVDs as it lives under the telly). Its PSU is an external 'brick' with no fans, feeding a voltage converter inside the machine on a small PCB, which feeds an ATX connector for the mobo.

It runs linux, so once its cached any files it needs, they sit in RAM and the HDD can go to sleep. the USB disk is for any data that needs to be written, as the HDD is mounted read-only (except when updating the websites it hosts).

It also runs a Quake3 server.

I'd challenge you to beat its noise output with ANYTHING else :-)

My main PC is a shuttle XPC which *never* steps its fan above the slowest seting and is about as close to inaudible as a PC with a fan and HDD can be (seagate barracuda harddisk is actually quieter than the very quiet fan, and blindingly fast).

Te Via M6000 is capable of playing DVDs with its video systems onboard DCT acceleration. it does this pretty well. mp3s are easy, it can decode about 10 simultaneously no problem ;-)

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

It also runs a Quake3 server.

I'd challenge you to beat its noise output with ANYTHING else :-)

Like I said, the rays are just as quiet but without the HDD.
From the user's point of view they're a desktop pc.

My main PC is a shuttle XPC which *never* steps its fan above the
slowest seting and is about as close to inaudible as a PC with a fan
and HDD can be (seagate barracuda harddisk is actually quieter than
the very quiet fan, and blindingly fast).

I'd agree with this. I still run a 60gig Baracuda V (suposedly the quietest
of the lot).

Te Via M6000 is capable of playing DVDs with its video systems onboard
DCT acceleration. it does this pretty well. mp3s are easy, it can
decode about 10 simultaneously no problem ;-)

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

It also runs a Quake3 server.

I'd challenge you to beat its noise output with ANYTHING else :-)

Like I said, the rays are just as quiet but without the HDD.
From the user's point of view they're a desktop pc.

My main PC is a shuttle XPC which *never* steps its fan above the
slowest seting and is about as close to inaudible as a PC with a fan
and HDD can be (seagate barracuda harddisk is actually quieter than
the very quiet fan, and blindingly fast).

I'd agree with this. I still run a 60gig Baracuda V (suposedly the quietest
of the lot).

Te Via M6000 is capable of playing DVDs with its video systems onboard
DCT acceleration. it does this pretty well. mp3s are easy, it can
decode about 10 simultaneously no problem ;-)

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org