Discalimer i work for the company...

Have a look at the devices we make... www.sonos.com. Its a whole system
designed to play back digital media around your house... wireless
multizone... with your amp or with ours.

www.sonos.com

graham

Rich Wilson wrote:

By the way, hi-fi and MP3 aren't completely incompatible - it's all a
matter of getting a good encoder for your MP3s.


I disagree. It's far more about the bit rate you use to encode at than
the encoder itself. For example, if you use a high bit rate, such as
224kbps or higher, I doubt there will be much difference in sound
quality between any of the encoders. It's at low bit rates like 128kbps
where differences in encoders will make more of a difference to the
audio quality.


Look into LAME if you
haven't got it already. http://lame.sourceforge.net/


Agreed.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab_radios.htm

I have very good magazine review for 20
different mp3 players.
The players were put through a series of tests that checked: Total
Harmonic Distortion (THD)
Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR) , Maximum Output Signal and Earphone
Quality Check.
Two players stood out from the rest and were given a 9/10 rating.

Creative MuVo TX FM

This player has 1gb storage, a small lcd screen Fm receiver and handles
voice recording.
Powered by 1 AAA battery. Audio quality was well above average with THD
reading of 0.022% at 1kHz with 30kHz filtering. A weighted SNR is 88.2
db. Maximum output level is
391mV RMS which is a little low but should still work nicely when
plugged into your stereo.

Creative Zen Neeon

This player has 5gb storage with a THD reading of 0.01% at 1kHz with 30
kHz filtering.
It has a 73.8db flat response SNR. The lcd screen is a little bigger
than the muvo and personally this is my choice and will probably
purchase it soon. Both these players can be seen at www.creative.com

The rest of the players had these end results,

Creative Muvo Mix 8/10
Linophir L117 8/10
Lexar Digital Music Player 8/10
MSI Mega Player 521 7/10
MSI Mega Player 522BT 7/10
Pioneer Dream Vision MP318 7/10
Apacer Audio Steno AB320 6.5/10
Apple ipod 7.5/10
Apple ipod Shuffle 6.5/10
Samsung YP-T7Z 6.5/10
Apacer Audio Steno AP510 6/10
Apacer Audio Steno AV230 5/10
Geil iball 4/10
Creative Zen Micro 7.5/10
Samsung YH-820 7/10
Creative Zen 8/10
Samsung YH-925 7/10
Pioneer Dream Vision HD200 6/10

Hope this was helpful.

Dezza.

Sorry about the multiple posts, not sure what happened.

Dezza

Hello Keith, Malcolm, Rich, Deeza, Graham, et al

Thanks for all the information.

Keith recommended
Grab a laptop off eBay (there's over 2000 listed atm from 99p....) and
get
an external soundcard. I use this one xxx and can recommend it for the
money!
Does a laptop not have a sound card - or does it need
special functions ?
And external harddrive if you need it - chase down the the 2.5 inch
**USB** (no power supply needed) Freecom 'Classic Mobile' 40 and 80 Gig
drives
That's no problem. I already have a Maxtor LSE-5000
external HD.

Malcolm recommended
a squeezebox from slimdevices
Must the squeezebox run over wifi from the computer ?
Is it possible to load files onto it e.g. via USB,
connect it to the amp, and
then have it work independently from the computer,
as would a normal mp3 player ?

Best regards and thanks again from Ray

Malcolm recommended
a squeezebox from slimdevices
Must the squeezebox run over wifi from the computer ?
Is it possible to load files onto it e.g. via USB,
connect it to the amp, and
then have it work independently from the computer,
as would a normal mp3 player ?

Best regards and thanks again from Ray

Ray

1. The squeezebox can connect to the computer by cable (Ethernet) or WiFi
2. No - all the files are kept on the computer HD

See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04...es_squeezebox/

Malcolm

"Raymond RUSSELL" wrote in message
...
Hello Keith, Malcolm, Rich, Deeza, Graham, et al

Thanks for all the information.

Keith recommended
Grab a laptop off eBay (there's over 2000 listed atm from 99p....) and
get
an external soundcard. I use this one xxx and can recommend it for the
money!
Does a laptop not have a sound card - or does it need
special functions ?



Sorry, thinking with my feet - I use an external soundcard and suggested one
because early (eBay) laptops might benefit from one. Modern laptops might of
course not need one.

Despite having discovered this morning that laptops might not be ideal for
recording, the reason I think they are good for MP3 playback is they have
superior filehandling/titling facilities etc., there are any number of
'players' and editing programs available and it is easy to make up (and
save) playlists even while playing music. File types will not be a problem
and if you have one which is also connected to the Net you can access
information about artists and track information while listening....

(Or play Spider Solitaire...!!?? :-)