Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article ,
Keith G wrote:
DAB - highly recommendable, has a headphone socket with volume control
which means you can use it *standalone* with 'phones (playing as I
type)...

I have the DAB/FM tuner bought off Ebay secondhand. I've modified it to
route the Quad AM3 thought it - to raise the level to 'normal' and to
switch the power to it when not in use as the valves don't last forever.
So if the A/S is powered down (with the amp supply on) the Quad is powered
up and routed to the same outputs - saves on amp inputs.

I'd say it's very well made and decent value for money.

Incidentally on the DAB thing I'm well impressed with the DAB car radio.
Drove from S London to Lincoln and back with it rock solid the whole way
listening to R4 and R7 - and crisp and clear unlike FM under the same sort
of conditions. It even seems to hang on longer going through tunnels.

--
*If your feet smell and your nose runs, you're built upside down.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Simple systems with a HDD
 

On 23 Apr, 12:41, "Keith G" wrote:
"Dr Hfuhruhurr" wrote in message

oups.com...
On 23 Apr, 00:12, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:





In article ,
Keith G wrote:

There seems to be a glut of Acoustic Solutions CD 'Jukeboxes' on Ebay
at the minute - it's a CD Player with an internal HD that you can rip
CDs to. Don't think it can be used to record anything else, though.
They seem to go for well under 100 quid new.
Most of those have only a 40 Gig HDD - there is an 80 Gig version
available:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sspagename=STR...

Yup - I bought an 80 gig one for 80 quid recently. It's pretty good for
that price. Not sure it would be at the RRP, though. Since it uses a
computer CD drive it's a bit noisier than an audio CD. But if you want a
fairly basic stand alone jukebox system it's ok. But it won't play MP3
CDs. Nor does it say anywhere just how many CDs it will store.

Mmmm 80gb * 1024 = 81,920Mb
If you take an 'average' CD of 600 Mb then that's just over 136 CDs
for WAV (which I'm presuming it is) files.

There are three levels of compression (128/192/320 KB) available, I gather -
so there would be the opportunity to store a lot more albums than that...??

Sounds like an MP3 Sylee compression in that 128Kb will fir 10 times
as much onto the disk. Ergo 1360 CDs at what is probably an abominable
compression ratio. Sounds like the best bet would be to go for the
320Kb to reduce the chance of artefacts. so more like 600-700 CDs.

For £80 i'd be tempted to rip the lid of and try and cram something
HUGE in there.

Yes, if it would recognise a 500 Gig disk and *could handle* that many files
it would be an awsome resource for not a lot of money, but the matching
Acoustic Solutions CD player (which is perfectly OK sonically) can get
confused with large numbers of MP3s on a CDRW, I believe. I recall that the
one I have here will start to miss off a few seconds of each of the tracks,
if it is subjected to a lot of button-pressing and skipping about on the
remote...??

Always a problem with HDD based consumer devices is what format etc is
the disk.
Might have to have a play.......

Doc

Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
writes
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
DAB - highly recommendable, has a headphone socket with volume control
which means you can use it *standalone* with 'phones (playing as I
type)...

I have the DAB/FM tuner bought off Ebay secondhand. I've modified it to
route the Quad AM3 thought it - to raise the level to 'normal' and to
switch the power to it when not in use as the valves don't last forever.
So if the A/S is powered down (with the amp supply on) the Quad is powered
up and routed to the same outputs - saves on amp inputs.

I'd say it's very well made and decent value for money.

Incidentally on the DAB thing I'm well impressed with the DAB car radio.
Drove from S London to Lincoln and back with it rock solid the whole way
listening to R4 and R7 - and crisp and clear unlike FM under the same sort
of conditions. It even seems to hang on longer going through tunnels.


Glad you like the sound of DABble Dave;!....
--
Tony Sayer

Simple systems with a HDD
 

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
DAB - highly recommendable, has a headphone socket with volume control
which means you can use it *standalone* with 'phones (playing as I
type)...

I have the DAB/FM tuner bought off Ebay secondhand. I've modified it to
route the Quad AM3 thought it - to raise the level to 'normal' and to
switch the power to it when not in use as the valves don't last forever.
So if the A/S is powered down (with the amp supply on) the Quad is powered
up and routed to the same outputs - saves on amp inputs.

I'd say it's very well made and decent value for money.



Agree entirely - especially as the Pure Evoke (??) 'separate' was the
greater part of 300 nicker, last time I looked...



Incidentally on the DAB thing I'm well impressed with the DAB car radio.
Drove from S London to Lincoln and back with it rock solid the whole way
listening to R4 and R7 - and crisp and clear unlike FM under the same sort
of conditions. It even seems to hang on longer going through tunnels.


FM on my cheap JVC car radio is quite excellent, I am delighted/relieved to
say!

Simple systems with a HDD
 

"Dr Hfuhruhurr" wrote



Sounds like an MP3 Sylee compression in that 128Kb will fir 10 times
as much onto the disk. Ergo 1360 CDs at what is probably an abominable
compression ratio. Sounds like the best bet would be to go for the
320Kb to reduce the chance of artefacts. so more like 600-700 CDs.

For £80 i'd be tempted to rip the lid of and try and cram something
HUGE in there.

Yes, if it would recognise a 500 Gig disk and *could handle* that many
files
it would be an awsome resource for not a lot of money, but the matching
Acoustic Solutions CD player (which is perfectly OK sonically) can get
confused with large numbers of MP3s on a CDRW, I believe. I recall that
the
one I have here will start to miss off a few seconds of each of the
tracks,
if it is subjected to a lot of button-pressing and skipping about on the
remote...??

Always a problem with HDD based consumer devices is what format etc is
the disk.
Might have to have a play.......



Do let us know how it goes if you do...

Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
Incidentally on the DAB thing I'm well impressed with the DAB car
radio. Drove from S London to Lincoln and back with it rock solid the
whole way listening to R4 and R7 - and crisp and clear unlike FM under
the same sort of conditions. It even seems to hang on longer going
through tunnels.


Glad you like the sound of DABble Dave;!....

If that's what it sounds like to you - you need to get a decent aerial.
;-)

And in the car it sounds far better than the splashy sibilants I got on
both the previous radio and the posh one in the other car, much of the
time. Nuances like sound stage ain't quite so important.

FWIW, the more criticism I hear about current DAB the more I wonder about
those making it (mainly Mr DAB sounds worse than anything). The
differences between it and FM are fairly subtle on the things I listen to
whereas multipath and the effects of a decoder trying to get a decent sig
to noise on a car setup are anything but.

I note also that Mr Lesurf doesn't seem to find it quite as horrendous as
many here claim. ;-)

--
*Can fat people go skinny-dipping?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Simple systems with a HDD
 

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
Yup - I bought an 80 gig one for 80 quid recently. It's pretty good
for that price. Not sure it would be at the RRP, though. Since it
uses a computer CD drive it's a bit noisier than an audio CD. But if
you want a fairly basic stand alone jukebox system it's ok. But it
won't play MP3 CDs. Nor does it say anywhere just how many CDs it
will store.

Mmmm 80gb * 1024 = 81,920Mb If you take an 'average' CD of 600 Mb
then that's just over 136 CDs for WAV (which I'm presuming it is)
files.



There are three levels of compression (128/192/320 KB) available, I
gather - so there would be the opportunity to store a lot more albums
than that...??

It would seem so. Trying my most difficult one - solo piano - I just
settled on the maximum. I won't need *that* many in it anyway - the filing
system isn't of the best. Or probably just the display. To find things
fast you'd need a bigger screen.


I'd find that a drawback. I'm on the cusp of getting rid of all my CDs -
I don't think I've played one for over a year. I just rip them to a
computer wired up to the hifi/telly.

For £80 i'd be tempted to rip the lid of and try and cram something
HUGE in there.



Yes, if it would recognise a 500 Gig disk and *could handle* that many
files it would be an awsome resource for not a lot of money,

Indeed - I'd give it a whirl ...

but the
matching Acoustic Solutions CD player (which is perfectly OK
sonically) can get confused with large numbers of MP3s on a CDRW, I
believe. I recall that the one I have here will start to miss off a
few seconds of each of the tracks, if it is subjected to a lot of
button-pressing and skipping about on the remote...??


.... even if these things fall over a little on the software side IME.

Their gear seems to be a mixture of bought in basics and home grown
interfaces. So if you can get the information on the bought in stuff it
might be possible. I've not looked inside it yet. It will re-format a
drive, though.


If you find out if they can take bigger HDs, and the file system, it'd
be interesting.

Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
writes
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
Incidentally on the DAB thing I'm well impressed with the DAB car
radio. Drove from S London to Lincoln and back with it rock solid the
whole way listening to R4 and R7 - and crisp and clear unlike FM under
the same sort of conditions. It even seems to hang on longer going
through tunnels.


Glad you like the sound of DABble Dave;!....

If that's what it sounds like to you - you need to get a decent aerial.
;-)

Got plenty of those!..


And in the car it sounds far better than the splashy sibilants I got on
both the previous radio and the posh one in the other car, much of the
time. Nuances like sound stage ain't quite so important.

Funny but both our cars sound fine!..


FWIW, the more criticism I hear about current DAB the more I wonder about
those making it (mainly Mr DAB sounds worse than anything).

Standards are lowering all the time..
The
differences between it and FM are fairly subtle on the things I listen to
whereas multipath and the effects of a decoder trying to get a decent sig
to noise on a car setup are anything but.

Not everybody lives in the wrong bit of London;!..

I note also that Mr Lesurf doesn't seem to find it quite as horrendous as
many here claim. ;-)

Age related? ;)....
--
Tony Sayer

Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
And in the car it sounds far better than the splashy sibilants I got on
both the previous radio and the posh one in the other car, much of the
time. Nuances like sound stage ain't quite so important.

Funny but both our cars sound fine!..

I wonder if they would do round my test route...

--


Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Simple systems with a HDD
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
writes
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
And in the car it sounds far better than the splashy sibilants I got on
both the previous radio and the posh one in the other car, much of the
time. Nuances like sound stage ain't quite so important.

Funny but both our cars sound fine!..

I wonder if they would do round my test route...


Which is where exactly?..
--
Tony Sayer