Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

"Meehan Mydog" not@all wrote in message
...

I must admit, I really thought that the type of machine I'm thinking of
would be far more common in the world of hi-fi, especially in the light of
the iPod phenomenon. Surely it can't be too difficult to design a hi-fi
sized box with a CD reader, at least 1TB of storage space, and some sort
of operating system similar to an iPod... can it? How come the major
players aren't churning them out at a rate of knots?


I simply use Windows Media Player running on a PC; the SPDIF output from
which is connected to a very high quality DAC, bought (new) as an unboxed
PCB from some guy in Hong Kong for about £20 on ebay. As much storage as I
like in the form of external hard drives. Files are either lossless wma
ripped via WMP, or wav files ripped via nero, or recorded from analogue via
CoolEdit.

Maybe a bit more hassle than those boxes that've been mentioned, but every
bit as good as those in "HiFi" terms and, since I already have the PC,
virtually FOC.

David.

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

Meehan Mydog wrote:

Is there is a hi-fi unit sized machine available on the market yet which
has the capacity to enable digital storage of several hundred
_uncompressed_ CDs? I think I'm talking in TBs here.

What I am thinking of would be a sort of non-portable 'grown-up' iPod,
which would have all the convenience of the iPod combined with the sound
quality of a genuine hi-fi unit.

Does one exist yet?

Regards,
Meehan

Not too hard to make a PC based unit with a good sound card. 1TB of
storage can cost less than $200 these days. You can rip to lossless
formats like WAV. The main problem is the software but there are some
options available.

Some people even reckon that the sound off a PC is better with less
jitter than straight off a CD, personally I think that there are
excellent opportunities to create jitter in the PC.

I am in the early days of designing a unit for myself using embedded
processors and solid state storage together with a good quality DAC. The
solid state storage will be in the form of a number of SD cards which
can be replaced as the price comes down to increase the storage
capacity. It is not intended to hold a complete collection but to be
used in conjunction with a PC server holding the main collection and the
files being downloaded for use. 32 Gigs of storage would hold about 40
uncompressed CDs which would cover the majority of listening for most
people, with a delay of a few seconds if a CD has to be called up from
the server across the LAN, certainly a lot quicker that manually loading
a CD.

Keith

Keith

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

Rob wrote:
Don Pearce wrote:
Rob wrote:


I'm not interested in genres, playlists etc. It is my music, and I
know what I have. All I need is a simple, logical way to find it. A
directory structure of my own devising is precisely that.


I've now lost track of my digital music - well over 1000 artists.


Are there that many artists? The number I consider listening to
doesn't exceed a few dozen, I think.


Well, I'd imagine the number that count *themselves* as artists probably
runs into millions ;-)

I have quite a few compilations - the Stiff record set is probably 40
artists for example.

I find iTunes a good method of organising, lossless compression and a
Mac Mini a good way of storing/serving, and an iPod Touch a good way
of accessing. The Touch is also a good portable device, although
storage is limited.

Rob

I just have this thing about software that tries to take over control
of me. I dislike it instantly. I did allow iTunes onto my machine
once, but I don't think it even lasted the day before I had kicked it
off again for being arrogant and rude. For example I have a few audio
books in MP3 form, and it wouldn't let me put them in the audio books
department - insisted they were unknown music. I won't put up with
that kind of thing.


Yes, it does have some highly irritating habits, and I've just had a
look and my audio books are podcasts apparently. But for listening to
music at the end of the day, about now in fact, I think it's great. I
can access anything by name in seconds. The latest update looks good,
and the Genius feature really does work (for me, so far, YMMV etc).

I don't find itunes as irritating as many people, although it does some
interesting things when you exceed the capacity of your iPod. I haven't
tried the "Genius" thing yet, it sounds a bit suss, a way to get you to
buy more from their store.

I have had a Mk 1 Nano (it is still the coolest of them all) for a
couple of years, it is great for long car journeys, run through the
favourite playlists, and if they run out stick it on random play. That
gives some interesting juxtapositions - Mozart bracketed between Pink
Floyd and ACDC. I recently bought a Touch, just before the Mk2 came out
:(, I see it as a completely different device, good for running apps and
multi-media stuff like video podcasts and carrying photos around.

Keith

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

Meehan Mydog wrote:

What I am thinking of would be a sort of non-portable 'grown-up' iPod,
which would have all the convenience of the iPod combined with the sound
quality of a genuine hi-fi unit.

www.slimdevices.com

Check out the Transporter. Get a NAS with SqueezeCenter (formerly
SlimServer) on it. Rip everything to FLAC (lossless compression). Copy
to NAS. Connect Transporter or Squeezebox to wired or wireless network.
Enjoy.

No, devices like this tend not to have a built in hard drive. Better to
get a NAS (or install SqueezeCenter on your PC) and store all the music
centrally, no worries with syncing stuff then.

Although personally I wouldn't bother with FLAC... MP3 at VBR upwards of
224kBit sounds pretty much indistinguishable from the original WAV when
played through the same kit.

--
Squirrel Solutions Ltd Tel: (01453) 845735
http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/ Fax: (01453) 843773

Registered in England: 05877408

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

"Meehan Mydog" not@all wrote in message


Is there is a hi-fi unit

The better portable players are essentially the same quality as a CD player,
if they are not playing uncompressed audio or audio that is compressed, but
not lossy-compresssed. IOW, if you avoid the potentially innocuous sound
quality losses in MP3 or other modern lossy compression schemes, there is
simply no possible loss of sound quality.

Moderate compression using modern techniques still give you benefits on the
order 8:1, or more with no reliably perceptible loss. MP3, WMA, and MP4
files have a bad name because many people have turned the compression way
up, which need not be done. Discursion is still the better part of valor!
;-)

sized machine available on the
market yet which has the capacity to enable digital
storage of several hundred _uncompressed_ CDs?

If you're talking pop CDs, the average CD has about 400 megabytes of audio
on it, or less.

Lossless compression, which most portable players support one way or the
other, will reduce that to about 200 megabytes. Lossless compression has
zero audible impact no matter how you look at it, because the data that goes
into the digital-to-analog converters in the player is the same.

200 CDs @ 200 megabytes each = 40 Gigabytes. Totally uncompressed that's
still just 80 gigabytes. Even the original iPod supports uncompressed audio
files (WAV or AIFF).

I was working on a job site lately and noticed that one of my co-workers was
carrying an 80 GB iPod.

So, your basic requirement of "several hundred _uncompressed_ CDs" is not
out of reach.

I think I'm talking in TBs here.

No.

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message

"Meehan Mydog" not@all wrote in message


Is there is a hi-fi unit

The better portable players are essentially the same
quality as a CD player, if they are not playing
uncompressed audio or audio that is compressed, but not
lossy-compressed.

Correction:

The better portable players are essentially the same
quality as a CD player, if they are playing
uncompressed audio or audio that is compressed, but not
lossy-compressed.

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

"Glenn Richards" wrote in message
...
Meehan Mydog wrote:

What I am thinking of would be a sort of non-portable 'grown-up' iPod,
which would have all the convenience of the iPod combined with the sound
quality of a genuine hi-fi unit.

www.slimdevices.com

Check out the Transporter.

Indeed, check out the price - $2000!

When I see something overpriced my usual remark is "cheap at half the
price", but this one would still be expensive at half the price.

David.

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

In article , Arny Krueger
scribeth thus
"Meehan Mydog" not@all wrote in message


Is there is a hi-fi unit

The better portable players are essentially the same quality as a CD player,
if they are not playing uncompressed audio or audio that is compressed, but
not lossy-compresssed. IOW, if you avoid the potentially innocuous sound
quality losses in MP3 or other modern lossy compression schemes, there is
simply no possible loss of sound quality.

Moderate compression using modern techniques still give you benefits on the
order 8:1, or more with no reliably perceptible loss. MP3, WMA, and MP4
files have a bad name because many people have turned the compression way
up, which need not be done. Discursion is still the better part of valor!
;-)

sized machine available on the
market yet which has the capacity to enable digital
storage of several hundred _uncompressed_ CDs?

If you're talking pop CDs, the average CD has about 400 megabytes of audio
on it, or less.

Lossless compression, which most portable players support one way or the
other, will reduce that to about 200 megabytes. Lossless compression has
zero audible impact no matter how you look at it, because the data that goes
into the digital-to-analog converters in the player is the same.

200 CDs @ 200 megabytes each = 40 Gigabytes. Totally uncompressed that's
still just 80 gigabytes. Even the original iPod supports uncompressed audio
files (WAV or AIFF).

I was working on a job site lately and noticed that one of my co-workers was
carrying an 80 GB iPod.

So, your basic requirement of "several hundred _uncompressed_ CDs" is not
out of reach.

I think I'm talking in TBs here.

No.


And if you do commit All the precious audio make sure its on some sort
of RAID arrangement or backed up on another disk somewhere...

Lost a lot of nice old Prom concerts when a Seagate disk went tits up
the other day,..

Seagate!, I ask you, supposed to be the dogs wotsits!...
--
Tony Sayer

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

So how do you all cope with tracks that run into each other?
Do you just put up with a moment of silence followed by a click,
do you audit each album and manually copy the sets of continuous tracks,
or copy the whole album as a single file? The last is preferable for
serious listeners who wouldn't dream of listening to less than a whole
album in one session.

--
Eiron.

Is there a 'grown-up' iPod device out there yet?
 

"tony sayer" wrote in message


Seagate!, I ask you, supposed to be the dogs wotsits!...

IME, all brands of drives can break.