On 16 Sep, 12:20, Meehan Mydog not@all wrote:
Apologies if this has been raised before... this is my first visit to
the NG.

I have 600+ CDs in my collection, and we're in the process of renovating
the house. At the moment they're all stacked up in inaccessible piles,
ready for the fitting of a new shelving system in which to store them
permanently once all the work is done.

...and then someone pointed me towards an iPod for the first time, and I
saw the possibilities of saving a whole stack of cash and space by not
getting any proper shelving at all, and simply putting all my music onto
an iPod instead.

The logic here is pretty sound, except for the sound itself. The quality
of the compressed files on the iPod when played through my hi-fi system
leaves something to be desired. (And, although an iPod has incredible
storage capacity for it's small size, it would not take my entire
collection in an uncompressed state.)

I have been so satisfied with my aged hi-fi system that I have sort of
'lost the plot' as regards the current state of the art, but the iPod
idea set me thinking...

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

You might have a look at http://www.sooloos.com/www/index.php - if
only to admire Mayara on the floor.

Meehan Mydog wrote...

Does one exist yet?

The nearest thing is the Arcam MS250,£3,000
http://www.arcam.co.uk/prod_fmj_ms250_intro.cfm
which could just hold your current CD collection.

--
Ken

http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/buddyduck/

Okay, thanks everyone.

I think what I had in mind was something along the lines of the Arcam,
although I think that 400GB is a little bit mean when you consider that
160GB iPods have been around for a while. Surely if something is that
much physically bigger than an iPod it could be made with much more
storage space.

The Sooloos thing looks a good system, but I wouldn't be happy to invest
in a machine that didn't let me import my own CDs. (Am I reading that
right... you have to buy tailored 'packages' of music from them?) I
would want it to be rip-enabled.

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?

Regards,
Meehan

Meehan Mydog wrote:
Okay, thanks everyone.

I think what I had in mind was something along the lines of the Arcam,
although I think that 400GB is a little bit mean when you consider that
160GB iPods have been around for a while. Surely if something is that
much physically bigger than an iPod it could be made with much more
storage space.

The Sooloos thing looks a good system, but I wouldn't be happy to invest
in a machine that didn't let me import my own CDs. (Am I reading that
right... you have to buy tailored 'packages' of music from them?) I
would want it to be rip-enabled.

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?

Regards,
Meehan

Cambrdige do a music server with CD riping, and there's this:

http://www.3ga.org.uk/shop/

For me it was always a case of difficulty accessing music via the tiny
displays, and I have a growing number of videos, so I use a Mac Mini
connected to the TV and hifi. I find the software fine, although the
alternatives mentioned also look good. The Mini just about perfect
*except* for HD space (same with Brennan) - I can just about squeeze
everything on to a recently installed 250GB (laptop) drive - I can but
would prefer not to daisy chain USB drives. I'll face that hurdle when I
come to it but I'm sold on the Mac thing so that'll limit my options. A
mac Mini with a 1TB external HD would do you (if you can connect it to a
display) and cost £500.

On the PC route a problem is noise. We've just has Dell Optiplexs
installed at work and they seem very quiet, and can be had for not much
more than a Mac Mini and have the advanatge of taking full size drives.

I suspect the Arcam stuff would meet your needs if they'd fit a larger
HD, and Linn could certainly kit you out. I think hifi branded kit of
this kind carries a bonkers price premium.

Rob

"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.

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

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

"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.

"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.

"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.