Brennan JB7
 

Brennan JB7

Does anyone have experience (or comments) on this? On the face of it looks
ideal for my needs - copies CDs but much more importantly allows me to
record my LPs from my own turntable and pre-amp, unlike those godawful
machines frequently advertised in the mass media.. Also has a 60wpc power
amp built in which would do me very nicely. For a bit south of 400 quid it
seems too good to be true.

Any views?

Geoff MacK

Brennan JB7
 

On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:59:24 -0000, "Geoff Mackenzie"
wrote:

Brennan JB7

Does anyone have experience (or comments) on this? On the face of it looks
ideal for my needs - copies CDs but much more importantly allows me to
record my LPs from my own turntable and pre-amp, unlike those godawful
machines frequently advertised in the mass media.. Also has a 60wpc power
amp built in which would do me very nicely. For a bit south of 400 quid it
seems too good to be true.

Any views?

Geoff MacK

Looks ok. The one thing I would say is that, like most machines of
this type, it has a pretty stingy amount of hard drive by current
standards. Really you need to try it because functionality is all with
these things. For example, once you have a few hundred tunes in there,
how easy is it to find the one you want. And does it force you down
the iTunes route of sorting by genre etc., or can you make your own
choices.

d

Brennan JB7
 

On 29/12/2009 21:21, Don Pearce wrote:
On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:59:24 -0000, "Geoff Mackenzie"
wrote:

Brennan JB7

Does anyone have experience (or comments) on this? On the face of it looks
ideal for my needs - copies CDs but much more importantly allows me to
record my LPs from my own turntable and pre-amp, unlike those godawful
machines frequently advertised in the mass media.. Also has a 60wpc power
amp built in which would do me very nicely. For a bit south of 400 quid it
seems too good to be true.

Any views?

Geoff MacK

Looks ok. The one thing I would say is that, like most machines of
this type, it has a pretty stingy amount of hard drive by current
standards. Really you need to try it because functionality is all with
these things. For example, once you have a few hundred tunes in there,
how easy is it to find the one you want. And does it force you down
the iTunes route of sorting by genre etc., or can you make your own
choices.


As you say, an issue is the amount of button pressing/menu accessing you
have to do to get where you want. On my Mac (using an iPod Touch as a
remote) I can find one track in 10,000 from my armchair in less than
10s. I suspect it's the same on a PC.

Also, the lack of internet connection limits the usefulness, and means
you rely on the manufacturer to update the software regularly - probably
not a problem if your music tastes are fairly mainstream.

iTunes allows only about 30 categories of 'sort' - a limitation is the
lack of a custom field. You can of course search using Spotlight or the
iTunes search database facility. The JB7 only has 3 fields by the look
of it, with no custom facility, and no text search.

The biggest issue is likely to be the LP transcription - I just wouldn't
fancy recording/editing/labelling on that sort of device. I had a Yamaha
HD recorder built for the job and gave up in the end. 320GB is a lot of
MP3s, but 'only' about 500 LPs - it doesn't do lossless, and I can't
easily see how/if it converts/records LP to MP3.

For that money or a little (lot for a Mac!) more I'd go for a media Mac
or PC, an iPod Touch, and connect it all to a TV and hifi.

Rob

Brennan JB7
 

Rob wrote:
For that money or a little (lot for a Mac!) more I'd go for a media Mac
or PC, an iPod Touch, and connect it all to a TV and hifi.


Agreed. Go for an Acer Revo.

Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Desktop PC, Atom 230 1.6GHz, 160GB HDD, 1 GB RAM,
HDMI, nVidia GeForce 9400 ION, WIFI, Linux

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153 - £144.85 inc VAT

This is a pretty cheap & small PC that can be run in server mode
consuming very low power. It's small, and has got plenty of toys for
multimedia use.

A USB audio interface to handle phono connections
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UFO202.aspx

For a wireless controller, use an iPod touch or something I'm currently
studying the potential of as a bedside clock - a Chumby One

http://www.chumby.com

--
Adrian C

Brennan JB7
 

On 30/12/2009 16:21, Adrian C wrote:
Rob wrote:
For that money or a little (lot for a Mac!) more I'd go for a media
Mac or PC, an iPod Touch, and connect it all to a TV and hifi.


Agreed. Go for an Acer Revo.

Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Desktop PC, Atom 230 1.6GHz, 160GB HDD, 1 GB RAM,
HDMI, nVidia GeForce 9400 ION, WIFI, Linux

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153 - £144.85 inc VAT


That's quite a deal, has to be said. My netbook has an Atom processor -
fine for basic stuff, but I wouldn't fancy editing large wav files, or
compressing to mp3 . . .

This is a pretty cheap & small PC that can be run in server mode
consuming very low power. It's small, and has got plenty of toys for
multimedia use.

A USB audio interface to handle phono connections
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UFO202.aspx


Looks to be a clever thing.

For a wireless controller, use an iPod touch or something I'm currently
studying the potential of as a bedside clock - a Chumby One

http://www.chumby.com


Looks to be a cleverer thing - I like that!

Brennan JB7
 

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...
Brennan JB7

Does anyone have experience (or comments) on this? On the face of it
looks ideal for my needs - copies CDs but much more importantly allows me
to record my LPs from my own turntable and pre-amp, unlike those godawful
machines frequently advertised in the mass media.. Also has a 60wpc power
amp built in which would do me very nicely. For a bit south of 400 quid
it seems too good to be true.

Any views?

Geoff MacK


I've recently started storing my CDs on a NAS and then streaming them to my
hifi system using uPnP.
This works well enough, but I am glad that I have some redundancy as the
Samsung 1.5TB Ecogreen hard disk in the NAS failed after 27 days!

The hard disk (and the NAS) came from eBuyer. On Tuesday 29th there were 28
people ahead of me in the returns dept queue. By Wednesday mid day this had
reduced to about 9, so I waited and they actually answered after just a few
minutes. The disk should have been collected on Thursday, but no one came.

I ordered a replacement from Scan (different brand of disk) that was
supposed to be shipped on Tuesday to arrive on Wednesday, but was shipped
and arrive a day late.

Another advantage of the this approach is that the NAS can be kept somewhere
where the noise of its spinning disk and fans are not a problem (my attic)

--
Michael Chare

Brennan JB7
 

"Michael Chare" wrote in message
...
"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...
Brennan JB7

Does anyone have experience (or comments) on this? On the face of it
looks ideal for my needs - copies CDs but much more importantly allows me
to record my LPs from my own turntable and pre-amp, unlike those godawful
machines frequently advertised in the mass media.. Also has a 60wpc
power amp built in which would do me very nicely. For a bit south of 400
quid it seems too good to be true.

Any views?

Geoff MacK


I've recently started storing my CDs on a NAS and then streaming them to
my hifi system using uPnP.
This works well enough, but I am glad that I have some redundancy as the
Samsung 1.5TB Ecogreen hard disk in the NAS failed after 27 days!

The hard disk (and the NAS) came from eBuyer. On Tuesday 29th there were
28 people ahead of me in the returns dept queue. By Wednesday mid day this
had reduced to about 9, so I waited and they actually answered after just
a few minutes. The disk should have been collected on Thursday, but no one
came.

I ordered a replacement from Scan (different brand of disk) that was
supposed to be shipped on Tuesday to arrive on Wednesday, but was shipped
and arrive a day late.

Another advantage of the this approach is that the NAS can be kept
somewhere where the noise of its spinning disk and fans are not a problem
(my attic)



Spinning disks and fans will soon become a thing of the past when SSDs
become cheaper and more commonplace, but what interests me are your comments
about non-deliveries and non-collections at various arranged times.

I bought a Mac Mini online on Tuesday evening from an outfit called Laptops
Direct - which pretty quickly got morphed into 'BuyItDirect'! (??) Anyway,
it was just too late for next day 'guaranteed' delivery on Wednesday and so,
in all innocence, I expected it yesterday and *bingo* it didn't arrive -
despite them having nearly twice as long as most 'overnight orders' in which
to get it delivered!

OK, not the end of the world, especially as we are both about this week so
it didn't mean I was chained to the door, but bloody annoying all the same!

It doesn't happen often (I don't buy stuff that often) but I suspect it's
getting more and more likely lately if you stray too far from reliable
evergreens like Amazon - even eBay is a better bet than the online stores
from what I can see of it, providing you don't find out the hard way that
what you have bought is coming from China!

Brennan JB7
 

On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 19:45:56 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

I bought a Mac Mini online on Tuesday evening from an outfit called Laptops
Direct - which pretty quickly got morphed into 'BuyItDirect'! (??) Anyway,
it was just too late for next day 'guaranteed' delivery on Wednesday and so,
in all innocence, I expected it yesterday and *bingo* it didn't arrive -
despite them having nearly twice as long as most 'overnight orders' in which
to get it delivered!

Laptops Direct (and their aliases) have been pretty reliable for me.
Maybe Christmas week, plus the snow, might cut them a little slack?

Brennan JB7
 

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 19:45:56 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

I bought a Mac Mini online on Tuesday evening from an outfit called
Laptops
Direct - which pretty quickly got morphed into 'BuyItDirect'! (??) Anyway,
it was just too late for next day 'guaranteed' delivery on Wednesday and
so,
in all innocence, I expected it yesterday and *bingo* it didn't arrive -
despite them having nearly twice as long as most 'overnight orders' in
which
to get it delivered!

Laptops Direct (and their aliases) have been pretty reliable for me.
Maybe Christmas week, plus the snow, might cut them a little slack?


Yes, I was aware that my *timing* wasn't best when I placed the order, but
it was *after* Christmas and these firms don't need to rely on the Royal
Mail.

The computer isn't urgent and this time we were/are here in any case, so it
isn't the complete PITA it might be - I probably won't be able to even
switch it on until I get a VGA adaptor cable anyway and that's coming from a
different source!

I'm cool....

@:-)

Brennan JB7
 

On 02/01/2010 00:23, Keith G wrote:

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 19:45:56 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

I bought a Mac Mini online on Tuesday evening from an outfit called
Laptops
Direct - which pretty quickly got morphed into 'BuyItDirect'! (??)
Anyway,
it was just too late for next day 'guaranteed' delivery on Wednesday
and so,
in all innocence, I expected it yesterday and *bingo* it didn't arrive -
despite them having nearly twice as long as most 'overnight orders'
in which
to get it delivered!

Laptops Direct (and their aliases) have been pretty reliable for me.
Maybe Christmas week, plus the snow, might cut them a little slack?


Yes, I was aware that my *timing* wasn't best when I placed the order,
but it was *after* Christmas and these firms don't need to rely on the
Royal Mail.

The computer isn't urgent and this time we were/are here in any case, so
it isn't the complete PITA it might be - I probably won't be able to
even switch it on until I get a VGA adaptor cable anyway and that's
coming from a different source!


What are you planning to connect it to? I just use a DVI-HDMI cable . . .