On 04/04/2010 07:56, housetrained wrote:
Hi
Is this the newsgroup to advise on living room [quiet] media players -
basically a HDD containing my music files connected to my DAC by digital
coax [or optical] with a window where I can see what's playing and a
remote? Don't need visual [i.e. TV out or HDMI] at all.
Any recommendations?
TIA


The problem (as I'm sure you know!) is the display.

There used to be a number of small media players with a small LCD to
display track etc, but these seem to have been replaced with video
oriented equivalents with no display. I'm sure you'll find one one on
ebay, but I found the display too small, and the software too clunky.
Can be noisy too, with screaming tiny fans.

Or, a bigger PC size case with a display/remote. Thermaltake Mozart for
example. These are fine but tend to be big, you're left to design out
noise (not trivial), and again, I find the displays too small if you've
got a collection of music.

Or, bring the display to the remote, and house a PC/Mac out of
site-sight/sound, or silence it, or buy a quiet unit to start with.
Philips SRM7500 seems to do what you might need - I have no experience
of it. I use an ipod Touch - works very well with the Remote Application
and iTunes. As I'd guess will the iPad.

Or, a streaming device like a Logitech Squeezebox Duet. Looks neat to
me, but a very expensive variation on the Touch theme.

Rob