Idea on APE music server

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #40 on:** 1 Jun 2003, 03:59 am »

Wouldn't a powerbook and a few extra drives be pretty expensive?

JohnR · « **Reply #41 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 03:16 am »

Aha! The DAC w/ Ethernet already exists! And it plays video too

http://www.sonicblue.com/video/govideo/D2730Info.html

(Spotted on Madisound: http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi?read=254708 )

Edit: Maybe this one only does compressed audio. Here's another one someone posted: http://www.cd3o.com/ will check into it later!

Brad · « **Reply #42 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 03:52 am »

Holy sheepsh*t Batman!

That's perfect, John!
$250 for digital out (coax or spdif) and wired/wireless e-net.
And an IR remote control.

I believe you have greatly simplified this process for me.
Works on PC for now and they're actively working on the MAC version.

Brad · « **Reply #43 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 03:54 am »

The SonicBlue video box lists for $299, too......

Looks like either product solves the problem, albeit with 320kpbs MP3.
The Cd30 can be firmware updated to support additional audio formats (hopefully APE, OGG, or AAC)

The cool part is I can probably get this approved as a work project to get one in to play around with

Brad · « **Reply #44 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 04:18 am »

Couple of more: Turtle Beach Audiotron and Motorola SimpleFi

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audiotron/producthome.asp

and:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006OAJO/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/002-9306365-7727216

Brad · « **Reply #45 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 04:51 am »

One more:

http://www.slimdevices.com/

this one works with a lot more os'es
MP3 only, though.

Thanks again for the start, JohnR.

JoshK · « **Reply #46 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 01:27 pm »

Brad,

I think the Turtlebeach one is the way to go. Fully remote control driven, digital out for DAC support and it supports digital radio, mp3's and wavs. Best part is it has an API so third party developers can add stuff to the interface. I.e. you could get a third party APE support.

JohnR · « **Reply #47 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 01:52 pm »

Ewww my head is spinning ...

Here's a bit more on the GoVideo player. This one appeals to me because I don't have a DVD player now anyway and need to get one anyway. But, I don't htink it's available yet, esp down here in the backwaters of civilization

http://gear.ign.com/articles/382/382334p1.html?fromint=1

BTW, what compression ratio does APE get?

Brad · « **Reply #48 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 01:59 pm »

The GoVideo player isn't available yet, even in the relatively civilized U.S.

APE gets about a 2:1 compression.

SliMP3 seems to have the most responsive support/development team.
Time to put together a chart with all of the plus/minus factors. On the bright side, it looks like I can spend $300 and get where I wanted to.

If I already had a good DAC, the Audiotron would be at the top of my list.

Brad · « **Reply #49 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 11:21 pm »

Looks like the c3d0 is now at the top of the list.
Wireless 802.11 will save me having to buy a wireless bridge for the other products ($75-90). It also appears to have the best DAC and has the most focus on sound quality.

My concern is the voice menu for controlling the system via remote without a PC. It also doesn't support OSX.

Slimp3 has a nice display, but is hard-wired Ethernet (requiring bridge) and only supports MP3s at this point. The software will run on Windows, Mac, and 'nix though.

If one of them offered APE support, it would be an easier choice....

Ernest · « **Reply #50 on:** 7 Jun 2003, 03:37 am »

I have an AudioTron. I've had it for about a year now but have hardly used it. It didn't use to work well with uncompressed audio streams, but they have since updated the software and so I need to try it again. MP3's and Internet Radio worked very well, but the sound quality wasn't very good. I really need to update the software and try it again.

Brad · « **Reply #51 on:** 7 Jun 2003, 11:54 pm »

TigerDirect has the cd30 for $249, with a $50 rebate and 2-day air shipping for an additional $15.

Looks like I'm leaning that way.

Also found an announced product by MacSense, the HomePod. It was supposed by be released in March, but has yet to hit the market. They're not even a Thai company

JoshK · « **Reply #52 on:** 8 Jun 2003, 01:58 am »

Ernest,

Did you use the digital out or the internal DAC. I would only use it with an outboard DAC of good quality. Do you want to sell yours?

Brad · « **Reply #53 on:** 8 Jun 2003, 03:17 am »

Josh,

Plenty of Audiotron's on *bay, too.
Take a look there if Ernest isn't ready to sell.

JohnR · « **Reply #54 on:** 8 Jun 2003, 05:58 pm »

The Australian distributors want $900 for the audiotron... !

I'm kinda thinking that the c100 from cd3o would be the best bet for me to get started. MP3s for now, OK, but what I'd like to do is digitize vinyl into MP3s. Not for critical listening... but let's face it, changing 6 or 8 sides to listen to an opera is pretty tedious, and if I'm working I tend to forget to changes sides anyway, not good...

Then when the GoVideo thing comes out, look into getting that for the HT room. Does anyone happen to know if it's easy (ahem) to get DVDs onto disk?

Brad · « **Reply #55 on:** 11 Jun 2003, 07:56 pm »

John - found the perfect one for you.

They're in Au - and it's a kit you have to build.
Cheap though!

http://mp3elf.net/

Larry · « **Reply #56 on:** 13 Jun 2003, 12:51 pm »

Quote from: JohnR

The server would then need to be running Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP... but some of us do have some experience with that...

I am a bit late to this thread. I have been thinking an audio server for some time.

I am running Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP at my home server and did some programing on this. So I could contribute to this.

Larry · « **Reply #57 on:** 13 Jun 2003, 01:05 pm »

Quote from: JohnR

Then when the GoVideo thing comes out, look into getting that for the HT room. Does anyone happen to know if it's easy (ahem) to get DVDs onto disk?

Not exactly answer your question. My radar has targeted at the DreamBox, which is a network-enabled DVB player based on Linux. Oz will import this machine next year. It can play back recorded MPEG2 so that I think it can handle any DVD video streams etc from network. As it is Linux based, I will therefore be able to connect my TH to the network and do a lot of funny things with it, I believe.

http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/cat_eng/produkte/boxfeatures.php4

Larry · « **Reply #58 on:** 13 Jun 2003, 01:15 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

I think the Turtlebeach one is the way to go. Fully remote control driven, digital out for DAC support and it supports digital radio, mp3's and wavs.

Do you think it can directly pass the bitstream to SPDIF digital out?

At the moment, I have a Creative Extigy external soundcard, which has a digital out so that I can connect it to my audio DAC, namely modded ART DIO. What I don't like is its digital out is 48kHz. That means it cannot directly pass the CD bitstream, instead it DAs it at 44KHz and ADs it again to 48kHz, which I am not comfortable with. I don't quite trust AD/DA in a soundcard, considering that I have a nice ART DIO around.

If there were a USB to SPDIF adapter that can send bitstreams directly to my audio DAC, I would love to have. ( It would not be difficult to build one actually. It should cost just a fraction of that of a cheapest soundcard.) In this case, whatever audio formats, MP3, digital radio etc, can be decoded in software then send to my audio DAC to DA them. Without that, I still can live with a soundcard that can pass through any bitstreams directly to digital out. Does anyone know such a soundcard?

Brad · « **Reply #59 on:** 13 Jun 2003, 04:07 pm »

The cd30 has optical and coaxial digital out, but their specs don't mention the freq.

What is the Dreambox going to sell for?