Tips?: hardware... media playback device

[Andre Mangan]

This URL may give you the information on the hardware you want, David:

http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#hardware

As for playing any kind of music through your hi-fi amplifier, why use a
hard drive?  Will a CD not suffice?

On some amplifiers, you can easily separate the preamplifier from the main
amplifier in which case you can use a device with a preamplifier to connect
to the input of your main amplifier (my Sansui is like that).

I record all sorts of music files onto CDs which will play in the car as
well as the stereo system.  There are numerous very good programs to edit LP
recordings and convert them to MP3 (for example), Audacity is one.

When I was young I built many a stereo system with frequency responses well
beyond the range of a young human being's hearing.  It was a very expensive
but satisfying hobby.  Yet, in the end, a good hi-fi system is only as good
as its weakest link and that unfortunately is the human ear.

By the way, the Eee PC is a great little machine but you do not need it to
play music through your hi-fi.

Andre


.

On 21 June 2010 23:23, David Fawcett <omniwoof at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 10:48 PM, Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au>wrote:
>
>> On 21/06/10 22:14, David wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I don't know much about hardware. I'd be grateful for some advice on
>> > what device to buy with which I can play back digital music files
>> > through a conventional hifi amplifier, a device that either has a hard
>> > drive or can be connected to an external hard drive. I hope to find a
>> > solution that'll play FLAC files as well as MP3 or WMA. I've think I
>> > once saw some device advertised on the Internet by Netgear maybe,
>> > costing a few hundred dollars.
>> >
>> > In JB-HiFi I see small units that you connect a hard drive to and which
>> > play the FLAC format, but the units are designed to be connected to a
>> > TV, and it doesn't make much sense to me to have to run the telly in
>> > order to choose and play back music through a hifi system. I was hoping
>> > that there'd be a device that has a basic digital display on the front
>> > allowing you to navigate through folders on the hard drive and choose
>> > files to play.
>> >
>> > Today in a computer store a salesman suggested I get a small netbook
>> > computer and plug its output into the amp. He suggested this one they
>> > had on special at $399:
>> >
>> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> > ASUS EEE PC
>> > Processor: Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 512K L2 Cache
>> > Chipset: Intel 945GSE / ICH7-M
>> > Memory: 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM (2GB max)
>> > Hard Drive: 160GB (160GB + 10GB Eee Storage)
>> > Display: 10" 1024x600 (WSVGA) LED Backlight display
>> > Graphics: Intel UMA
>> > Web Camera: 1.3M Pixel
>> > Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition
>> > Comms: 10/100 Ethernet, Integrated Wireless 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth
>> > Expansion Ports:
>> > 1 x VGA (D-sub 15-pin for ext monitor)
>> > 3 x USB 2.0
>> > 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet
>> > 1 x Headphones / Speakers
>> > 1 x Mic-in
>> > Card Reader: MMC/ SD(SDHC)
>> > Audio: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC, Digital Array Mic, Built-in stereo
>> > speaker (1W for each)
>> > Battery: 6-cell 6600mAh; Battery Life: XP: 7 hrs* (subject to model,
>> > normal usage conditions&  config)
>> > Dimensions&  Weight: 266mm(W) x 191.2mm(D) x 28.5mm~ 38mm(H), from 1450g
>> > Warranty: 12 Months warranty provided by Asus or appointed service
>> > agents
>> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> >
>> > If I were to use a small laptop for this purpose I'd want it to start up
>> > almost as fast as the time needed to start up a hard drive. Maybe
>> > replacing WinXP with a suitable variant of Ubuntu (which??) would boot a
>> > lot faster. However, I imagine I would get poorer audio quality taking
>> > the headphone socket output of a netbook to feed into my hifi amplifier
>> > (as it's regulated by a volume control?). I s'pose they have no better
>> > output option?
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a device designed for audio playback of stored music
>> > files without a TV being necessary such as I've described, or is a
>> > laptop computer the only way to do it?? If the latter, can you get a
>> > better quality output than the headphone socket?
>> >
>> > Thank you,
>> >
>> > Dave
>> >
>>
>> Dave, are you interested in real hi-fi or just playing around with some
>> pretend-something which someone, like a salesman, who's knowledge in
>> most probability is limited to MP3 and iPod, will claim to be "hi-fi"?
>> (You do know about the compression algorithm used in MP3 and so on [like
>> the stuff on YouTube]?)
>>
>> You do NOT listen to anything even remotely resembling hi-fi through
>> anything associated with your computer.
>>
>> You do NOT record or playback anything remotely called hi-fi associated
>> with a computer.
>>
>> You want hi-fi then forget about computers and go to an audio specialist
>> who deals with hi-fi.
>>
>> My hi-fi gear cost me some thousands of $$$. Some people pay $10,000 for
>> just a set of speakers, and then spend the same amount on a room to
>> house those speakers so that what they hear is "the ultimate".
>>
>> Where does your ambition lie? :-)
>>
>
> I actually somewhat disagree with that assessment, although I do understand
> (and somewhat applaud) Basil's audiophile position. ;)
>
> For most of us mere mortals 24-bit S/PDIF<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF>outputs work a treat and sounds just fine. However if you want it to be
> available with in a few seconds then you might be better off with a
> dedicated digital jukebox.
>
> Why don't you lets us know what sort of amp you are using and we'll see
> what we can do?
>
> --
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> ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
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>
>
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