The Pacemaker - Page 6

It only had a headphone out from the unit itself. It has this dock connector that can probably do it with their docking station, I've no idea.

Doesn't really make any sense, though. You can easily get SPDIF out on CD players if you wanted to pirate something.

True, but that's not a portable system. If it was up the RIAA, there wouldn't be any outputs on any device that could play music.

And I guess that manufacturers also think that using a optical or spdif output on a portable mp3 player is a waste. It's mostly filled up with lossy mp3 files (I'm talking about Joe Average here, not us Head-Fi'ers), so why invest money in a high-end line-out that is going to put out low quality sound?

For quite a while, I thought that the disappearance of lineouts, analog or digital, was a result of pressure from the RIAA. It certainly seemed plausible, given that the recording and film industries went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in the attempt to ban not only home taping of albums but also the sale of VCRs. I would guess that they have continued to try to dictate to hardware manufacturers which features they should or should not include in the hardware they sell.

To be honest, though, I think the absence of lineouts and digital outs has more to do with consumer indifference. The average iPod buyer has no idea of what a lineout is or does, and, if he or she did, he or she wouldn't care. People for the most part buy players for reasons that have not a thing to do with sound. They don't know the difference between good sound and bad, and wouldn't recognize it if they heard it. So Apple (and the manufacturers who eat Apple's dust) focus on what consumers are interested in: really important stuff like miniscule size, rad colors, and a host of other features that have nada to do with sound.

Audiophile features like lineouts are just not on their radar.

yes but they arent even appearing on pro-sumer and pro audio recording gear (digital out that is) and many have the hardware already that could be easily utilized for this purpose without a major spend on R&D.

they dont dont want to do it. plus I emailed iriver about the possibility of ta dap with digital out resurfacing. I told them about the fact that 4 year old units of theirs are selling for more than retail and non-working units are selling for $200. he was already aware of this, but said they had no plans to release a new dap with HD and/or digital out. again they have all the sofyware and platform already in place and they have noticed the market, but still dont plan on moving on it. doesnt make sense

ThinkGeek has the PaceMaker for $499 US

ThinkGeek.com has started selling the Pacemaker for $499 US. I haven't closely tracked the price lately, but that is certainly more reasonable, if I recall correctly, than some of the Euro denominated prices I've seen in the past. In addition to a description and specs, the product page at ThinkGeek has two embedded vids from YouTube that show the device in action.

The first of the two vids shows someone mixing with the device while walking around on the streets of Tokyo. Sounds quite good, though I'm not absolutely sure that what you hear corresponds to the visuals. The other vid is a promo from the manufacturer.

AMP3 Players are selling it for £299 as of today. Seems to be a good price. But for a 60GB one.

Any reviews yet with sound quality assessed?

It looks like a very promising unit for use as a DAP but all of the reviews I have seen have focused only on the DJ features.

This however is disconcerting: http://pacemakerdj.46.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=94eabac4531c2ef4077b5bafa1f6810b

Edited by sbradley02 - 12/25/10 at 11:30am

Yes.

Hmmm....

I watched the whole 23 minute review. The only reference I heard regarding sound quality was about it having plenty of output to drive headphones (which is a positive indication). Everything else was about the DJ specific features. Not that this is a negative statement about the product (it is after all marketed to DJs), it is just that if someone is loooking to this unit as an audiophile DAP product, the information still isn't there. It also sounds like from the review that if you just want to play an album (again using it as a straight DAP) that the interface may make this difficult.

 

The Pacemaker is really intriguing - it may have truly awesome sound but we need someone who is coming from the sound quality standpoint to review the product both for sound quality (comparing it to other popular DAPs) and usability for non-DJs.

 

Thanks
 

Yeah, the point of me posting that video was to highlight your point that all reviews seems to focus on the neat DJ features with no reference to sound quality at all.  lol 

Heh, I get it now, thanks :-)

 

I joined this thread because I am looking for a step up from my Cowon D2. It is frustrating to me that my (cheap) work setup sounds better than my travel rig.

 

The Pacemaker looks interesting but it is very pricey and there is basically no objective info on sound quality and I think it would be clunky to use as a DAP.

 

The HiFiMAN HM-601 is also interesting but it is rather large and they made some strange choices of DAC components IMO.

 

One of the most promising I have found so far is the S:Flo 2 which has a huge thread going on this site, with mostly promising feedback. The dual Wolfson DACs in balanced mode is an intriguing design.

 

I still think the ideal would be a DAP with USB out which would let you pick your own DAC/amp but no sign of anyone coming out with such a device (and it may not even be feasible, I am not familiar enough with the USB audio interface to know).

 

It is highly unlikely I will get a chance to actually listen to any of the contenders before I buy so at some point will just have to take a chance like I did on the Cowon.
 

Edited by sbradley02 - 12/27/10 at 3:45pm