[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain I tried a few options to play music off my hard drive and through my HiFi. I am not using a headphone set up, so equipment noise was a issue so lap tops and computers were out(still the best option regarding flexibility with a DAC plugged in). Wireless still gets some interference and was a bit irritating, as said a server sent me to the point of insanity. My final option was sell the DAC-1 get a new CDP and this lot......... [size=large]Burn baby burn [/size]

oh, so it's a noise issue with pc's? is that really a problem? it seems to me one could set up a cheap pc very simply with some undervolted fans for a music server job. attatch a cheap 15" lcd, perhaps a wireless kbm, and go. something like a sempron system you can usually get for $200 after rebates would do the trick, with the hard drive replaced, OS reinstalled (or linux of course

), and fans and psu replaced with small, quiet ones; course i can see the desire for a one-box solution, but it just seems way to expensive for what it's worth; and i find the nicest part of pc setup is modular components you can change one by one: dac, amp, preamp, all that

 

[Captain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah i'm not sure i understand how or why anyone would find this prefferable to a pc? or even a pc-file-server accessed remotely? am i missing something? do folks just not want to deall with eac, foobar, all that? seems so much easier and more functional to me

Makes a lot of sense to me if they did what they are meant to. I have hundreds of Cd's I also have hundreds of albums on my hard drive. Potently a very good option. I find Foobar and EAC very good programs and used them all the time when I had a headphone set from my computer. Using them is not some thing that puts me off PC based systems!

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah oh, so it's a noise issue with pc's? is that really a problem? it seems to me one could set up a cheap pc very simply with some undervolted fans for a music server job. attatch a cheap 15" lcd, perhaps a wireless kbm, and go. something like a sempron system you can usually get for $200 after rebates would do the trick, with the hard drive replaced, OS reinstalled (or linux of course ), and fans and psu replaced with small, quiet ones; course i can see the desire for a one-box solution, but it just seems way to expensive for what it's worth; and i find the nicest part of pc setup is modular components you can change one by one: dac, amp, preamp, all that

I have a small front room, just about have the wife on my side regarding my Hifi set up. This includes pre/power combo and a Sansui TU-X1 (very big). I do not have a headphone set up so a pair of speakers as well. If I was then to put in a computer tower, monitor and key board I probably would have the whole house to my self as she would move out. So the only option for me was a server or lap top, but as said a lap top with a spaeker system is just to distracting.

 

[Watchdog]

Has anyone purchased this product recently? I'm interested in hearing other opinions, particularly those who purchased after the firmware updates which might have solved the problems the Captain had.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Does no lossless support bug only I? I wish even the squeezebox supported more lossless formats, heh.

 

[Puffin]

Captain. You may or may not be aware that Cambridge's (U.K) web site used to have a forum. It was a great place for people to tell Cambridge what was wrong with ther goods, like the bad buzzing on the 640cV1 C.D player, that was corrected in the V2 by a different transformer. They had a guy they called the "Cambridge Guru" who would apologise for the problems they were having and tell us what they were doing about it. So far as the 640H is concerned it seemed that they didnt have the in-house expertise to sort out the bugs (pre-production) and there was a guy on the forum telling them what to do ! This guy had massive technical knowledge that was way beyond my comprehension. He even offered to put all the stuff on a disk and send it to them. Shame I didn't print the stuff off !

The forum was mysteriously "pulled" without warning. I suspect as a result of a genuine desire on the part of "guru" to keep us informed about products/problems. I think that they probably felt that he was doing the company no favours by being so honest.

 

[325xi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain I think the problem with this new hardware (Hard drive servers) is people think it is happening, running like clock work and we are living the dream. Problem is the technology is still not right and companies need to start pushing out there hardware to recoup the money they have already invested. Unless you pay out real big bucks you are only going to get a half baked version. Better to wait a year or so when I am sure hard drive servers will be a lot cheaper and do what they are meant to which is work properly. This is usually the case with most new technology.

Look better on the case of Ti48. Doesn't it resemble you something? PC case, huh? So for somewhat customized silent (or not) PC ,even though stuffed with decent (or not) audio circuitry you're going to pay real big pucks? So what they say about output jitter (the total) on the coax outs? EMI/RF inside the box? And think about its tiny hard drive...

Actually $2800 is not real big bucks considering PC alone, or decent CD player can cost that much and more...

IMO, you can do much better with regular PC with plenty of HDD space in the other room, wired Squeezebox, and a very good DAC.

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