[austonia]

Pearl will support WAV and FLAC (in addition to MP3, WMA, etc)
What is FLAC? Free Lossless Audio Compression
for the hardcore audio-purists

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

personally, VBR MP3's made with EAC/LAME -aps are near enough to CD, especially in places where portables are most useful

other news about Pearl :

comes with a dock with RCA-outputs!

has an RJ45 ethernet connection so you can play/control it over a network

96x64 LCD with blue backlight

ID3 tag support confirmed

5-band EQ

16mb memory buffer

2 cotrollers - a mini-joysick and scroller-selector (similiar to Zen)

USB2.0

Edit :

Also, Pearl will have ****OGG**** support

battery life is running about 15 hours!

"Crossfade allows you to specify a crossfade duration where it will mix both tracks together, ramping the volume of one down and the other up. It'll fade between audio formats, sample rates, etc, there aren't any particular limitations (apart, possibly, from very short tracks!)"

size : 79 x 75 x 26mm, but its curved

 

[MadDog5145]

You got a price on this thing?

BTW thanks for keeping us informed about up and coming harddrive players!!!

 

[Sweet Spot]

So how sure is the Ogg support ? Flac support is pretty cool, like you said..for the purists, but it would be nicer still to be able to store Oggs, which IMO DO sound better than Mp3's at many bitrates, and even surpass it's quality. I also wonder what other cool uses it could serve considering native 24 and 32 bit support, and 5.1 channel support as well.

Have you gotten your test model yet ? I hope you have fun when you do. Ethernet..woo hoo!

 

[stan23]

Hey Austonia,

Do you have any info on when this thing will be out?

 

[Spad]

Looks like a great player! And it's nice to know that Mac support is in the offing. Here's a source for a bit more info:

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

 

[Watchdog]

Austonia, how do you always get this information first?

I first thought this would be a PCDP, but based on people's comments it sounds like a HD based portable.

As my iPod was back-ordered and I ended up cancelling the order, this player is very interesting to me. Can you share any pics, idea on pricing and when it will be available?

 

[Trounce]

Holy kamoly japoli manoli cannelloni.

Makes my Ipod seem... infantile.

 

[mnemonic]

But no recording

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

if Rio fixed they'r build quality problem...this hd player might be the true ipod killer

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by Watchdog Austonia, how do you always get this information first? I first thought this would be a PCDP, but based on people's comments it sounds like a HD based portable. As my iPod was back-ordered and I ended up cancelling the order, this player is very interesting to me. Can you share any pics, idea on pricing and when it will be available?

I get information from people who want to add information to my player database (

), and I correspond with many of the companies about thier hardware and features. Also my partner in Belgium scouts for DAP related news.

Back to Pearl...

there will be 20gb and 40gb models. both come with dock.

pictures available on the old IGN article from CES '03. I don't have any additional pics yet but hopefully I will in the middle of June as the beta test phase begins

prices estimated at $400 - $500.

iPod has a lot of competition in this range... several new players expected this summer, with more features and greater battery life. I'm still waiting on my 30gb iPod from Dell but not sure if I plan on keeping it at this point.

 

[ian]

I've never heard of FLAC, anyone know how it compares to APE (Monkey's Audio)?

 

[Gojira]

I've never heard of FLAC, anyone know how it compares to APE (Monkey's Audio)?

http://www.monkeysaudio.com
http://flac.sourceforge.net

I have most of my CDs stored in the ape format. So I'll try to answer.

You probably already know that they are both lossless and compress to an average of 50%, sometimes more sometimes less. AFAIK SHN is the only other lossless format, used mostly for live performance taping (where it seems to dominate).

APE tends to compress faster and/or slightly smaller than FLAC but it was closed source until recently. FLAC has always been open source. APE seems much better supported in software than FLAC. Media Jukebox supports it natively and Winamp will play it with a plugin. There are also a couple of "jukebox" programs that only play APE.

As far as popularity goes, I'd say that APE and FLAC are represented almost equally. I have found and downloaded both APE and FLAC files from Soulseek.

 

[austonia]

Gojira posted good information

btw, welcome to head-fi

 

[ssblood]

Umm.. Where's my FIREWIRE. Being that it is faster then USB 2.0 it should be included as an option. Guess you won't be charging this one by just hooking it up to your pc either.

 

[fappar]

Quote:

Originally posted by ssblood Umm.. Where's my FIREWIRE. Being that it is faster then USB 2.0 it should be included as an option. Guess you won't be charging this one by just hooking it up to your pc either.

****, tool.




that said, this is killer! i was not looking forward to having to convert my entire 19gb music collection form ogg to lame, but this is exactly what i need! the whole local mp3 server aspect is amazing!


now, what should i sell to buy this....

oh, you have a release date?