I've seen the future

Last night, a manufacturer friend popped over to my home. He had with him a Sony Vaio notebook and a prototype digital power amp, about the size of a Cyrus amp but with less height, offering 150 watts a side. The notebook had a soundcard, a potentiometer was fitted to the analog output.

We hooked this up to my speakers and played some CD music, first direct from the built-in DVD player, then from the hdd. The latter was better.

This was a very small system, but it sounded bloody good. I had been toying with the idea of upgrading my CD player (Naim CD 5/Hicap) to a more expensive unit, as it can't nearly compete with my analog rig. I won't, I'll wait a couple of years and join the digital revolution with a digital entertainment center. In the meantime, I may want to mod the CD 5 a little.

In five to eight years time, I can see myself running an A/D converter in a small box inside my turntable and doing the RIAA in the digital domain. My speakers will be active, with on-board dsp, a crossover in the digital domain and digital amps for the drive units. The data will be sent to the speakers by a WLAN - no more cables.

I once said that my ideal system would be a small box that sits unobtrusively in a room corner but fills the room with beautiful music. Except for the speakers, that dream is closer to reality than I thought.

 

You'll get nothing but scorn over here Markus I tell ye!

Digital amps & PC's Plllllease What ever next!

Funny thing is, I'd tend to agree with you that we are heading in that direction. My Tact days are behind me, but their technology and others like it will one day rule the world.

With the size of amp boards getting smaller and smaller, I would suspect a rise on the popularity of digital active loudspeakers. No system required, just your music server on the PC feeding the speakers via wi-fi. It's not far away, although I doubt the likes of Sideshow and Joel are chewing their fingernails in anticipation

Still, Morgan still sell cars so maybe we won't be left without choice.

 

Dude, you're behind me. I already have a hard disk player/recorder, I use it more than the CDP to be honest.

-- Ian

 

WLAN.... no cables.
Gives me an idea to develop magic air purifiers that will clean up the air for the wireless signal and enhance the sound.
I'll sell them for 30K each.... And you'd need at least 3. 1 next to the source, and 1 next to the wireless sensors for each speaker.
I'll call my company MAGIC, which stands for Magic Air Gains Invisible Cables.

Who wants to invest?

Kelly

 

Talk of computer based HIFi seems to be popping up quite a bit lately. Interesting stuff.

Kelly, I'll offer you £1 million cash (invisable of course) to invest into your invisable air products. You should be able to put all of this into packaging and advertising, and not have to waste anyhitng on R+D

 

s'funny you should say that, cos I'm actually building a wifi HD based system that will connect, along with the digital satellite TV , into the hifi (both systems in fact)
All in glorious 2-channel stereo
Of course there's so much material on vinyl (cheap and rare), and it sounds so good that I have no problem spending money, time and effort continuing to improve that area. As for an eventual digital vinyl, if it's going to be cheap and work better than what I have / will have, I'd go for it. Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
I've nothing against digital EQ. Although it sounds tricky and time consuming to get right. However, if I really do go Horny, I can see myself adding another Accuphase box or two

 

i too am contemplating diving into the pc audio pool via a squeezebox and dac. i need to set up a wlan first. an interesting thing i read recently said that the explosive popularity of wireless networking means that, if growth continues like it has, the frequency range utilised won;t be sufficient to support all the users in areas where there are a lot of different wlans close together.
so there may eventually be a market for wlan boosters so that your network drowns out everyone elses or some such tomfoolery.
cheers


julian

 

Team PC is growing in strength!! :JPS:

 

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse that operate in the 2.4 GHz region and they are regularly swamped by 'something' locally. There are 14 channels to choose from and I have tried them all. I should have a range of 5m but right now I'm having to stay as close as 1m for it to work reliably. This is the second wireless keyboard and mouse that I have had. The previous set, from a different manufacturer, was just as bad. Right now I don't have a very high opinion of wireless links and won't be wasting my money on wireless LAN technology.

 

For Ian and Joel, I was being circumspect about the acceptance of true digital amplifier technology- the music server PC thing I'm starting today. Hard disc swops should be fun

 

Not so fast. My current set-up still sounds better than what I heard. But the potential is there; I can see no technical reason why the new technology shouldn't end up sounding at least as good as the current one.

History tells us, though, that it takes quite some time until any technology is mastered well enough and the collective body of exerience has grown enough for really great-sounding gear. Current PC audio is still some way off the pace, IMHO.

 

I have no problem with it at all, provided it's rather better implemented than CD, which is, as we all know, a dog's dinner.

Multi-room is good (I've had a multi-room setup on the cheap for a while now). Multi-room + hard disk playback is better. Multi-room + hard disk playback + active speakers (over a wireless network, preferably) would do me for hi-fi, provided I could still play my vinyl collection (I have no desire to junk my record collection just because of a new format).

Problem at the moment is that most of this stuff is too inflexible, assuming only digital sources, and A->D converters are not yet up to snuff AFAICT.

-- Ian

 

Just you lot remember to use a Seagate HDD in your wihifi solutions.

Juist a couple of nice links for you........

http://www.digitalfidelity.com

...couple that with a DAC and hey presto (I've had a play with it with the wireless PDA control - very very nice indeed).

http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=dp150408&v=users

...these guys are a good technology company and have been doing wireless for a while.

storage is the future //lamboy

 

Pfffft .... I told you all ages ago!

 

But this slim device doesnt have a RAID box of 256 Seagate FC drives! Thus I propose that it is useless

(Oh well, at least it uses your PC HDD:student: )

Take a gander at Imerge, they have a similar device as an add on for their multiroom audio server....

http://www.imerge.co.uk/products/improductshtml/ipmain.html

cheers //lamboy

 

Oh I dunno... my £130 soundcard sounds as good to me as a £300-£400 CD player, so I'd say it wasnt that far off the pace at all TBH. Also you can use a DAC from your soundcard, and I see no reason why a PC should not make as good a transport as any other transport, can you?

Currently, I'd agree theres no *dedicated* PC solution as good as the real high end stuff, but lets be honest here, 99% of the public does not care, and I'd even go so far as to say that the majority of enthusiasts dont care about going that far either. You guys represent a minority of people who have the time, cash and inclination to take it that stage further than everyone else, and theres nothing wrong with that, but you are, and always will be, a minority.

More people are clearly open to at least entertaining the fact, so I'd say it was growing in strength. Already a number of people in this thread alone have expressed interest, or are already well into it.

I have been into it for years, when, at the time, it was probably WAY BEHIND everything, but thats not the case now IMO.

 

Umm, in my book 300-400 quid CD players are also pretty far off the pace ...

But I concur that really good sound is a minority concern. So are supercars, CF bikes, expensive watches and any number of other things.

 

Apparently, the bluetooth technology allows for far more responsive wireless links for keyboards and mice, but its also a lot more expensive (2x the price). As for networks, well I believe the effort of creating a proper hard wired network will pay off with better security and far better reliability and bandwidth.

 

But to me, £300-£400 players sound fine. And I believe £300-£400 level performance (it may even be better, but I have not auditioned much beyond the current £400 Rotel player properly to make a solid judgement) from a board which costs 1/3 of the price or less really isnt that bad IMO.

One mans shit is another mans bread and butter, as they say Lets be honest here, 99% would consider the sound from the above gadgets to be pretty damn good. For me, the high end stuff that I have heard simply isnt worth the money, but thats just my opinion, in the same way yours is that this stuff sounds crap.

 

I don't think that 300-400 quid CD players sound crap. My partner has a Harman Kardon player which is quite listenable.

Anyway, I think your value comparison isn't valid: you need to factor in the PC or at least the CD/DVD cartridge.

Most importantly, the user interfaces on PCs are crap: none competes with a stand-alone player for ease of use. I think we'll see CD player emulations on touch screens, which will allow using the PC as intuitively as a CD player. Using a cursor is a furking nuisance with those goddamn touchpads.