iAudio stuff Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Posted by carltonstedman in audio, ideas, projects.add a comment
I was thinking of a neat project to upgrade my iAudio X5. I planned on putting a new harddrive in it, either 60GB or 80GB. Either way, they are 8mm in width, more than the 5mm alloted to the tight-fitting 20GB in my X5. So, the idea was to use a different case.
I was thinking of using a Game Boy Pocket (GBP) case, which measures 124mm/76mm/23mm, which will fit the contents of an X5 which fit in 103.7mm/60.8mm/18.3mm at the widest point. Non only could I fit a bigger harddrive, I could also fit in a bigger battery. Additionally, I could use the GBP D-Pad and buttons, in lieu of the joystick/button combo of the X5, making it easier to control and better for a little on-the-go Tetris and such.
Here’s the big issue though: new drives are expensive! The 80GB MK8009GAH from Toshiba in a 1.8″ ATA-6 form-factor costs $157-$240! Alright, so I thought, what about 60GB? The MK6006GAH costs $118-200 just itself. Ouch. Not a cheap upgrade.
I did have an idea though. I may look for a broken iPod 5G (video) with an 80GB harddrive — turns out, they use the Toshiba 1.8″ drives. If I can find one on the cheap, just a broken screen or something, I can rip out the 80GB drive and am good to go.
Otherwise, I’m going to just wait for the iAudio X7, which is suppose to drop sometime this quarter or beginning Q4 (October). Hope they go big. Still, if I can get a cheapo 80GB drive, may be able to get out cheap with the “X5 pocket.”
Oh god, so sexy Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Posted by carltonstedman in audio, ideas, toys.add a comment
I just learned of a yet-to-be-released device from Cowon, makers of the iAudio series of excellent, hi-fi media players, albeit with a very crappy name. I have a X5 and love it, got Rockbox firmware flashed on it and it’s just great, music quality certainly puts iPod to shame. One downside: the interface isn’t as nice and the little joystick thingy is pretty shittily made. However, still love this thing.
Just saw this, the Cowon Q5 PMP: http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/09/cowon-q5-pmp-gets-priced-and-dated/
Links to here: http://laptopmag.com/News/Portable-AV/Cowon-Q5-is-One-Connected-PMP.htm?page=1
God! This thing has everything! Plays every music and video format under the sun (except, notably, H264/x264, which would require quite a bit more processing power, I think). The iPod, of course, plays like one or two video formats and only a handful of music formats, with OGG vorbis and FLAC noticeably missing (important to me, since I do have music in those formats). Plus, this Q5 has WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and HSDPA (the last of which I don’t really care that much about). It also has DVR functionality for recording TV, built-in (probably crappy) speakers and a FM tuner (which is sooo 90′s). At $500, that’s really a great buy, even if it didn’t do all the media playing stuff, which it does. For $50 more, you can get the 60GB version instead of the 40GB one.
Unfortunately, it runs Windows CE. I’ll be waiting til someone gets Linux up and running on this thing, which shan’t be too long I imagine, since it’s running an AMD Alchemy processor, which has a linux toolchain. Man, awesome device though.
Really though, the main things I want in my next DAP or PMP (probably should just go the latter) are the following:
* Support for, at the very least, MP3, OGG Vorbis and OGG FLAC, like I have with the X5
* Support for a couple of easy-to-convert-to video formats
* Linux support — like the X5, should be able to just plug it in and use like an external harddrive, no iTunes crap
* Bluetooth — for wireless headphones, data transfer and streaming to PCs and stereos
* More storage — I have 20GB right now, and if it’s a PMP, I want more storage
* Good battery life — right now I get 3-5 hours, I’d like more, thank-you-very-much
* Great audio response with enough “boom” to directly connect to my car stereo and such (the power level is not a big issue with digital audio, since a 0 is a a 0 and a 1 is a 1 and that’s it, which, using bluetooth, would make a moot point)
* Hard case — like the aluminum X5 case
Course, with the mention of the Q5, here’s a few desireables:
* WiFi connectivity, to browse the web and transfer stuff from/to my PC with synchronization, even control PC remotely and stuff would be really cool; warddriving with a PMP would be sweet
* If it has WiFi, being able to connect an external antenna would be nice
* GPS would be great, but I may end up getting a GPS device (used or something) before that, could always eBay it after I’m done
* Again, having GPS, being able to connect an external antenna would be cool
* Install Linux on it or something else that gives me a lot of freedom; heck, I’d love to ssh into my PMP as it sits in the other room, connected via WiFi or bluetooth, whichever it can get, seamlessly transitioning from one to the other
Idea: Media System Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Posted by carltonstedman in audio, ideas.add a comment
Listening to: Opeth – April Ethereal
Been thinking about setting up a serious media system. What I really want is to play media files remotely. So, one step is to upgrade my speakers to a decent system. Right now, focused on a budget-minded system, so what a decent receiver and just a set of 5.1 speakers.
Cool receiver on Cruthfield: Sony STR-DG600 [link]. It’s got 100 W per channel, with 7 channels from 20Hz-20kHz. Auto-setup, component, optical and coax. Have to see if it’s actually any good, but it’s reviewed highly, at the very least.
Some 5.1 cheap speakers on Crutchfield: Infinity TSS-450 [link]. Two fronts, two rears, center and powered sub all handling up to 100 W. Need to see, again, if it’s really any good, but, again, reviewed highly.
At some point, I’d love to build my own receiver. But, until then, this low-cost (relatively) system would certainly be better than what I have now.
As for the PC side of it, plan on turning my current computer (once I get a new one) into a media server dealie. Already, I use Jinzora with MPD to stream my music, just take it a few steps farther to stream more stuff. Along those lines, also been looking into gigabit NICs and switches.
Back to MQP.
