A High end digital storage front end

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Or, the big, heavy, and expensive iPod for serious listening.

What we need is a device with a lab grade power supply, a hard drive
and its associated I/O, and a DAC. A PC has those things and they are
now being manufactured in MFFF-MidFi Form Factor, they physically
resemble a hi-fi "component"-but they are hardly serious audio, except
in the fictional fairyland of Kroovana.

It could have AES digital out, but just analog is fine, but it should
be able to losslessly store audio files from DVD-A and SACD as well as
CD. One should be able to use it standalone to store one's music
collection: interfacing it to the network for file transfer, at least
in, and to load one's iPod-like device, would be nice but not
essential.

A fanless convection cooled power supply and a hard drive developed
(or tweaked) specially for quietness and low heat vis-a-vis transfer
rate would be de rigeur. It should use a non-Intel CPU and a dedicated
RTOS like QNX. There are realtime tweaked open source OSes but I think
performance suffers.

[Arny Krueger]

> wrote in message
ups.com

> Or, the big, heavy, and expensive iPod for serious listening.

What's wrong with the small, light, inexpensive iPod for serious listening?

Here's what Stereophile says about it:

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/index2.html

"Best of all-and, to my ears, completely indistinguishable from the original
CD-was AIFF. Dynamics were impressive, imaging was nuanced and detailed, and
the frequency extremes sounded extended and natural. On my reference rig, I
could listen with immense pleasure for hours on end to files ripped in AIFF.
In fact, I did. "



> What we need is a device with a lab grade power supply, a hard drive
> and its associated I/O, and a DAC. A PC has those things and they are
> now being manufactured in MFFF-MidFi Form Factor, they physically
> resemble a hi-fi "component"

Why, because it hurts so good?

> It could have AES digital out,

My Nomad 3 portable digital player is an example of a portable player that
does have a digital out.

> But just analog is fine, but it should
> be able to losslessly store audio files from DVD-A and SACD as well as
> CD.

They can - all you need to do is downsample them to 44/16, a process known
to have no ill sonic effects.

> One should be able to use it standalone to store one's music
> collection: interfacing it to the network for file transfer, at least
> in, and to load one's iPod-like device, would be nice but not
> essential.

Products like this already exist!

> A fanless convection cooled power supply and a hard drive developed
> (or tweaked) specially for quietness and low heat vis-a-vis transfer
> rate would be de rigeur.

Products like this already exist!

> It should use a non-Intel CPU and a dedicated
> RTOS like QNX. There are realtime tweaked open source OSes but I think
> performance suffers.

Products like this already exist!

[[email protected]]

Please point one out.