ipods - my bright idea

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
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I have a speaker set for my old desktop - subwoofer and two smaller ones. I haven't use it much since I got rid of the desktop, rarely I'll plug it into the laptop but since I'm wireless I'm not in the office that much anymore. I almost was going to give them to my brother.

light bulb - plug it into the ipod! yeah ok not so pretty, it's not Bose and fancy pants (labtecs actually) but sounds fine to me. also I believe I spent 40 bucks, versus how much are the ones made for ipod, now?

I did get a wire set to plug into my home theater stereo, although since I have Sirius I don't really need the ipod down there too much - satellite radio is a nice shuffle and usually songs I don't have yet. although it is dangerous as I've bought a number of songs after hearing them on sirius.
 
woodstock said:
I have a speaker set for my old desktop - subwoofer and two smaller ones. I haven't use it much since I got rid of the desktop, rarely I'll plug it into the laptop but since I'm wireless I'm not in the office that much anymore. I almost was going to give them to my brother.

light bulb - plug it into the ipod! yeah ok not so pretty, it's not Bose and fancy pants (labtecs actually) but sounds fine to me. also I believe I spent 40 bucks, versus how much are the ones made for ipod, now?

I did get a wire set to plug into my home theater stereo, although since I have Sirius I don't really need the ipod down there too much - satellite radio is a nice shuffle and usually songs I don't have yet. although it is dangerous as I've bought a number of songs after hearing them on sirius.
Click to expand...

I found a small set of Sony's I had from a while back that I leave in my travel bag. I've got the audio input for the MP3 or MyFi XM tuner in the plane that I plug into the speakers when travelling. Works great.
 
woodstock said:
I have a speaker set for my old desktop - subwoofer and two smaller ones. I haven't use it much since I got rid of the desktop, rarely I'll plug it into the laptop but since I'm wireless I'm not in the office that much anymore. I almost was going to give them to my brother.

light bulb - plug it into the ipod! yeah ok not so pretty, it's not Bose and fancy pants (labtecs actually) but sounds fine to me. also I believe I spent 40 bucks, versus how much are the ones made for ipod, now?
Click to expand...

I do the same thing at work and it sounds good enough.
 
woodstock said:
I have a speaker set for my old desktop - subwoofer and two smaller ones. I haven't use it much since I got rid of the desktop, rarely I'll plug it into the laptop but since I'm wireless I'm not in the office that much anymore. I almost was going to give them to my brother.

light bulb - plug it into the ipod! yeah ok not so pretty, it's not Bose and fancy pants (labtecs actually) but sounds fine to me. also I believe I spent 40 bucks, versus how much are the ones made for ipod, now?

I did get a wire set to plug into my home theater stereo, although since I have Sirius I don't really need the ipod down there too much - satellite radio is a nice shuffle and usually songs I don't have yet. although it is dangerous as I've bought a number of songs after hearing them on sirius.
Click to expand...

Is there a provision to record from Sirius straight to computer? I could go analog pre amp/speaker out and convert back to dig, I was just wondering if there was a way to just plug it in digital.
 
Henning said:
Is there a provision to record from Sirius straight to computer? I could go analog pre amp/speaker out and convert back to dig, I was just wondering if there was a way to just plug it in digital.
Click to expand...

I have no idea. someone else may though?
 
Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

Elizabeth, sorry about this blatant attempt to hijack the thread.

I have the usual collection of CDs. It is a large pile, and even though I organize the pile every now and then, rifling through it to find what I am looking for disorganizes it quickly and it becomes a pain to find anything. When the pain gets to the breaking point, I reorganize them and start over...:(

What I am looking for is something like a table model Ipod. A box that combines the functions of a good quality FM Receiver, a built in CD player/burner, and a humongous HD to take several hundred CDs recorded in full format, not MP3. Accessable through an Ipod-like interface that makes finding an individual selection or a playlist a snap. Bose comes the closest but they want $4500 for it.... too much! Is there anything else out there that will do this? If the box also had a DVD player so it could be the central point of a home theater system, that would be OK, too but that is not a requirement for my intended use.

-Skip
 
I've got a sony 300 CD changer at my place, get two of those. ;)

As far as the pile of CD's go, they make these things called shelves that work wonders ;)
(all of mine are in alphabetical order by artist, and then by release date of the album)
 
I've never bought a CD....


I promise though I do not have ANY mp3s. ;)
 
jangell said:
I've never bought a CD....


I promise though I do not have ANY mp3s. ;)
Click to expand...
I hope, then, that the only music you listen to is on the radio or on CDs people have given you. As someone who makes my living off of intellectual property, I assure you that piracy does matter. You are basically saying you think the artists should work for free. And I'm sure you would not work at your job for free.

It's easy to take the position that sharing a disk with a few friends doesn't matter in the long run. But people who get all of their music that way are thieves, and if they have a lot of 'em, not petty thieves either. THAT's something to be proud of.

If I have misinterpreted your statement, I apologize. But this is an issue that affects me quite directly.
 
Ken Ibold said:
I hope, then, that the only music you listen to is on the radio or on CDs people have given you. As someone who makes my living off of intellectual property, I assure you that piracy does matter. You are basically saying you think the artists should work for free. And I'm sure you would not work at your job for free.

It's easy to take the position that sharing a disk with a few friends doesn't matter in the long run. But people who get all of their music that way are thieves, and if they have a lot of 'em, not petty thieves either. THAT's something to be proud of.

If I have misinterpreted your statement, I apologize. But this is an issue that affects me quite directly.
Click to expand...
Nicely said.

I second that...very strongly.
 
Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

Skip Miller said:
Elizabeth, sorry about this blatant attempt to hijack the thread.

I have the usual collection of CDs. It is a large pile, and even though I organize the pile every now and then, rifling through it to find what I am looking for disorganizes it quickly and it becomes a pain to find anything. When the pain gets to the breaking point, I reorganize them and start over...:(

What I am looking for is something like a table model Ipod. A box that combines the functions of a good quality FM Receiver, a built in CD player/burner, and a humongous HD to take several hundred CDs recorded in full format, not MP3. Accessable through an Ipod-like interface that makes finding an individual selection or a playlist a snap. Bose comes the closest but they want $4500 for it.... too much! Is there anything else out there that will do this? If the box also had a DVD player so it could be the central point of a home theater system, that would be OK, too but that is not a requirement for my intended use.

-Skip
Click to expand...

Have you tried using your PC for this?

I use RealPlayer's playlist to store the songs from my CDs on my hard drive. The playlist is searchable. With a good sound card I can add very good speakers and get good sound quality (although I usually just use headphones). And my DVD player has plugs for output to the TV. I don't know about the FM receiver but there is probably something available.
 
woodstock said:
light bulb - plug it into the ipod! yeah ok not so pretty, it's not Bose and fancy pants (labtecs actually) but sounds fine to me. also I believe I spent 40 bucks, versus how much are the ones made for ipod, now?
Click to expand...

Congratulations for thinking outside of sales department profitability tactics brainwashing! You just assisted in reinforcing the theory that a brand name stamped on a plastic case of something doesn't change the fact that a speaker is just a speaker. There are a few limitations (speakers with amplifiers vs straight speakers or more rarely impedance) but they're basically the same in most situations. And yes, I've seen way too many people throw perfectly good hardware away just because a brand name didn't match "because it's incompatible and won't work" and replace it with a near exact duplicate.


<--- has a mutt for a computer
 
Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

GaryO said:
Have you tried using your PC for this?
Click to expand...
You hit the nail on the head. I am looking for one with an integrated FM receiver. Also one that passes the wife's "looks good enough to sit in plain view in the living room" test. A PC with all the cords and wires augmented by an external FM hookup doesn't make it.

-Skip
 
Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

Skip Miller said:
Elizabeth, sorry about this blatant attempt to hijack the thread.

I have the usual collection of CDs. It is a large pile, and even though I organize the pile every now and then, rifling through it to find what I am looking for disorganizes it quickly and it becomes a pain to find anything. When the pain gets to the breaking point, I reorganize them and start over...:(

What I am looking for is something like a table model Ipod. A box that combines the functions of a good quality FM Receiver, a built in CD player/burner, and a humongous HD to take several hundred CDs recorded in full format, not MP3. Accessable through an Ipod-like interface that makes finding an individual selection or a playlist a snap. Bose comes the closest but they want $4500 for it.... too much! Is there anything else out there that will do this? If the box also had a DVD player so it could be the central point of a home theater system, that would be OK, too but that is not a requirement for my intended use.

-Skip
Click to expand...

My parents bougth a Yamaha Music Cast. Have you looked at that? Rips your CD's to its internal HD, has an input for streaming audio (radio, tv, etc) and the clients operate off of 802.11b. You can have up to 7 different streams IRC. It's pretty cool. Not sure if they sell it still, but I'm sure you can get one off of Ebay. Its got a internet connection to GraceNote for song titles too.

Oh, you can burn CDs from it too.

Henning,
I think you'd want a home version of a sirrius/XM player with a digital out and a soundcard that has the respective input...
 
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N2212R said:
I've got a sony 300 CD changer at my place, get two of those. ;)

As far as the pile of CD's go, they make these things called shelves that work wonders ;)
(all of mine are in alphabetical order by artist, and then by release date of the album)
Click to expand...
You obviously don't have children!!! :D My hours of effort to organize, categorize and shelf my CDs was undone in a flurry of juvenile activity that looked like the tazmanian devil...
 
gkainz said:
You obviously don't have children!!! :D My hours of effort to organize, categorize and shelf my CDs was undone in a flurry of juvenile activity that looked like the tazmanian devil...
Click to expand...

I tell ya, ipods are really nice and neat. you can even hide them. just plug it into the back of your stereo...
 
I like MP3's for transporting music, but only CDs I have actually purchased. I agree, whole-heartedly, with Ken's comments about intellectual property.

I have an Audiotron (now out of production) but there are a number of really wicked devices which can be used to assemble and play your music.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audiotron/producthome.asp

It its the only device of its kind (that I have found) which does not require that your PC be running server-side software to feed the music to the A-tron (or that it be a PC, for that matter, important to my Mac and Linux-centric friends). It goes out and finds every available share on the network, finds every available music (WAV, WMV and MP3), indexes them and makes them available through the device's menu by genre, artist, title, etc. It also will play streaming audio from the 'Net. Control can be through front panel knobs/switches, wireless remote or through a computer and its built-in webserver front end.

A really cool device, sales of which took off right after they suspended its production (ironic- a rave review appeared after they had decided that they were going to kill the product).

Ebay is good source.

there are others, but this one is by far the easiest I have found to integrate into the system. I use mine through a wireless network.
 
(Edit-delete double post)
 
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Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

Skip Miller said:
What I am looking for is something like a table model Ipod. A box that combines the functions of a good quality FM Receiver, a built in CD player/burner, and a humongous HD to take several hundred CDs recorded in full format, not MP3. Accessable through an Ipod-like interface that makes finding an individual selection or a playlist a snap. Bose comes the closest but they want $4500 for it.... too much! Is there anything else out there that will do this?
Click to expand...

Skip,

There IS a "table ipod". It has a CD/DVD player that burns both formats as well. It will show slideshows of your digital pictures and read the pictures off your digital camera and allow you to edit them. It will show videos in many formats, either from DVD or via the new videos you can buy off iTunes (Desperate Housewives and other TV shows, video podcasts, etc) and you can plug your digital video camera into it and create your own videos and DVD's. You can watch this on its own 17" or 20" LCD screen, or on your TV. With one minor preferences change, you can feed it a CD and it will encode the CD onto its 160 or 250 GB hard drive in the format of your choosing (any bit rate MP3, AIFF "full format" and others), and get the artist/album/song information off the internet and catalog everything automatically and eject the CD when it's finished. When your CD's have been encoded on the hard drive, you can use the included remote control to control all of the picture/DVD/video/music functionality from your couch.

This "table iPod" is called the iMac G5. Check out the "Front Row" functionality.

http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html

Enjoy!

PS if you get one, I'll tell you exactly what the one minor prefs change is to get it to automatically encode, catalog, and eject the CD's... Though it's simple enough you can probably find it yourself.

flyingcheesehead said:
There IS a "table ipod".
Click to expand...

I forgot a couple things...

The 17" 160GB model is only $1299, the 20" 250GB model is $1699. Take that, Bose!

Also, as for the FM functionality, Griffin Technology makes an inexpensive FM tuner that plugs into the iMac IIRC.
 
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woodstock said:
I tell ya, ipods are really nice and neat. you can even hide them. just plug it into the back of your stereo...
Click to expand...

Yep. And don't let those clowns at Radio Shack tell you you have to get an Apple adaptor to do it. I paid about $6 for an adaptor which works great.

Got rid of the CD player. Now just have tuner and speakers. Big honking speakers though :(
 
I know this is an old thread, but... my computer speakers bit the dust and besides, now I need to get a small portable speaker set to leave at the new house. any ideas? I guess I could just go to Best Buy down there and get computer speakers, all over again. but if there is something small and portable I can get (and not expensive) I may try that too.. thanks.
 
Another Q for the thread, (sorry E.),
Can I plug my ipod/ishuffle into my home stereo or boombox, or car stereo somehow? (I don't want to transmit via itrip).
Thanks
 
Elizabeth, what you're using as iPod speakers is fine and perfectly legit.

I got this one to use so I can listen while I'm in the shower:
http://www.smalldog.com/product/36003

It folds up flat and fits into a fairly compact case for travel. It just doesn't fit a 5th gen iPod but I knew since it connects at the headphone jack it would work fine.

You're right. It's $47. Any PC speakers will work fine. When I was shopping I didn't come across a set at the same price range that was small enough to be appropriate for the bathroom vanity.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Another Q for the thread, (sorry E.),
Can I plug my ipod/ishuffle into my home stereo or boombox, or car stereo somehow? (I don't want to transmit via itrip).
Thanks
Click to expand...

As long as it has the 3.5mm (or whatever size the mini headjacks are) size plug for headphones, then yes. I plug my laptop into the 340 audio panel in my plane via the headset out on my computer. I also have plugged it into my stereo by getting a Y splitter from 3.5 mm to RCA stereo plugs.
 
Re: ipods - my bright idea: Hijack!

Skip Miller said:
Elizabeth, sorry about this blatant attempt to hijack the thread.

I have the usual collection of CDs. It is a large pile, and even though I organize the pile every now and then, rifling through it to find what I am looking for disorganizes it quickly and it becomes a pain to find anything. When the pain gets to the breaking point, I reorganize them and start over...:(

What I am looking for is something like a table model Ipod. A box that combines the functions of a good quality FM Receiver, a built in CD player/burner, and a humongous HD to take several hundred CDs recorded in full format, not MP3. Accessable through an Ipod-like interface that makes finding an individual selection or a playlist a snap. Bose comes the closest but they want $4500 for it.... too much! Is there anything else out there that will do this? If the box also had a DVD player so it could be the central point of a home theater system, that would be OK, too but that is not a requirement for my intended use.

-Skip
Click to expand...

Yeah, Skip. It's called a Mac Mini and it's as cheap as $800:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/frontrow.html
Out of the box it will play CDs. MP3s (ITunes) , and DVDs and you can rip them to the hard drive.

Just add the (HD!) display and external speakers, even surround speakers, like the Logitec. It has an optical out for audio.

You can use the El Gato external HD tuner to recieve HD and record it TiVo-style.
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv500å

Add an external hard drive to hold more music and movies. This one is slick and fits right underneath the Mini:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministack/

There's a recent Macast where a guy talks about the total A/V setup.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Another Q for the thread, (sorry E.),
Can I plug my ipod/ishuffle into my home stereo or boombox, or car stereo somehow? (I don't want to transmit via itrip).
Thanks
Click to expand...


Yes. Kinda. For home stereo I have a Monster Cable that has the RCA plugs on one side and the mini plug on the other. Our Honda Element has a mini jack that I can plug the iPod directly into. My Vibe has the stock stereo with no aux input on it, so I'm stuck with the Fm radio thing. But the Blaupunkt that I stuck in the Benz has an aux input on the back. stuck in an 'extension' cord into it that I routed under the center console.
 
Lets say your car stereo does not have a 1/8 jack on it anywhere,
could you find where to wire one into the circuitry?
 
larrysb said:
As far as the car goes, the easiest way if you have a cassette player in the car is with a cassette adapter.

Most aftermarket car radios offer some kind of auxillary input or iPod adapter now. There are many iPod interfaces to plug into a lot of OEM car radios, usually exploiting the plug most of them have to control a trunk-mounted CD changer.

Check with your car audio shop for options.
Click to expand...

Yep.. That's what I use. Jann got a Monster FM adapter when she took it it on her own to hook up her iPod mini without talking to me. You have to search forever to find a free frequency to use.

A cassette adapter is better if you can use one.
 
Tks the itrip had sketchy reception despite the paucity of local stations and was a huge battery drain, plus I don't think it works w my ishuffle.
The cassette thing.. we get so much dust here I'd fear leaving that cassette door ajar would end up wrecking the insides. I mean its really dusty as in piles of it around the doors and windows at times.
So if I can get motivated enough I will look at the behind the case receptacles as suggested.
 
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