I have been looking at some alternatives to going more "digital" in my home audio set-up and would love to hear some suggestions from folks... Here are some details about my "inventory" of music
~100 vinyl albums, many of which have never shown up in any other format (mostly obscure new wave stuff from the 1980s, some of this is my favorite music)
~1300 compact discs in audio format
~20 tapes I can cut to CD (see below)
Current stereo set-up:
JVC receiver, 5 CD player deck, 3 CD Recorder (h/w player and recorder), JVC dual tape deck, older technics turntable (sl-5); older JVC speakers that are orb shaped
Items that interest me:
Ion USB (ittusb) turntable ( http://www.ionaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=47 )
Squeezebox maybe the Transporter ( http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html )
Mac Mini
Touch Screen for control
My current stereo would probably go downstairs where I don't listen to music as much. One of the things with trying to move to a new set-up is to have a more compact system. I plan to still use my current JVC speakers as tehy fit the decor and sound great IMHO. I see no reason to have both the Squeezebox and the Mac Mini and the Mini may be required given my desire to use the turntable - although I could just add that to my other Mac for ripping, although I have a preference for keeping the music stuff separate from the home computer used for other purposes. I listen a lot to SOMAfm and Pandora for Internet radio. I have a desire to rip my albums to mp3 and use my older CD recorder to burn them to audio CD. A BIG outstanding question I have with going with the Mini is how to control it - I really don't have space for a keyboard, mouse, and large monitor; an ideal set-up would be 12 inch or maybe a little smaller touch screen. Has anyone set-up such a system? What did you use for an amplifier/receiver? Or did you use amplified speakers?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Paul
~100 vinyl albums, many of which have never shown up in any other format (mostly obscure new wave stuff from the 1980s, some of this is my favorite music)
~1300 compact discs in audio format
~20 tapes I can cut to CD (see below)
Current stereo set-up:
JVC receiver, 5 CD player deck, 3 CD Recorder (h/w player and recorder), JVC dual tape deck, older technics turntable (sl-5); older JVC speakers that are orb shaped
Items that interest me:
Ion USB (ittusb) turntable ( http://www.ionaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=47 )
Squeezebox maybe the Transporter ( http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html )
Mac Mini
Touch Screen for control
My current stereo would probably go downstairs where I don't listen to music as much. One of the things with trying to move to a new set-up is to have a more compact system. I plan to still use my current JVC speakers as tehy fit the decor and sound great IMHO. I see no reason to have both the Squeezebox and the Mac Mini and the Mini may be required given my desire to use the turntable - although I could just add that to my other Mac for ripping, although I have a preference for keeping the music stuff separate from the home computer used for other purposes. I listen a lot to SOMAfm and Pandora for Internet radio. I have a desire to rip my albums to mp3 and use my older CD recorder to burn them to audio CD. A BIG outstanding question I have with going with the Mini is how to control it - I really don't have space for a keyboard, mouse, and large monitor; an ideal set-up would be 12 inch or maybe a little smaller touch screen. Has anyone set-up such a system? What did you use for an amplifier/receiver? Or did you use amplified speakers?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Paul
