maxg Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 1. Yet another version of the ipod flashed across my browser last week. No screen, so tiny you are bound to lose it and storage upto a gig. This is starting to get a little boring if you ask me. Still does make me wonder what the next big thing will be. A mobile phone ipod perhaps? Tweaked to support the 3G network and able to download a song in a couple of minutes or so. I wonder what they will charge for that? I guess a little more than the 99 cents on the network site - maybe a couple of bucks - bound to be a big hit - and one I think I will give a miss to. 2. With all the fuss over these low cost digital amps I thought I would provide a quick update on my own low cost sound solution - the Altex Lansing 3121 speakers that I picked up for use at home on the portable computer in the study. We are talking 70 bucks (although you can find it a lot lower on line now). (Sadly I was not able to find the new Klipsch computer speakers here in Greece and bought these things instead.) Sonically they are staggeringly good for the money - although you need some care in placing the sub as the whole system picks up RF from any power cable lying nearby and hums and buzzes like a bugger if you get the placement wrong. Moving the thing a couple of inches makes a huge difference - something most owners on line have missed it seems - judging from the reports I have read. Anyway running 256 Kb - MP3 though them is very satisfying and not in the least tiring. I do quite a lot of listening whilst my daughter hogs the system in the main room. When playing there appears to be almost no distortion at all - even with the volume maxed out. The only bad thing is that said volume has to be at atleast 75% before they start playing properly. This means at a higher volume that I normally do and is a cause for some complaint from SWMBO from time to time. Placement of the satelites is also interesting. At first I tried them up close to the screen. Not unpleasant but nothing to write home about (with or without the mock surround sound button depressed). Now I run them in either corner of the desk - as far as possible away from each other and the result is amazing. You get both an enveloping soundstage AND a credible image size. Pressing the surround sound button in this configuration yields some interesting effects and real depth to the recording but the jury is still out on whether I prefer it this way. Overall this is a more pleasant experience than listening via the Stax headphones even giving the nod on absolute sonic quality to the Stax. What is also interesting - as a final note - is that in this configuration the speakers are far further apart from each other than I am from them. They are almost aside me, rather than in front - an arrangement I have only ever tried before with KHorns - an odd comparison! Does make me wonder how this would work with a normal pair of stereo speakers - I wonder if the centre image would hang on as well as it seems to do here? 3. Cat Stevens. Amongst the many and various CD's I ripped to the Hard disk was a German recording of "The very best of Cat Stevens". This is hardly my kind of music as I am sure you all know - but I really enjoyed it last night. Any other Cat Stevens fans out there (probably before he became a Moslem). Well that is it for now. Have to write about something whilst I wait...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinr Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 It's scary, Max, but I have the feeling that our future music software medium has a solid state future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 Max, Thanks for the updated musings. Too bad you couldn't locate the new Klipsch computer speakers in Greece. BTW, I am a Cat Stevens fan from way back and heard him in concert in Memphis. 1976. I can imagine that his stuff sounded pretty good on the new Altec's. One of the things that is something of a jaw dropper with 2.1 systems these days, such as the Klipsch GSX Promedia. I gave one to my youngest daughter for her room and was amazed at it's sound. When a college student, 30 years ago, I'd spent several hundred dollars on a Kenwood, Advent, Dual TT system and it didn't sound any better than that. While there are plenty of threads on the forum which dismiss the mass market of audio as krap, when it comes to Klipsch Promedia, it just can't be dismissed like that. It's on it's own a fairly high quality percentile of available audio. And it's only $100 dollars US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev313 Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 My Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 were the speakers that turned me on to looking for better sound. Cursed speakers. They have cost me ALOT of money. Max, I don't know your thoughts on the iPod in general, but, for me, this is a life-changing device. OK, maybe I'm overstating things a bit, but I have a 45 min. commute on public transportation. I tried to take my discman, but it was too hard to carry cds (and I usually found a way to damage them). Now I get on the train with 300+ cds in my pocket. The best sound quality? Surely not. I wouldn't rely on this for my main system, but it definitely fills a void. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted January 25, 2005 Author Share Posted January 25, 2005 Kev, I am not sure about the whole iPod thing. On the one hand I can see its obvious appeal but on the other I cant help thinking that if you are going to have a handheld device like this you may as well have video to boot. Most of these devices seem to come with multi-gig capacities - upto 100 I think - which is chasms in storage terms - enough for say 100 DIVX movies, 300 albums and a couple of thousand JPEGs in high res. In the light of that the iPod just seems a bit too dumbed down. Full marks for style and all that - but I hear the audio quality isnt there (even in comparison to other players - the Creative I believe has the best sound quality. I saw the creative mobile media platform in shops - it is a fair bit larger than the Apple (a disadvantage I think) and the screen was surprisingly small in comparison to the overall size. I guess I will wait a while beofre taking the plunge. Just to further complicate things I have seen portable DVD players with their own screen in tablet format that support DIVX, MP3 and all the usual suspects. On an 8.3 Gb double sided disk I can get 70 albums easy (MP3 @ 256 KB), or about 15 DIVX movies. Again it is bigger - but we are talking unlimited storage (just swap disks) and total flexibility - plus it is easy to transfer to my Pioneer DVD. I dont know - right now there are too many solutions to a problem I dont really have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.