fletcherkane Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Hi guys. I picked up a second Sony 300 disc CD Changer for a song from ebay this week. My wifes first thought was that it was complete overkill. Why would I possibly want a 600disc changer? Then I showed her what you can do with two...No annoying track delay on random play (On random play, it can take as long as 20-25 secs for the Sony to put one disc back in the carousel, pick another and start playing again.) The second player gets the next track ready while it is idle. You can set the units to fade out/in between tracks, or just play each track with zero delay. My wife has long loved to just put the system on random play while she is working around the house, now she adores it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSport Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Hey, that's pretty cool...thanks for sharing![H] Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornwalled Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 The only thing I'd worry about with random play is that it's a lot of disc switching. That's really hard on those transports. It'll only take a few years before you'll run into some real problems. Unfortunately the Sonys have been known for disc handling problems/jamming as it is, and this will only accelerate it. I would be more inclined to put it on standard play and preserve the units. We have put these systems in offices that do the same thing and they run into problems in no time. Re-loading 600 discs and programming their information is a big task! -Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletcherkane Posted December 3, 2005 Author Share Posted December 3, 2005 I have wondered about that...I have had my original unit for about 2 years and haven't had issues with it. I guess I will just keep my fingers crossed. (I only paid $50 bucks on ebay for the second unit...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psg Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re-loading 600 discs and programming their information is a big task! -Jon These things don't have an Internet interface do they... I won't want to key in all that info. How is it entered? Not using an interface on a remote control I hope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 How much do two units combined cost? I think you could get more data storage with much easier data handling without longterm failure by simply implementing a computer as a music machine...and spend less in the process. 600CDs would need about 300GB of uncompressed lossless storage of your CDs, which comes to about $250 in harddrives and then an additional $300 for a decent computer to run it all. The best way to do it would be to go with an external harddrive so that you can easily go between different computers without insanely long copy times. You could even step up the computer a notch and use it for dvd playback as well, which would require the purchase of a nice video card and probably some extra RAM. So for $800 total you could have a do-it-all machine that replaces all your other components (except the reciever of course)...and you could even store your dvds on your harddrives too. Just make sure the built-in audio on the motherboard has a digital output. (if not, then look at spending another $50 or so on a sound card). Ok, so I guess it might be a bit more expensive in the short-term, but once you got to an HTPC there's no going back [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletcherkane Posted December 3, 2005 Author Share Posted December 3, 2005 The units have a PS2 keyboard input. It really isn't that hard to load the info. I have about 400 discs balanced between the 2, and it took about 2 hours to enter all the info. As far as a HTPC goes, don't you lose considerable sound quality, even ripping lossless? It's a nice thought in the future. I purchased my second 300 disc changer for 50 bucks on ebay, and paid about $200 for my first one 2 years ago...Storing all my Cd's in one place has been a real bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofu Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 You could even step up the computer a notch and use it for dvd playback as well, which would require the purchase of a nice video card and probably some extra RAM. So for $800 total you could have a do-it-all machine that replaces all your other components (except the reciever of course)...and you could even store your dvds on your harddrives too. why stop there? it can also serve as a high end digital crossover, equalizer, and you can have all your drc and time delay corrections done from the same place as well. if you're into funky dsp effects, those can be done a lot cleaner straight from the source (pc) too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 As far as a HTPC goes, don't you lose considerable sound quality, even ripping lossless? You lose aboslutely ZERO quality as long as you do it correctly [] All you have to do is send the digital output (which is sending the identical data stored on the disc/harddrive) directly to your reciever and then you are limited by the DAC (digital to analog conversion) in your reciever. As long as the signal stays digital it is 'impossible' to lose any information as long as you keep it in the same format. Another alternative is to purchase an expensive "sound card" for the computer that has its own built in DACs, which with the right purchase can be far better than those in your reciever ("sound card" implying an external device that sits outside the poor electrical environment inside a computer). However, you will then need to purchase software to do dolby/dts decoding (you can send a digital dolby/dts signal with free software, but there is no free software to decode and output the analog equivalent). So it's just easier/cheaper to output digital signals and let your reciever do the work. I'm all for built in DSP on a computer, but I am unaware of any software designed for home applications (ie, strictly movie or music playback). It would be nice though to find a piece of software that could integrate with any "pro audio" multitracking AD/DA converter...for example, two Motu 828mkII's strapped together would have enough outputs to tri-amp an entire 5.1 system [] (5 speakers x 3 + 1 sub = 16 channels). With three units strapped together you could tri-amp a 7.1 signal and have 3 channels for the subwoofers. But alas, I can't think of any software that would take advantage of such hardware. Perhaps I can lead an on campus project to accomplish such a task [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclonecj Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 DrWho.... You described my HT computer almost exactly. Its only a P-III 800 with a Soundblaster Live ($29) card so I can use the digital output to my receiver. I have all of the music on a server so I can use players all over the house. There are close to 3000 songs on a random playlist. The music only systems are old Celeron 300's that my school was throwing out. Also, since I use the digital out, I also loaded Windvd platinum & it plays movies in 5.1 surround, also off of the server, ripped as image files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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