Bose docking station,
Get the battery one and you can even take it to the park.
We’ve just got what’s basically a glorified iPod dock with a pair of woofers and tweeters and a small sub. I’m no audophile so it’s fine. Aside from background music I generally use headphones to actively listen to music anyway.
For video we have a Beyonwiz PVR for TV watching and recording, which is next to none at all. Otherwise the Boxee Box reads from a NAS over wired ethernet, or USB drives.
Outside of a PC we haven’t owned a DVD or CD player in years.
I picked up one of these about a year or so ago for $20. Just plug speakers into it for instant wireless. It’s about the size of a small cigarette box
Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Devices - Logitech
Our laptop, phones and iPad all connect to it via bluetooth.
Not sure if they’re available in Aus. anymore but there’s surely a handful of products that will do the exact same thing via bluetooth or wifi
JP,
Essentially, CD’s are a dying technology and investing $500 in something that is fast approaching the end of it’s life cycle is wasting money and not really future proofing yourself.
I would have a bit of a look around sites like cnet that will suggest products that are at the front of their field.
Maybe even a soundbar with inbuilt bluetooth is what you are after?
JP: If you can go without the CDs, or play CDs via computer, then you might consider checking out what Jawbone is doing with their Jambox lines. The mini Jambox is a lot like the bottle cage sized speaker posted above, while the Big Jambox is suitable for filling an average sized room. I’ve used both and they’re pretty great.
They can take a lickin’, and you can connect stuff directly or via Bluetooth. The Big Jambox is also portable and has accompanied us for mushroom fueled snowshoe adventuring, hikes, beach days, etc…
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At home I have a Denon surround system similar to this one. Generally music comes from my old iPod, or via one of our computers.
Now, I don’t know if it works in Australia (and if someone can check it out and reply that’d be spiffy), but I really love Songza as a streaming music service. Its changing the way I listen to music when I’m at work/home. They host curated playlists that are delivered to you via a concierge service. The front page gives you a choice of 5 activities you might be doing given the day of the week and time of day. Pick one, and you’re presented with 5 “genres” or categories of music that would suit the activity you selected. Pick one of those and you’re presented with 3 playlists that should be good. It works VERY well. You can also favourite playlists or search for something specific. Searching for an artist, for instance, will give you all the playlists that have songs by that artist. I discover new music every day, which is pretty great given that I’m an audio engineer by trade and am basically addicted to music.
I still prefer albums when I’m out riding solo, and sometimes I’ll still fire up an album at home (because you can’t play one track off 36 Chambers), but Songza has definitely taken over. At a New Years party this year, people were calling out playlists by name whenever we were choosing a new one. You get to know which ones you like. Many are updated regularly. In Canada print ads are displayed in the background. In the USA there are audio ads at the start of each playlist. I’m curious as to whether or not it works in Aus and what the advertising situation is.
I have read some fairly negative feedback about the Mini Jambox’s durability. Namely when dropped the bluetooth will no longer work which pretty much renders it useless.
For half the price (under $100) these seem to be a better alternative for having music that can be taken anywhere. I went to a party at a mates house and he had a UE Mobile Boombox playing in his backyard - did the job.
Neanderstaal… sorry, just checked out Songza. Got this:
"We are very sorry to say that due to licensing constraints we cannot allow access to Songza for listeners located outside of the United States and Canada.
Based on your IP address, we believe that you are located outside of the United States and Canada. Please accept our deepest apology for restricting your access to Songza; we share your disappointment and frustration.
Everyone should have the right to enjoy this service and we are committed to launching Songza in every possible country. We will work assiduously to obtain the requisite licenses where they exist. If you would like to be notified by email when Songza is available in your country, please enter your country of residence and email address in the form below.
Thank you for your understanding and support. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by emailing feedback@songza.com. We hope to see you back on Songza in the very near future.
Sincerely,
Team Songza"
My old school amp is hooked up to a tuner (thanks spizzy!), turntable and cd player. Cd player just died so will revert that input to digital (iPod/iPhone/etc).
Tv has a mac mini hooked up to it so I’ve got a mini amp and sweet old Sony speakers for audio and use iTunes/spotify to play music thru the telly. Mini amp is one of those $20 eBay jobbies and works fine for our small lounge room. Quality ain’t high, but if I want quality I use the big stereo.
The wirecutter. Not CNET.
Also. 1 1/8 : CD as 44mm : wireless streaming?
Is it okay if I pronounce their site like Missy Elliot? HOLLLAAA!
Ahh, thats the site that had the review of the mini boom that I saw.
I can’t bring myself to throw out my old cds. They take up space, I don’t use them, but I can’t get rid of them.
We’ve got a Marantz receiver that we run shit through. Record player, DVD player and TV. TV is also run through a PVR from iinet, we did have a topfield pvr but it died recently. Whilst we don’t watch much free-to-air, it’s great for recording ABC for Kids.
Anything we watch off the laptop is just via HDMI connected to the Marantz.
This is hooked up to 5 B&W speakers. We did have an Apple Airport Express for streaming music from the imac to the amp wirelessly, but it died, then got replaced, then the replacement died, so we gave up. We’ve been listening to ABC Dig Music through the TV heaps lately. Only really heard about what Spotify can do last week. Should look into it.
Is this jokes? Sorry, i guess he is prob awesome at digi stuff, but his “outdoor” suggestions are, to my mind, bogus.
sounds like it.
I tried the iphone in a toilet roll last night… sounds heaps better!! Bass happened. Kristen was impressed. I played Spotify 90s alternative rock through it… Beck, I believe. Spotify is great, but i dont understand it yet. When finished I went outside and unfurled my new garden hose for de-factory-kinking, and i heard Lisa Loeb cranking out of krsiten’s phoen in loo roll. It may well be good enough for our kitchen listening pleasure.
Need help with my record player. I’ve got a Sherwood PM9805, been going about 7 years with no problems. Not heaps of use.
Recently started sounding really low and slow. Did some research, and replaced the cartridge. Still sounded low and slow, missing the top end. So I did some more research, and then replaced the belt drive. Just tested it then, and it’s still not right. No top end, really low and slow.
Any thoughts on what else could be causing this? Nothing else on the system (TV, ipod plugged in) has this issue, so I don’t think it’s related to the receiver or speakers.
I reckon it could either be from poor setup of tonearm or dodgy connections.
Setup anti skate, weight, tonearm height, cartridge alignment etc properly. Million youtube videos out there on how to do this. If needle isn’t sitting center in grooves it could throw off sound.
Also check your connections from cartridge to tonearm (alcohol x earbud works well to clean). Or check that your RCA cables aren’t buggered.
Sounds like the drive motor is wearing out.
Yeah, I should reset the tone arm height/weight etc.
Will try all the above and report back.
Question: Setting up the offices new stereo wirelessly.
i have a set of good studio monitors, and want to make them wireless/bluetooth enabled. Problem is there is 6-8 computers, and we swap music playing quite fluidly. The logitech one above is possible, but only allows pairing from two things at a time.
I need an option that can cater for wireless (preferable for audio quality) or audio, that can play from computers and mobile devices on different platforms (youtube, android music, itunes, etc).
Ideas?
I’d setup a Raspberry PI w/ something like mopidy. Replace iTunes with MPD (there are clients for mobile + desktop)
Raspberry PI + cheap Chinese DAC would cost you nothing 
Anyone have any ideas for a new receiver/amp?
I’d like something that can play my TT, and plug in the TV basically. Also plug in a Tape Deck.
The key thing is something small. I don’t want to take up a bunch of space if I can help it.
Bluetooth/iPhone adaptability a plus but not necessary at all