Which kit for audio.

Hom3r · 04-12-2011, 22:27

My sister wants to buy a media device for her hubby, it needs to be stand alone but something that can be connected to his amp (Denon I think), so a good sound is a must.

She mentioned a netbook, but what about a Archos?

She had a budget of £200.

Any ideas.

**Rob** · 04-12-2011, 22:51

When you say media, what sort? Is this just music, or is it movies too?

How much storage do you need? Most of todays tablets have limited storage and require additional memory cards. Netbooks and the more expensive Archos type tablets actually have storage drives. For example my Archos 5 tablet has some 500GB. But it's only something I use for travel, and even then the battery life on video playback was nowhere near the predicted level.

Archos do have an advantage that there are some docking stations to reduce the wiring to pre-connect TV and sound. Just like there are docking stations for some of the apple products. But all they do is make connection quicker.

Archos tablets were possibly the leader a while ago for media playback, but that was before the days of the ipad. Now the field is wide open.

Any tablet with it's on board sound is really only designed for playback through headphones or small speakers. A netbook will be similar. The device would need a good quality add on sound card to improve stuff. A full amp would only be able to work with the sound signals it gets, it's not going to improve them.

Halcyon · 04-12-2011, 23:15

I'd go the netbook route and install ITunes.
Then buy an external hard drive and copy all music to that.
Make sure you change Itunes import settings to a decent CD quality.
Then go from the netbook into the amplifier.

To improve the sound from the netbook you could use a seperate soundcard DAC which would plug into your USB port and then go to the amplifier.
Only bother with this if your source media files are good quality.

Hom3r · 05-12-2011, 09:54

Sorry I mean't mainly music.

---------- Post added at 09:54 ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 ----------

Any advice on what model etc.

**Kymmy** · 05-12-2011, 10:21

What's the inputs on the denon?

Hom3r · 05-12-2011, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

What's the inputs on the denon?

That I don't know, but I know it doesn't have HDMI, DVI or USB.

Uncle Peter · 05-12-2011, 14:02

Sounds like it's just a normal integrated amp so it'll be RCA phono inputs.

Do they already have a PC in the house Hom3r?

**Kymmy** · 05-12-2011, 15:52

If standard RCA then a simple mp3 player with line-out will do..

Something I use (used to use a kiss player but recently upgraded) is a Sony Blu-ray player (s370 model) with DLNA running on my server. Got 50GB of music and 200GB of TV/films on it as well as connected to a love film account/iplayer/youtube.

Although it means I have to have the TV on to select the music I have a good selection all for less than £50 delivered 2nd hand from ebay.

My view is why stick with just music if you can also go the whole hog with DVD/blu-ray/HD iplayer/networked video?

Halcyon · 05-12-2011, 17:38

If it is a stereo amplifier and not an AV amplifier then concentrate on the music side.

Any of the inputs labelled 'line' or 'aux' will be fine.

Hom3r · 05-12-2011, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

Sounds like it's just a normal integrated amp so it'll be RCA phono inputs.

Do they already have a PC in the house Hom3r?

yeah but its old and she wants to get him something to play them on etc shes thinking of getting a netbook as he can do his fantasy footy on it aswell.

Uncle Peter · 05-12-2011, 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hom3r

yeah but its old and she wants to get him something to play them on etc shes thinking of getting a netbook as he can do his fantasy footy on it aswell.

Fair enough I was just going to say that even a modest PC can happily work as a media server for a dedicated wireless music streamer like the Logitech Squeezebox touch or one of the DAB radio hybrid streamers you can pick up for around that price point.