Hello? ? ? ? Is Anybody Home ?? ?


While I recognize that "PC Audio" may never compete with the excitement of SOTA home gear, isn't ANYBODY interested? I am not about to throw away my records for MP-3 files, but I am interested in further exploring PC based concepts, primarily for traveling. On that subject, does anyone know how I might get a line level signal from my Sony VAIO Z505 notebook to then output into a Headroom amplifier? Or do I have to use the cheesey internal amp and headphone jack which might defeat the purpose of using the amp and decent headphones in the first place? If I can get this thing to even sound half way listenable, movies and music on transatlantic flights might be a lot of fun. Thank you.
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by kthomas

I've been kind of disappointed that this forum hasn't generated more interest as well. I think there's quite a bit of sentiment that "good sound" and "PC" don't go together, quite possibly for good reason

I did, however, come across a cool looking product that merges computers and good sound. Made by Lansonic, it basically is a file server / decoder with "audiophile-quality" A/V interfaces. It connects to an NT-based network using ethernet, and supports a browser-based control program. It has a hard drive, but can access any drive on the network. You can have multiple copies on the network. All of which adds up to having your music library in one place, listenable on any system in your house and controllable from any computer on the network. Full juke-box-like functionality.

Of course, it's still basically version 1.0 and it's still pretty expensive ($700-$2000 depending on HD size), and HD sizes still pretty much prohibit exact copies of what's on the CD if you have much of a music collection. It's still going to be a stretch to get audiophiles to buy into this concept. But the idea is something I've been waiting to see arrive for a couple years now, and in a couple more it should be everywhere. -Kirk