Your Universal Remote Control Center
RemoteCentral.com
Custom Installers' Lounge Forum - View Post
Previous section Next section Previous page Next page Up level
Up level
The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:

Login:
Pass:
 
 

Page 2 of 3
Topic:
Audio ReQuest vs. Escient Fireball vs. Imerge vs. any other competition?
This thread has 35 replies. Displaying posts 16 through 30.
Post 16 made on Wednesday September 11, 2002 at 11:13
John Pechulis
Loyal Member
Joined:
Posts:
July 2001
7,127
A day or two?

How bout 600 CDs ?? You better pack food and drink for a week or so.

JJP
Post 17 made on Wednesday September 11, 2002 at 11:21
Hector
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2002
39
Cold pizza and warm beer. Sounds like a working vacation.
Post 18 made on Wednesday September 11, 2002 at 14:52
mickdawg
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2002
92
We give the first 50 rips free which usually takes our office manager about an hour of conscious loading and unloading.

After that it's $5 a pop. (about what ReQuest charges)

Hector, how do you back up any type of computer? The ArqZone is the best solution. I guess you could get Network Storage Devices (linksys is coming out with one) but they are usually wicked expensive.

I also will keep the rips on my network for a while but will discard the ones I don't want. If I had the storage tapes and inclination I could back up the rips as I do my network files but that seems a bit much.

By the way, I had an ArqPro hard drive failure and all I had to do was swap the hard drive from the zone to the pro.
i wanna go home now
Post 19 made on Wednesday September 11, 2002 at 19:31
ZoneOne
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2002
24
I have played with or installed units from Compaq, Imerge, Entre, Escient and ReQuest. As far as I'm concerned, the Audio ReQuest is the only one that isn't a science project. You plug it in, it works. World class support, backup options, networking options that actually work and seamless integration with Elan Via panels and Crestron. But, like all the best things, it is more expensive than the competition. The new Terabyte model (thats 1000 Meg) is 25k.
Post 20 made on Thursday September 12, 2002 at 14:14
ItsColdInMN
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
June 2002
461
(Technically, a terrabyte is 1000 gigs)

I love my MP3PC better than my Entre' 160 gigs of storage capacity locally, copper gigabit to a storage machine with another 480 gigs. Find a good deal on HDD's and take advantage my friend. I really should get into the business of building HT and MP3 dedicated PC's. I wish I had a better interface than just using winamp on my HT screen though.
Post 21 made on Thursday September 12, 2002 at 16:23
Hector
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2002
39
VIA Touch Panel from ELAN Home Systems can be easily configured to control some of these components. Basically, a VIA Touch Panel actives an overlay screen while displaying the video output from the hard drive player. The overlay is programmed with commands that correspond to the command on the video display.

The VIA Touch Panel makes the operation of these hard drive players very user friendly.

Checkout www.elanhomesystems.com for details or stop by their booth at CEDIA in two weeks.
Post 22 made on Friday September 13, 2002 at 02:48
parkdog
Lurking Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2002
1
Does the AudioRequest Rip station support VBR? They use MusicMatch to rip, what codecs are available and how good are they? Is there a utility to transfer files from one drive to another?

Do you think they will ever support "Cover Art"
What is the MTBF on these drives?

Questions, Questions....
Post 23 made on Friday September 13, 2002 at 09:55
Thon
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
November 2001
726
How do you guys feel about Arrakis? I've installed one system with Crestron control. The learning curve was painful, but now that it's done it seems to be a pretty cool thing. Any opinions?
How hard can this be?
Post 24 made on Friday September 13, 2002 at 09:55
Mick P
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
July 2002
43
ItsCold - have you tried www.ApeJukebox.com THe interface is a lot better than MMJ or WInamp for standalone operation. Browsing via coverart is slick and is suited to displaying at TV resolution, etc. It's still a little rough around the edges but has a lot of potential. Also supports lossless compression ape format - but mp3 does it for me.

Now if only they would do a DVD version as well.

As for ripping there's no way around the time, but working in a home office with a laptop and a desktop ripping in the background via MMJ at 12-16x gets the job done with minimal pain. Just keep pumping the discs every few minutes.

As for backup - hard drives are getting cheaper, and firewire kits work well. THats the problem with the lower level (<$1,000) dedicated units - expandability. It seems that the interface is the hard part. They should just provide a firewire port and users could expand as needed.

$5 PER DISC - Hmm a cottage industry for someones kids?
Post 25 made on Friday September 13, 2002 at 10:01
Hector
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2002
39
parkdog raises a very interesting question about codecs. I’m sure that each type of codec has technical data supporting its good points. But I think the bottom line is going to be a personal preference, similar to speakers.

For example, if I can find a “intelligent” codec that can compress a three minutes song by “The Back Street Boys” into 3 seconds, that would be the codec I would use. This is a personal preference, my 13 year old nice might want to use a “stupid” codec.

But seriously, I hope manufacturers of these hard drive players will offer multiple codecs.


This message was edited by Hector on 09/13/02 11:41.48.
Post 26 made on Friday September 13, 2002 at 12:40
KenB
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
October 2001
16
Kudos to Audio Request. The early version was a bit teadious, but the new unit is awsome. Plus the PEOPLE at Request are very caring and responsive. I've owned & sold Tunebase, Fireball and Imerge and Request is all I own now. Especially if your selling it and want to install and forget about it. The only thing you wanna make sure is that the client has a broadband connection hooked up for CD lookup...Typing is painful. As far as control, IR, Elan Via and Crestron operate the unit seemlessly. Also from a dealer's perspective, Request made a decision to create and market a custom install piece versus a low cost consumer version which really makes it a no brainer. Why design and install an iPaq system when there's no money to be made...."I can get it on the net..."
Post 27 made on Wednesday September 18, 2002 at 19:45
cahosy
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2002
14
Amazing what you run into when you are out poking around...I've been looking into one of these for myself lately. As an Elan dealer, I've been waiting for DECIA to see their new Imerge-designed piece. I have a VIA panel that untill a few weeks ago was connected to a VIA Music and 400 disc changer. Drove me crazy it was so slow! Almost bought the Imerge a month or so ago until the guy's at elan tech support siad it probably never would work with a VIA, and to wait for their new one!

Also intrigued by the Marantz piece, but I have a feeling that they're basically both the same box with a different name on it!

Looking at these things has been driving me crazy. Hopefully I can go to CEDIA and make up my mind. My wife is geting tired of looking at 400 CD's in a bunch of piles in the cabinet. the curse of being in the business. The personal system never stay's the same for long! How would our customer's ever figure out what to buy if we were'nt there to guide them along the path?
Post 28 made on Friday September 20, 2002 at 18:58
avgenius1
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
May 2002
448
Dont forget about the Kenwood Sovereign Entre.
"Some may never live but the crazy never die" ~ Hunter S. Thompson
"There will be plenty of time to sleep when I am dead" ~ Me
Post 29 made on Thursday November 21, 2002 at 11:34
Mike Woodhall
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
November 2002
10
I have recently invested in a Fireball (Escient) and a couple of Sony M333ES CD Changers (I have avery understanding wife!!). I really like the system as it includes music management and the ability to store music on a hard drive, which I intend to use to store the some 400 LP's that I ammassed before the invention of CD's. It also has a new PC utililty called pipeline which enables my PC to talk to the fireball, I generate all the playlists and groups on the PC and then sync them with the fireball. It also will let you use a 10/100 CAT5 connection to my LAN and the outside world using a USB/Netwok Adapter (Belkin works with the fireball, some others do not), rather than the limited rate HPNA interface (which also is possible with the fireball). Lastly it also has access to a number of internet radio staions, not as many as over a PC, however I do not have a PC in the family room and do not want to have to go into the office to change stations (a real couch potato!!). Yes the fireball is expensive compared with some of the other products out there, especially when you understand that the CD changers that you had are not compatable with it and that you will have to change them.

This is one of those new technologies, just like CD's and DVD's that will increase in popularity and number of features and reduce in price as the years go on.

Bottom line. I really like my fireball.
Post 30 made on Thursday November 21, 2002 at 13:55
mickdawg
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2002
92
Here's a couple more that we are looking at.

The Netune by Integra. It's an interesting client server type architecture. I don't have a full grasp of it but it is similar to the Kenwood Entre.

Also, there's the zexen which I saw at Cedia. 10x20 audio matrixer with a harddrive of indeterminate size ("holds 5000 albums"). Looks to be better build quality than others I've seen. But I haven't found a client for this expensive product yet.
i wanna go home now
Page 2 of 3


Jump to


Protected Feature Before you can reply to a message...
You must first register for a Remote Central user account - it's fast and free! Or, if you already have an account, please login now.

Please read the following: Unsolicited commercial advertisements are absolutely not permitted on this forum. Other private buy & sell messages should be posted to our Marketplace. For information on how to advertise your service or product click here. Remote Central reserves the right to remove or modify any post that is deemed inappropriate.

Hosting Services by ipHouse