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nosnhoj

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  1. PJH, Thanks for the info. Enjoy. Cheers, Charlie
  2. PJH, How are your new speakers working out? Could you tell us what your room size and speaker placement are? I am currently running active monitors myself (Quad 11L) and am very interested in the Dynaudios. Also, could you tell me the measurements of the mid/bass driver, (possibly both radiating area and total size to outside of flexible surround). Reviews of Focus 110 give various numbers. I live in Alaska and the Dynaudio dealer in Seattle does not stock much gear. Any other thoughts on these speakers would be appreciated. Regards, Charlie
  3. Jeff, I assume your netbook is running Windows XP. You might check some of the threads that discuss getting good sound from XP by by-passing the operating system's audio kernel (K-mixer). I don't think Vista requires much fiddling to get clean digital output. My Vista netbook sounds as good as the CD player which is serving as the DAC. On the other hand, I have read about poor quality usb outputs being a problem for digital audio. Regards, Charlie
  4. Hello again, Just a quick update to say things worked out great with the netbook as a music server. I use an external disc drive to rip, and an external hard drive (along with the internal hard drive) to store music as flac files. The setup: Netbook --> usb out --> Blue Circle Thingee --> optical or coax out --> Quad CDP2 --> coax analog out to active speakers. I am using Jriver as the music player and the CDP2 has variable output and remote control. Again, this netbook has an Athlon 64 bit processor running Windows Basic. Pros: Sounds great, simple to use, snappy user interface, cheap media server, 250GB hard drive on netbook means I don't have to take portable hard drive on the road. Cons: Real mini laptop would have optical disc drive built in, fan on netbook does run a lot (not noticable in my setup unless you are at the netbook itself), currently no remote music selection (I am used to working with CDs, so this doesn't bother me. Cheers, Charlie
  5. Bob and all, Thanks for the info. I picked up the netbook today. I won't be at home to drop it into the main rig for a few days, but I've got it set up for audio. I downloaded Jriver, dumped in a couple of audio files (flac), and plugged the Thingee into a usb port. (At home I use the Thingee to convert digital signals from usb to spdif and on the road I use it as a DAC outputting analogue left and right coax or headphones.) Everything ran smoothly and sounded fine with headphones. My initial impression is that this machine runs Vista quite well for my limited needs. For internet, it is less snappy than a more powerful laptop but not slow and the screen and graphics are nice. But, the point of this thread is that I would just like this to be a good music server at home and on the road. You make a good point about fan noise. As far as I can tell, this little fan runs essentially all the time. It is certainly very quiet, but we'll have to see how it works sitting on my DAC. I didn't try very hard to get the TDP but I can compare the speed of the Atom and the AMD: Atom N270: 1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB AMD Athlon 64L110: 1.2GHz, 800MHz FSB Lastly, the OS is upgradable when Windows 7 comes out, although I haven't read the details yet about the free offer. I'll report back when it is hooked up to a hard drive and a real DAC at home. Cheers, Charlie
  6. Hello again, For those still interested in this thread, the specific netbook in question is a Gateway LT3103u. Unlike machines with Atom processors running XP, this model has AMD Athlon 64L110 processor and runs Vista. It has 2GB RAM and 250GB Hard Drive. Many reviews say that it is closer to a regular laptop in speed and functionality than other netbooks. It is a 64 bit processor. Any caveats? Feedback welcomed. Regards, Charlie
  7. Peter and Chris, Thanks for the input. I'll probably pick one up within a few days unless I hear a good argument against it. I don't mind trying it and finding out for myself what the pros and cons are. Cheers, Charlie
  8. Hello, Would a netbook running Windows Vista Basic work well as a music server, or does one need Vista Premium? I currently use an older laptop running Windows XP with an external hard drive. The laptop outputs via usb into a Blue Circle Thingee for conversion into s/pdif optical or coax before input into my DAC. Lately I've been using JRiver as the player and I don't yet listen to any format but standard redbook. I am basically happy with this setup, but need to free up the old laptop and would like the new music server/laptop to be small and portable, usable for other things in a pinch, and cheap. I have looked quickly at a netbook running Windows Vista Basic for under $400. This would require an external disc drive for ripping, but otherwise seems like it could be set up in the same way as my current laptop. I will appreciate any feedback regarding pros and cons (or impossibility) of using the netbook. Thanks, Charlie
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