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General discussion

HDD based boombox / shelf audio system

by Mindstyle06 Aug 6, 2009 5:55PM PDT

Hello All,

I have fairly large audio collection (abt 300GB) on my PC in FLAC, mp3 and some in wma formats. So far I used to listen to the music using PC but I want to move on and would like to play on a decent audio system.
There are quite a lot of audio systems with USB connections but I noticed that there are size limitations in most of them like 8GB or 16GB for USB reading. Does anybody know any audio system, preferably a boombox or shelf audio system that has a hard drive inside and plays from the HDD?

To summarize what I am looking for
1. A system that holds my entire music collection on HDD.
2. A system that plays mp3, wma and FLAC.
3. Decent audio.
4. Good Directory navigation.
5. Boombox or Shelf Audio system (but if such are not available and then I am ready to go up the ladder, to say, home theatre.)

TOTALLY OPTIONAL features
1. Firmware upgradability (and the manufacturer should really mean it. I reported Transcend a bug in their mp3 players and they acknowledged but never came up with firmware upgrade that they promised.)
2. Ripping tape to wav or mp3.

I am NOT really interested in features like
1. wireless connectivity
2. Internet connectivity for playing radio stations online.
3. Networking features
4. Control from iPhone or iPod
5. iPod docking.

I looked at media extenders but most of them have no screen of their own (and those who have is useless for directory navigation) and they need to be used along with TV sets. I exactly don't want that (otherwise Philips DVD player, I have plays mp3s very well)
I don't want to go NAS way either as I really suck at networking and don't want to wreak my head over it (otherwise Squeezebox was a good alternative)
Google search for HDD based boombox leads to 2007 news of Panasonic SC-SX850 and SC-SX450 but such system are for sale only in Japan Sad

Many thanks for your comments.

(P.S. - BTW, I am currently located in Europe so can buy system in Europe if its present here or import it from the US)

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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The stuffs are out there,
by ahtoi Aug 6, 2009 6:48PM PDT

you just have to assemble the system yourself. Harddrive, media player, sound and speakers system, etc.

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Any suggestions
by Mindstyle06 Aug 6, 2009 7:00PM PDT

I have no idea of this kind of systems but if you could give me some clues, I could give it a try.

I could get a external HDD and speaker system, thats self explanatory but I didn't get media player and sound. Could you please elaborate on exact kind of hardware?

Thanks in advance.

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Here's one example of a media player...
by ahtoi Aug 8, 2009 2:29AM PDT
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In theory, you are right
by Mindstyle06 Aug 8, 2009 7:15PM PDT

and there are tons of such media extenders but there are two major issues-
1. Most of the hi-fi shelf systems with USB usually have size limitation of the USB disk they recognize, my knowledge is 8 to 16GB USB sticks and haven't found anything larger recognizable
2. Directory navigation of such systems is super super pathetic.

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