On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Eric S. Sande<esa...@erols.com> wrote:
>> A lot people of any generation, the cost is prohibitive. > > Beg to differ. One of the fastest growing and most innovative areas > of hi-fi is in headphone systems. The youngsters all ready use Ipods > and Zunes, they all ready have computers. > > They may not have the scratch for a full blown rig, but you can get > audiophile quality for not too much more than a Mac Mini, a decent > DAC/headphone amp, and some relatively cheap interconnects. > > Absolutely kills any Ipod or Zune on the planet for under US$2500 > or less. > > Do it with a last generation PC for even less. > > Mac Mini (new) US$600.00 > Benchmark DAC1 US$1000.00 > Sennheiser HD600s US$300.00 > Optical interconnect US$20.00 > Itunes Free > Monitor, keyboard US$200.00 > > Of course you're on you're own as far as the tunes are concerned. > > But that is highly respectable hardware that will support later > expansion, that is the way I went, except that my music server is > a PC. > > You can get less expensive than that but only if you are willimg > to trade off the control flexibility and balanced outputs of the > DAC mentioned. I merely send the audio output from my computer to my existing stereo system by way of cables. The result is audio that is magnitudes better than from the computer speakers. Cheap. I also have numerous CDs loaded with MP3s that are categorized into folders. I play the CDs via the CD/DVD player which has a small 9" B/W monitor attached, allowing me to view the contents of the CDs and to navigate through the offerings using the DVD player remote control. The player also has a USB port that I use in conjunction with flash drives to quickly and easily listen to newly obtained music. I often will record to my hard drive interesting music streams from the internet and listen to them later. Steve ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
