Entertainment For Lively Minds
ITunes 8: A word of warning
I remember hearing on the podcast that Mr Hepworth uses Airport Express to stream music from his computer to speakers in the living room.
This is a quick heads-up for him, and anyone who does the same. The new ITunes 8 has a bug in it, making compatibility with the Airport Express an issue. You'll find that it comees up with an Unknown Error.
What you need to do is update your Airport Express firmware to 6.3 (free download at Apple's site), and also ensure that ITunes sharing is enabled in the Firewall section of System Preferences.
All a bit irritating, though I'm sure Word readers will appreciate the new Genius feature which compiles bespoke playlists of things you already own, and things you might like to buy, from every track in your library.
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Mac OSX or Windoze
Is the bug on both the Mac and Windows versions of iTunes?
Have upgraded to iTunes 8 on my Mac but not streaming music via Airport Express - was thinking of getting one this week to try out as a simple solution to get music from the computer to the living room. Actually like the look of this new Linn piece of kit that has network streaming capability, but don 't think I'll be able to get CFO approval for that !!!
Would the CFO approve one of these instead?
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/...
Looks good but....
How's the sound quality (still have a bit of the HiFi snob in me that says Logitech make mice so how can they make proper HiFi.....).
How would it compare to say the Apple TV (which could also do movies....)
This thread is in danger of going off on a tangent and into the realms of What HiFi !!
Supposed to be pretty good
If you rip losslessly (is that a word?) then it is supposed to be pretty good. I think the DAC on it is pretty good. Logitech build quality is very good - Swiss engineering etc.
It is well reviewed as well. Don't have a hifi in the living room at the moment otherwise I would.
From the discussions at
From the discussions at Apple Support, it seems to apply to Windows users too, though if you're getting a new AE it will have the latest firmwae, so you're halfway there.
Don't let it put you off: the AE is brilliant. I use mine to stream internet radio (using a must-have application ccalled Airfoil), to catch up with Radcliffe and Maconie every morning.
Thanks
Don't think it will put me off - I'm a Mac guy and whilst they do have issues, they tend to get resolved fairly well.
The big debate is whether to try an put together a "proper" Hi-Fi streaming setup (a la the Linn offering) and maybe extend to movies or just go the cheap and cheerful route (a la the Airport Express - I have a Time Capsule /Airport Extreme base station so setup should be easy).
I still love my simple Audiolab 8000A / Marantx CD63 SI / Monitor Audio setup for pure listening pleasure, but like a lot of folks here seem to increasingly listen to music via the computer / ipod in the car (have ripped my >1500 CD collection). The Hi-Fi part of me leans towards the proper component part, but the electronics engineer / realist part of me tells me that MP3 is compressed anyway so what's the point of spending big bucks on a HiFi to play it (although I have heard the the sound quality from the airport express is not so hot).
Dilemmas........
have ripped my >1500 CD collection
Out of curiosity, how many Gb do you think it comes to?
Lots....
Quick check says 115GB. The CD's were ripped at 160 kbps into MP3 format. According to iTunes its 1753 albums (but some of those are two CD's from double albums).
Have them all stored on the iMac and backed up on an external drive and also replicated on an external mobile drive (for use with notebook) - storage space is not an issue (I work for the biggest HDD manufacturer).
Thanks for the info
Curious
Back in the day when I first ripped my collection, I did it at 128kbps. Because I didn't know the difference to be honest. Is it worth revisiting this and do I have to rip all over again?
I think the answer is yes.
And I'm going to have to do it. I rip stuff at high quality variable bit rate which sounds pretty good and has a reasonable file size now. But I have a large bunch of stuff that needs redoing but I'm waiting to get a bigger ipod before I bother.
I'd recommend not ripping in AAC as well - MP3 is more universal but there are probably other formats that do the job better.
Sounds like
relationship troubles are on the horizon again then. When you say "high quality variable bit rate" I presume you mean 320kbps. Or am I mistaken?
Bit lower (ouch)
Between 160 and 240 depending on the song. I think its got something to do with the quiet parts being more compressed and so bringing the overall bit rate down. It seems to be a good compromise between size and sound though.
What's the difference between 128 and 320kbps?
Compare and be honest with yourself, can you hear a substantial difference? I can't. So I'm waiting for the hard drives to get big enough that I can re-rip everything in lossless. Until then it seems pointless as you'll probably want to re-rip it to lossless at some point in the next six years.
Lossless is kind of pointless anyway. The file sizes are five times as big and you'll struggle to hear a difference between them and your lossy music.
The Airport Express problem...
...seems to take the form of dropping the connection occasionally. I've tried the updater but it wouldn't recognise my Airport Express. Googling around, I find that's a problem others have had.
Ahhh...
... I remember when playing music was simple.