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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 65 responses total. |
tpryan
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response 25 of 65:
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Mar 24 13:32 UTC 2002 |
I think even radio shack has stopped selling blank 8-track tapes.
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keesan
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response 26 of 65:
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Mar 24 15:52 UTC 2002 |
I know where you can get cheap used ones.
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davel
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response 27 of 65:
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Mar 25 01:55 UTC 2002 |
What did I say? 8-{)]
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mcnally
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response 28 of 65:
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Mar 27 10:09 UTC 2002 |
Since this is the "Equipment for Playing [Recorded] Music" item,
I thought I might mention my recent purchase of an Apple iPod.
I'll write a longer review of it later, but basically the iPod
is an amazing device with a couple of annoying omissions and
restrictions that keep it from being perfect. Still, I'm quite
happy with it, and can recommend it with only minor reservations.
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keesan
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response 29 of 65:
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Mar 27 16:18 UTC 2002 |
We have discovered that the only tape decks with timer switches (you set them
to off, record, or play) are the ones were you cannot press down the regular
play or record switch and have it stay down. The newer ones are solenoids
(feather-touch) and the timer switch is not needed on the older ones - you
can just push down the pertinent lever, plug the deck into a timer, turn on
power, and when the timer reaches the right time the deck should go on.
This is theory, anyway.
We have one (broken) deck with HXPro which is automatically used, and then
also a choice of Dolby B or C or neither. It is autoreverse and plays okay
in one direction but superfast in the other. Pinch roller not pinching.
Jim is fixing small headphones this week. They come in 20,24, and 32 ohms
and you have to turn the boombox way up to hear them. Is this to prevent
people from making themselves deaf? Ordinary speakers are 4-16 ohms.
The larger the headphones, the less you have to turn up the boombox.
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krj
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response 30 of 65:
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Oct 14 03:09 UTC 2002 |
I can't find the previous discussion of MP3 portable players, so I'll
use this item. I broke down today and got a RioVolt CD/MP3 player.
It was stickered at $99.99, scanned for $10 less than that; the sales
clerk waved a 10% coupon under the scanner and the price went down some
more, and *then* there is a $20 rebate which I darn well better send
in this time. So, what, $60-$65 final cost? Yay Best Buy. Thanks
to mcnally for encouraging me to keep looking.
There were a frustrating ten minutes of trying to figure out the
folder navigation, and then it all made sense.
Sounds great on these Spanish folk MP3s by a band called Na Lua
which I've been playing; certainly those files sound better on the
the Rio than they do on Winamp on the computers I've got around.
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jep
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response 31 of 65:
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Oct 14 03:28 UTC 2002 |
I've been thinking about getting one of those for my son. I figured we
can take it in the car, too. With a couple of MP3 CDs, we'll have
enough music for a weekend trip to my brother's place south of
Nashville.
I saw one in one of the Sunday circulars for $40, with car kit. I hope
that means a cigarette lighter plug-in and not a cassette tape adapter,
since I don't have a cassette player in my car.
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krj
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response 32 of 65:
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Oct 14 06:18 UTC 2002 |
"car kit" generally means a cigarette lighter plug-in for power, and
a cassette tape adapter to carry the audio from the portable unit
into the car stereo. Most people's cigarette lighters are not connected
to the car stereo for output, but you might have a special model. :)
As John doesn't have a cassette tape player, he'll most likely
have to get a small radio transmitter which can be picked up by
your car's FM radio; I have no experience with those.
We were discussing these toys in another item somewhere recently,
but where?
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rcurl
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response 33 of 65:
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Oct 14 06:27 UTC 2002 |
I have used such a tape/CD FM transmitter. They work quite well. Their
only problem is that if you enter an area where there is a regular
FM transmitter, you need to pick another frequency. This doesn't happen
often.
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mcnally
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response 34 of 65:
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Oct 14 10:15 UTC 2002 |
I've got one of the FM-transmitter doodads that I use with my iPod on
car trips. It seemed to work pretty well on my trip from Washington
down to Utah and around the national parks of the southwest but it was
a complete failure on a later road-trip from western Michigan to
southeastern Minnesota via Chicago. From about Benton Harbor, MI,
to Madison, WI, the device wasn't worth using -- about every 20 minutes
I had to retune to an unused frequency as I came within range of some
new low-power FM station.
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mcnally
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response 35 of 65:
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Oct 14 10:17 UTC 2002 |
re #30: For that price I'm presuming you didn't get the black model with
the larger display, extra buffer memory, and FM tuner. That's the only
Rio/Volt model I'm familiar with, but I liked it. The lower cost models,
though much more attractively priced, seemed decidedly not as nice.
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md
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response 36 of 65:
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Oct 14 11:15 UTC 2002 |
When is somebody going to invent the stylusless cartridge for playing
vinyl? Maybe not a cartridge, exactly, but some sort of optical device
for reading the grooves on an analog vinyl recording. Or has it
already been done? The idea of having to run a diamond-tipped needle
through the grooves every time you want to listen to an old favorite
seems more and more primitive and destructive of the medium, given
current technology. How hard could it be to come up with a simple
inexpensive device?
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davel
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response 37 of 65:
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Oct 14 12:41 UTC 2002 |
I've wondered about this, too. But it will take more than just a cartridge,
as the needle controls the inward spiral motion of the cartridge as well as
vibrating. You'd need something to make the tone arm pivot at the proper rate
to keep the cartridge pointed at the right point on the groove.
I also have to wonder whether something couldn't be designed with a *wide*
cartridge that would read the entire side in one revolution. Might be
simpler.
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krj
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response 38 of 65:
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Oct 14 14:01 UTC 2002 |
My recollection is that the laser turntable *was* done; however, it was
in the late 1980s, when the market for $10,000 turntables was shrinking
fast. I will grub around later today; I saw something on the web
about it.
Mike in resp:35 :: My RioVolt model is the SP-90, blue case, seems to have
the larger display but no FM tuner, and I'm not sure about the buffer
size.
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jep
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response 39 of 65:
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Oct 14 14:45 UTC 2002 |
re #32: Urp. Thanks for pointing that out, as I'd completely
overlooked it.
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keesan
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response 40 of 65:
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Oct 14 16:04 UTC 2002 |
John, we probably have a car tape deck and if not, Kiwanis has lots of used
ones cheap, probably a lot cheaper than buying a new gadget for transmitting
FM to your car radio. THe last time he fixed someone's tape deck it was so
they could play CD's with it.
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jep
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response 41 of 65:
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Oct 14 17:49 UTC 2002 |
Why didn't I think of that? I'd have to ask for help installing it,
too. I'm no good at cars. Thanks, Sindi!
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other
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response 42 of 65:
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Oct 14 23:15 UTC 2002 |
I used to have a cheap tape deck boombox in a car with only an am/fm
stereo. I hardwired the battery terminals of the (9v) boombox to the
ignition of the (12v) car, and the difference didn't seem to have any
effect, but I saved a lot on batteries and I could play cassettes in my
car...
(until some jerk in Jersey City broke in and stole the boombox)
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jep
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response 43 of 65:
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Oct 15 14:57 UTC 2002 |
I could use my boombox and a cigarette lighter adapter, I suppose.
What I really want, though, is to be able to play MP3 CDs in the car.
It'd be a compact way to take a lot of music when we're traveling.
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krj
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response 44 of 65:
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Oct 15 18:25 UTC 2002 |
Meijers had a MP3/CD playing boombox from Philips.
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jep
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response 45 of 65:
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Oct 15 19:58 UTC 2002 |
A boombox? Do you know how much it was?
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krj
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response 46 of 65:
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Oct 16 03:24 UTC 2002 |
About $100, I think.
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tpryan
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response 47 of 65:
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Oct 19 21:15 UTC 2002 |
The Philips MP3/Cd boombox also allows firmware upgrades,
which I think could mean support of .ogg files later.
I have the silver/little blue RioVolt Player, SP-100, IIRC.
I downloaded one firmware update for it, and got better functionality,
like being able to resume where I left off, on up to ten disks it
remembers for me, either in MP3 or CD modes. It and the mostly black
one with FM tuner are the only ones with upgradeable firmware.
The next part of desirabilty is being able to forward thru
an MP3 selection/file. Currently it only supports the Gong! function,
going to the next file.
Sony also makes/made an MP3/CD boombox.
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orinoco
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response 48 of 65:
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Oct 22 17:38 UTC 2002 |
(I guess it was only a matter of time before "boombox" and "firmware upgrade"
wound up in the same sentence, but jeez...)
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krj
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response 49 of 65:
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Jan 6 02:33 UTC 2003 |
resp:30 and subsequent:: I've decided that I'm not all that happy with
the RioVolt unit I got two months ago. The sound is fairly "dead" coming
out of it, compared with all the recent Sony CD portables I've
used, and also with Leslie's Koss portable. This seems to be
something in the audio output stage, because it doesn't matter if
I'm playing audio CDs or MP3 discs.
Has anyone been able to compare the sound quality of the different
CD MP3 players? They aren't usually sold in ways which allow you to
audition them any more.
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