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RE: Rapid change???

> How about some real progress rather than just change?

I saw computer audio as a chance to get new functionality rather than as just a tweak for better sound. It has been progress for me. It has certainly encouraged me to buy lots more music.

> I think the market is heading that way actually. [computer audio over ethernet]
> There is the Apple Airport and the Squeezebox stuff certainly has it's followers.

Apple has signed up some hardware manufacturers for Airplay but I don't think any of those partners is setting the world on fire. The Apple TV device seems more central than the Airport express.

Logitech might have been able to make the Squeezebox protocols a market standard but they missed their window.

> The obvious missing element, which is more a mindset than anything
> tangible, is regarding speakers and headphones as rendering devices
> on the network similar to printers, scanners, storage...

This assumes that there is a single standard for how a rendering device for audio connects to the source of the data stream it renders.

> The transition will take at most one generation of products.

I'd say more like 3 or more generations. Maybe there are some 1st generation products out now.

It took quite a while for network printing to become simple to install and set up. It took years for wired networking and internet connections to become simple and foolproof to get going.

> Of course powered speakers are already around and widely used and
> acclaimed and yet have captured little (I think) of the "audiophile" market.

Once there are $ 50,000 to 200,000 "audiophile" models available, powered speakers might become more acceptable. Joking aside, I doubt that most high-end audio types will embrace powered speakers.

> Naturally in the way of entertainment and computer systems these
> different chunks can be mish-mashed together in a zillion different
> ways and still do the job, but in my mind the jobs they need to do
> is pretty clear.

There are various kinds of recent products that combine several functions. Some examples that interest me:

- AVI ADM 9.1 - active speakers with DAC, multiple inputs, remote control of volume and input selection

- JBL LSR4326P and 28P - active speakers with DAC, multiple inputs, remote control and DSP room analysis and correction

- Focal active speakers with wireless link for audio (I don't remember the model name)

> a Brother that interfaces via RF, USB or Ethernet.
> Back to the printer, this new $100 one prints 3X faster and at a higher resolution than my $1600 LJ4 did.

I too had an LJ4 in the past (and an Applewriter.) I have a Brother MFC laser printer now, connected via ethernet cable to our LAN. It just works for printing from my PC or my wife's PC. Several generations of development has made network printing much more routine than it once was.

> We CAN change! And it can be easy, safe and affordable.

Preach, Brother!

I have 3 DACs - one per room. I have no preamp in use. I have powered speakers in one room and 3-way active speakers in another room. JRMC on the dedicated MusicPC plays music in any of the 3 rooms. In our home office, either the MusicPC or my personal PC can feed digital input to the DAC in that room. I can control the JRMC on the MusicPC from any other PC we use including a laptop.

I'm certainly moving away from racks of separate components to using as few components in the audio stream as I can.

I needed to learn how things worked and do detailed consumer research to pick the parts and combine them. And it seems a bit ad hoc. An improved future might let anyone just pick components and combine them without understanding much about how they work.

> Words from a "hip trendsetter" wannabe!

There is still time for you to be a trendsetter.

Bill






my blog: http://carsmusicandnature.blogspot.com/

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