Well for $20.00 I found an external USB sound processor

[Mark W.]

Well, tomorrow I go pick up a Phillips PSC805 Aurillium External Audio Processor it's a bit out of date but from the reviews I read it should do exactly what I want which is dramatically improve my sound quality coming from my laptop. And do it with the least hassle. It is USB powered so no AC cord. It doesn't 5.1 (which I will most likely never use) and it's small and cool looking etc.

I'm also going to add an external DVD/CD player burner unit in an Aluminum case (the Player in the lap to vibrates the whole machine. I don't have a DVD burner for any of my desktops so it can do double duty.

Along with that and as a way to safe gaurd my Music files I'm going to create two 40-80 Gig hard drives so that each file is mirrored on each one.

Everything can be run firewire or USB into my laptop while still being protected from the laptop crashing.

Plus if I do it right the four mini units can look pretty cool sitting ona shelf next to my 5 foot tall rack of Pioneer.

OR at least that is the threoy. It will also give us a little travel stereo with the addition of a pair of speakers for the Bed and Breakfast room or Motel room. I have any number of Camera Bags and backpacks that will hold everything in nice padded comfort.

 

[Negotiableterms]

Mark-

Good luck with the new toy. Please let us know how it turns out, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd explain exactly what you're doing with it, in layman's terms. Something like... "I download an MP3 into the laptop computer using iTunes, then I..."

I'm hoping to make the initial threads here into an information bank. Wish me luck!

 

[Mark W.]

Well, basically-21 Preamp and then on to my SA-9100 Amp and out to the living room speakers. I can see storing copies of all the CD's I record with my Pioneer PDR-509 as well as copies of any DC's we buy. I should be able to rip an album directly to the hard drives treating the computer as if it was a cassette deck as fr as the Amp is conserned.

But I will certinly add my feedback to this thread.

One thing that has accured to me with this is that I didn't see anythig new quite like this unit when I went looking (or maybe they were just to expensive for my radar) Anyway is it possible that there are recent "Vintage Digital Units to be sought after. I have no idea if this Phillips unit will do everything I want. But if it does turn out to be a Plug and play Sound card for any PC, Laptop or MAC with a USB port. Then it could be a neat unit for others to have. when trying to use newer media with Vintage stereos.

The reviews explain that this basiclly a digital Preamp of sorts. I can even run it directly into my PDR-509 Optically if so desired.

But for now I see a long learning curve and at $20.00 a small investment.

More later

 

[Mark W.]

Ok I picked this little unit up today and while I really have no idea what I'm doing with it. It is pretty simple to understand well built looks cool. And without a doubt makes the music coming into my headphones ten times as good as the on board sound in my laptop.

In fact dark side of the moon and the wall sounded VERY good and I know both those albums very well.

More later

 

[soundmotor]

Here is the one I use -

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage

For what it is, it is pretty damn good. The headphone/line out on nearly every laptop I've had has sounded like @ss. Noise, hiss, etc. This thing is dead silent and has great fidelity.

 

[Mark W.]

Soundmotor if that tiny little thing sounds pretty good I'm impressed talk about travel size! I would be more afraid of loosing it!

 

[uofmtiger]

Well, tomorrow I go pick up a Phillips PSC805 Aurillium External Audio Processor

This thing is very cool for the price! Here is a review of it:
http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=64&page=1

Soundmotor if that tiny little thing sounds pretty good I'm impressed talk about travel size! I would be more afraid of loosing it!

I have a Echo Indigo PC Card that just slides into a free PC cardbus type II slot on a Laptop. It is a little more travel friendly, but it would probably be hard to find for $20 and the Phillips looks much more flexible in what it can do. Great find! :thmbsp:

 

[Mark W.]

I have been ripping some music to the HD in the laptop and while the Laptop is the biggest limiting factor in what I hear coming out of my headphones. VERY familiar music sure sounds good coming through the little Philips processor.. I have found that using the presets they have available sounds better then trying to mess with everything yourself.

I'm now very happy with this purchase. And once I add the external HD and external DVD/CD Burner/player to the mix I think I will have a decent setup for use as a digital server.

Oh Derek that review was one of the ones I read prior to deciding to buy this unit.

 

[shstrang]

Here is the one I use -

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage

I bought one of those too. All I really cared about was getting a s/pdif out but the headphone jack really sounds pretty good. The digital out is slightly better sounding to me but I can take my laptop to the lake or on the back porch and have really good sound with headphones.

 

[KingBubba]

I too use an Audio Advantage and am quite pleased with it. I would like to make a suggestion about hard drives. Do not settle for a 40 - 80 gig hard drive. At the price they are going for now it would be a waste of money. I recently purchased a 400gig Seagate HD, new, for $91 which included the shipping. Unless you have a very small music library and are planning to use 128kbs mp3 files you will run out of room quickly. Original recording to a hard drive is done in .wav files which are huge. If you want to save these compressed mp3 files you should use no less than 192kbs and better yet 320kbs. Better yet you should use one of the lossless file formats such as .flac or .ape. These files, though smaller than the original .wav files, are still quite large and will start filling up a hard drive faster than you would believe.

To give you an idea, my hard drive music library is mostly 128 - 160kbs mp3s. It is sitting at around 75 gigs at this time. When I started it, big hard drives were prohibitively expensive. This computer library does not include all my music. If I were to start over I would use .flac files and do like you plan with two hard drives with one as the backup.

 

[ericj]

I'm not gonna slam the TBAAM on overall sound quality - everyone seems to like it - but it doesn't measure particularly well in terms of distortion.

My RMAA results are here:

http://166.70.233.190/rmaa/Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro.htm

Also, the output caps are only 220uf, so you may experience some bass rolloff and phase distortion with low-impedance headphones.

'course, in the pocket-size product range, I have no better suggestions.