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Review of the Audiotron Stereo MP3 Component
What it is An MP3 player. But instead of using its own internal storage, it uses Samba shares that you can easily set up on any windows or Linux box for all data storage. This means that you can spread your MP3 collection over your LAN, use an external NAS or file server, but most importantly, not be constrained by the limits of disk space that go with any device that comes with its own storage. IO
The inputs/outputs are simple. Your basic ethernet port (you can assign an IP, or use DHCP). A pair of phone jacks (for HPNA networking which I've never used, nor do I intend to try). Power (you can deduce for yourself what that does). A pair of RCA audio outputs to plug into any stereo system. Best of all is a TosLink optical output so if you have a receiver that can do it, you can have an optical connection.
SetupSetting up the system was relatively easy. It took longer for me to set up Samba then the Audiotron. Just set a name and password, and make sure samba will let that guy in. Then make sure you have a folder named appropriately ("Music" will work. There is an option to search all folders but that is less then desirable). The atron boots up, uses DHCP to get an IP, scans your subnet, and if everything is configured, starts to get an index of MP3s from every server in your subnet set up to share MP3s. It was able to load all 6500 of my MP3s on my home network in just a few minutes. Note that if it loses power, it must reimport which on my lan took 5-6 minutes to import.
Upgrading the system is trivial . Download an image from the official website, and throw it in your music directory. and select the upgrade option. I did this almost immediately since the latest version has the web server interface that I desired to control the Audiotron from around the house.
I did manage to crash it several times after the upgrade. Once the crash was so severe that I had to restore to factory defaults. The only harm in this is that all of my favorites buttons were lost. I can blame this on the fact that I'm using a beta version of the code. I consider the crashes a tolerable short term problem, and worth it considering that the beta also gives me web control which is much easier then navigating using a knob.
Normal UseAfter booting, The front panel LED is mostly used to navigate your collection and select songs. You can do so by artist, title, genre, playlist. Everything is really easy, but somewhat slow. I'm not saying you can do it much better given the restraint of a 2 line LED visual output device and a knob. I'm just saying that you really want to use the web interface to do anything more complicated then selecting an album or artist.
The remote provides a variety of functions that you would expect. And it has a spacious 20 buttons for assigning favorites to. A favorite can be an artist (The Who!) a genre (All my rap mixed up) or just a disc (Daft Punk's Discovery). You can also define playlists, which are actually m3u files stored in your share. You have to make sure that the m3u's have only relative paths, DOS text file cr/lf, and backwards slashes. This is important because creating relatively wacky playlists is kinda a pain through this interface. The remote also lets You can also skip around in your playlist, or even within the MP3.
FidelityThe audio fidelity is really great, if by "Great" you really mean you want to show how bad MP3 encoding butchers audio. This is no criticism of the Audiotron, but you'll definitely here how MP3s just don't sound as good as the source CDs. I'll definitely be ripping CDs at a higher bit-rate.
ShortcomingsIt's just not totally ready yet for a power user although the The recent versions of the system have come much closer. A small feature which would be greatly appreciated is the functionality of the xmms-crossfade plugin. Such technology could presumably be easily integrated into a future version without a hardware upgrade. It's a relatively minor thing but it really adds something to many playlists to simply transition between songs. Sure its not as good as DJ who actually knows the start and end points of songs for proper mixing, but it usually removes those annoying pauses between songs. Somewhat related would be the ability to normalize volume of songs.
I wish the web interface would be reworked by someone who understands html interfaces. The system should offer the ability to create playlists of "Similiar" types. I should be able to add just a few songs, and the box should generate a list of similiar songs based on artist or genre. Right now creating a playlist is fairly tedious. Plus loading a web page often causes skipping in the playback. This is further complicated by the fact that it's output is really slow. I was getting like 8k a second even tho there really isn't any other traffic on the LAN. It wouldn't be so bad if I was getting pages much faster, but if you make your playlist be 'All Songs', you're going to wait awhile for the web page that contains that list. This is bad form.
There are lots of things that just seem messed up: for example I tried to map a few favorites keys to albums but it didn't want to play the CD in order even tho "Random" was off. They are played in order if you select the disc directly with random mode off. I think the favorite might randomize at assignment time. I suspect this is just an artifact of the beta build I was using.
In dream world this box would have TV interace, and 802.11b wireless support instead of regular ethernet. Of course this would double the price. At under $300, it's well within the range of typical consumer electronic gizmos so I doubt we'll see these options.
What it does bestIf you have several MP3 sources on your LAN, this is a great solution. Just set up samba shares on each box, and the audiotron will scan each of them and give you a single interface. Likewise, since it looks like a real stereo component, it means that you can let your PC just be a file server, and let this bad boy handle all MP3 playing chores. It won't stick out visually. And there aren't whirring fans to add more noise to your listening environment.
While the interface has rough edges, it's under three hundred bucks. And you can easily put one anywhere you have an ethernet drop. I doubt it would be worth placing one in a room where you already have a desktop PC to play songs directly on, but any room where you don't want a computer, have a stereo, and want access to your MP3s, this is simply a great way to do it. There are other ways you could do this, but this way is fairly elegant. And as a bonus, you can config the box via a web browser.
In short, I highly recommend this device. It fits right into the price performance functionality curve. And hopefully frequent releases will add more features and make it better. Now if only Turtle Beach would release the code under an open license... I'd love to see an XML/RPC interface so we could write front ends. Or tivo-style thumbs up/down controls for building more intelligent playlists.
So ThinkGeek sells these things if you're interested. I'm very pleased with mine. And I'll be more pleased when I get the 100 gig hard drive in my file server so I can rip the rest of my CDs.
It handles CDDA, DVD, VCD, and MP3 discs.
No, it doesn't run TCP/IP, but it seems like much less hassle to me.
But this is an ethernet appliance. Its the future. Listen to the music. Pretty soon, the lights in your room will have an ethernet jack as everything else. Imagine downloading some coordinated mood lighting from your server after dinner.
The stove, refrigerator, even the kitchen sink, er dishwasher... Everything will have an IP address. Your dinner will be cooked to exacting specifications and the groceries will be automatically ordered.
The real advantage of this is that it blends in. Sure, using an old box is fine, from a purely technical p.o.v., but it's not aesthetically pleasing. Plus, I'm definitely not qualified to set up a remote control for a random linux box. I won't be lining up for one either, but that's only because I have a machine in my living room. My parents, on the other hand, have about 5 computers in their house, on 3 different floors, and already have an excellent stereo system (CD, Phono, tape, radio) in their living room with speakers ranging all around the 1st floor -- this would be a perfect Xmas gift for them, allowing them to utilize existing structure in a very pretty way.
AHHHHHHH! I'm burning with goodness again!
- Reakk, Sluggy Freelance
This sounds like there's some usability problems and limitations. First off, your house has to be networked - this does seriously reduce its saleability! :-) Secondly, if it can only be controlled effectively through the web interface then you need a computer next to you to select the track, regardless. And if you've got that, why have a separate piece of kit?
:-) The words "gift horse", "mouth", "don't look a" and "in the" are springing to mind in no particular order... ;-) Anyway, you can hear the limitation of MP3 through _headphones_ on a PC, never mind putting it through a fancy hifi system, so it obviously didn't bother you too much when you ripped them.
I have a better suggestion - and if there's anyone from those hifi companies reading, pick this up. If it needs a graphical menu to browse effectively, why not build one in? OK, most hi-fi stuff doesn't have room for one in the rack-mounting form factor. But suppose you have one mounted flat in a drawer-type thing - you press a button, the drawer ejects, and the screen pops up, kind of like how Psion organisers work. Then the gadget could genuinely be driven from the front panel.
Jitter in the sound while you're browsing web pages is unacceptable. A two-processor system should really be used for this, one dedicated to sound processing and one dedicated to network access. Two cheap processors should work out the same price as one complex one, and it'd give much better quality output. Alternatively, web page serving should be a background task which only happens in the spare cycles between updates of the sound processing.
As for showing up the limitations of MP3 - well, yeah. But then, did you buy all those 650 CDs that you've got the 6500 MP3s off?
Graham.
I plan to put my own review up on my website. Mine is an early hand-soldered model, but they plan to move to mass-production which should bring the price down I would think.
Cheers,
Chris Morgan
When the Audrey was new and under production, it was like $499. That doesn't quite compare. I guess if you consider the one time value of the Audrey, then I can definently understand.
K
It's also great for those of us who don't want pc's in our living rooms.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
The claim that this can be used with the highest-quality sound equipment is hilarious.
Although I agree that this is a COMPLETE waste of money (if it was $50 I'd consider it), I think that you need to define a few things before I'd agree with that statement. For starters, where did you get the MP3s? If you just grabbed all of the 128kbit mp3s that you could find off the internet and randomly play them, sure possibly. If you have a $5000 stereo system, sure, probably. But I do all of my rips at (at least) 192kbit/s VBR with lame, and I don't get pops and clicks, and I have a $1400 stereo system that they sound wonderful in. If you listen carefully yes, it's obvious that it's an MP3, but for all intensive purposes it's just fine. Especially when I'm driving a house party or anything else that just serves as background music. If I'm going to listen to music, and JUST listen to music (i.e. Beethoven or Mozart) then I'll use the real CD. Otherwise MP3s work just fine with my HiFi system.
And any MP3s that I do get off the internet (I will make no pretense that I don't illegally copy music) I will always listen to them before putting them through the big system.
I dunno, I'm perfectly content with using MP3s just about everywhere.
If God gave us curiosity
mp3s will still have hisses and skips that can be dangerous to powerful, quality audio setups
Have you ever actually heard an mp3? Mp3 compression decreases the available frequencies in a sound file, causing an audible reduction in sound quality through decreased *range*, making the recordings sound somewhat flat. Pops are caused by crap ripping software/cd-rom/cd's introducing noises into the original source, not by the encoder. I'm not sure what would cause an mp3 to hiss, aside from poorly-isolated playback equipment (again, not the fault of mp3).
That said, this thing is somewhat overpriced.
What about people running BSD or Linux etc on Dreamcasts? Isn't the dreamcast powerfull enough to play mp3s?
What about ps2?
Once you get these things on your lan, a whole bunch of new options open up...
___
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
This device is outstanding. To counter the "Why not get an apex player for $99", well, that's nice that it holds a CD's worth of mp3s, but most people have much more than that.
Also, this looks just like a normal stereo component. It fits in quite well with my existing rack. It has optical audio out, which sounds amazing, mostly when piping these mp3s through Dolby Pro Logic II. Couldn't ask for more.
Being able to pick which songs you want without having to go sit in front of a computer is a nice thing as well. I've programmed in all the functions on the remote to my Pronto, so I can pick songs from the same device I switch television stations with, etc.
I'd definetly recommend grabbing the beta firmware, which gives you access to control your device via a web browser, access to shoutcast streams, and much more.
The developers listen as well. There is a very active mailing list and also a great forum to learn more about this stuff.
Best thing is - Best Buy had these devices on clearance for a few months, and may still be doing this - letting them go for $149. I'm guessing the complexity of a home network was a bit too much for the average Best Buy shopper, dunno.
I love my Audiotron. I'd love to see a portable jam-box-like device with 802.11b support.. (slobber)
sigs suck.