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Yamaha MusicCAST Wireless PCM/MP3 Server

Posted by michael on from the generous-santa dept.

HawKe7 writes "Wireless MP3 in your home? You betcha! Audioholics recently reviewed Yamaha's new MusicCAST Digital Music Server. The MusicCAST can store your entire CD collection in PCM/MP3 formats and stream it wirelessly to clients stationed throughout your home (track, genre and artist info are provided automatically via on-board Gracenote CDDB). Use your imagination... wireless audio throughout the home from a centralized server, digital PCM storage of your entire CD collection, creation of customized playlist CDs with the included CD-R drive... lots of valid uses for this type of tech. The unit is apparently a solid performer (not to mention a FAST CD ripper - just under 5 minutes), with excellent MP3 and PCM audio playback and compatibility with existing 802.11b networks. Though the unit is priced out of reach for some with an MSRP of $2800, it is an impressive system for those who want the latest and the best."

23 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. More fun for half the price... by KFury · · Score: 5, Informative

    An iBook can do all that for half the price (including the airport card and HD upgrade to 80gigs).

    It's less than a fifth the size, and comes with its own VGA so you can use the TV as the display.

    Of course, you can also use it for other stuff, but heck, if you want to do other stuff, buy a second one.

    --

    Kevin Fox
    1. Re:More fun for half the price... by imsabbel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Believe me, in the audio rack both would look like shit.

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
  2. The two Cons are just too big by Polly_was_a_cracker · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cons: Pricey CD burning only works with more expensive audio CD-Rs, not data CD-Rs I figure for that wad of cash it should be able to burn a cd onto small paper plate.

    --
    I have a Cig, but do you have a light?
    1. Re:The two Cons are just too big by shog9 · · Score: 2, Informative

      No... there are actual CD-Rs sold specifically for consumer devices to write redbook audio to. They are more expensive for no good reason. See also: Canada's CD piracy tax...

  3. FLAC/etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why not use a lossless codec instead of raw PCM? There are several free ones available, including FLAC - which is the most open format.

  4. Redundant? by pete-classic · · Score: 2, Informative

    Please enlighten me if I am wrong, but isn't "digital PCM" redundant?

    -Peter

  5. $2800? by localghost · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This costs way too much. Hardware for a system like this would run you up to maybe $1200, since you're getting lots of storage and a top of the line sound card, but you don't need a display or a graphics card or anything like that. Then add in software to run an audio streaming app (free), software to run a networked filesystem (free), and software to control it remotely, both over 802.11b and IrDA (free, but proprietary IrDA software might work better). No way this would cost $2800. Nice idea, though. If I had enough money to spare, I might consider building a system like this myself. No way I'd pay $2800 for one, though.

    1. Re:$2800? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This costs way too much.

      Yes, it does. But this is merely on of the first of it's kind.

      How much were VCR's when they frst came out? $1000. Today, $50.
      Calculators? $120. Today? Mostly free.

      10 years ago, how much would you have paid for 100GB of hard drive space?

      Give it time. It'll come down.

    2. Re:$2800? by imsabbel · · Score: 2

      I know people who spend more for their wires of their hifi system.

      Power cable? Oxygen free copper, shielded, 100$/m
      spdif cable? Must be high-end, because the bits must be "warm" and "round", not "fuzzy" or "edgy". 350$/m.
      spikes for the speakers? Hand make, 50$ apice...

      There are enough people who would look at you in digust if you tell them that another solution would be cheaper. Simply because they want things to be expensive...

      IMHO 99% of this people just overcompensate the limitations of their ears. "if its expensive it must be better even if i cant really hear it". It really sucks that much people who can afford high end equipment dont hear anything above 14-16 kHz simply because of their age...

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
    3. Re:$2800? by RollingThunder · · Score: 2

      That just goes to show how ignorant they are.

      Everyone knows that your penis length is based on an amalgam of your CPU clock speed, memory size, and disk space. Duh.

    4. Re:$2800? by sunspot42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How much were VCR's when they frst came out? $1000. Today, $50.
      Calculators? $120. Today? Mostly free.

      Yeah, but this Yamaha gadget *isn't* the first of its kind. People have been streaming audio using a PC or Mac as a server for several years now. Apple already has a PORTABLE music server that better-leverages the power of the average home PC. Yamaha's simply selling a dedicated, stripped-down, undersized (80GB is a joke) audio server for a whopping $2200. It's a rip-off.

      For $2200, you could buy one of those new desk lamp iMacs and a 300 gigabyte external Firewire hard drive, and rip a sizeable CD library *uncompressed* to your drive, using the iMac as your "dedicated" audio server. And the iMac has its own silent LCD display - you don't have to use a noisy, power-sucking television as your display. There are wireless USB remotes available as well, and most Mac media rippers/players are simple to use. In fact, they look simpler than Yamaha's solution, yet they have greater flexibility. For example, an iMac CD burner won't force you to use the more expensive "audio" CD's, the way Yamaha's audio "server" does.

      Of course, if you already have a PC, devices like the cd3o make even more sense, at 1/10th the price of Yamaha's gadget.

      Dedicated *storage* devices like this aren't going to make it in the marketplace - too many disparate interfaces to use, too much proprietary crap, too difficult to update the software to keep up with changing standards, and too much media is starting to flow into the home through the PC (mp3's, Divx video, and now iTunes purchases). Home media libraries are exploding in size - 80GB isn't going to cut it. The future belongs to simple client devices that harness the growing storage and processing power of the average desktop PC, making it easy to access your media in other locations in (and out) of your home. The iPod is a good example of the "out of your home" variety, a client when connected to your PC, a server when you're on the go. The cd3o, SliMP3 and AudioTron are good examples of the "around your home" variety. I'm sure a Tivo-like device is coming soon for video too, now that home wireless bandwidth is sufficient to support compressed a/v streams. Yamaha is *way* behind the curve on this one.

  6. Competition by poptones · · Score: 4, Interesting
    If there is ANY market for this type of thing, unemployed geeks across the nation need to head down to the local hifi hut and make their presence known. For $2800 I would come to someone's home, setup a mini PC that could do all of this (more efficiently, too, using shns or apes), and even throw in an extra mini system for the bedroom.

    $2800 is a LOT of money for something so limited in functionality. And Yamaha can't compete with 1:1 personalized service. $1000 for hardware and $1500 profit on an afternoon of work seems like a decent business opportunity to me.

    1. Re:Competition by dspyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're forgetting that the average Joe will be able to take the Yamaha system out of the box, plug it in, and be listening to music this year. (quote Apple: There is no step 3)

      Your solution we'll be sitting around waiting for the software packages to finish the last 3% of functionality (in the meantime, their skins engine will work just fine)... not to mention what will happen when the whole thing crashes :)

      I love Linux, but when it comes to reliable, easy-to-install, works every time, doesn't require a degree in programming, there's something to be said about paying money for a prepackaged working solution with support and a warranty.

      Nobody has yet to show me a MythTV solution that is half as clean and reliable as a Tivo or UltimateTV and doesn't sound like a jet engine inside a beige box

      --D

      p.s. "Linux is only free if your time has no value"

      p.p.s. Let the troll mods flow in, I got karma to burn!

  7. Yep by RightInTheNeck · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm going to wait till one of my friends get one of these things, then I'm going to build some type of deal that lets me break into the freq with a Mr. Microphone and sit outside his house around 3am.

    "Brian this is GOD. Quit playing with yourself"

    Brian : "It is GOD!"

  8. Analog Recording? by gamartin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why do none of these digital music appliances offer capabilities for analog recording? The PC is a noisy electrical environment and trying to record high-quality audio with a sound card gives poor quality. Why don't these appliances offer high-quality A/D for creating digital content for later streaming (radio, records, TV, etc)? Sounds really useful to me, and none of them do it.

  9. Or... by vjmurphy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Buy a couple of SliMP3s and a couple of Linksys Ethernet Bridges, and avoid lost time spent reburning your CD collection. Oh, and save $2400 bucks.

    --
    Vincent J. Murphy
    Spandex Justice
  10. Wow by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I didn't know that my old laptop with a decent hard drive and a wireless router was worth $2800!

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  11. Re:Why not just build an FM transmitter? by Cloud+9 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Uhm... because FM transmitters sound like garbage?

    Flame on.

    --
    Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
  12. This is not new by Jesrad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have been doing this with my 1999 iMac DV for some time now. Airport card + iTunes 4 + 45 GB HD holding all my music, it also doubles as a filesharing server, WiFi router, and webserver (and many more uncommon usages, too). For a total price of half the $2800 of the Yamaha gizmo.

    I agree, though, that my music is digitalized as 192 kbps MP3, not PCM.

    --
    Maybe we deserve this world ?
  13. Not that expensive by DOsinga · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It seems a lot for a computer playing mp3s. But if you compare it to what most multi-room stereo systems cost, it is quite ok. We seem to be heading towards a situation where specific devices with limited capabilities are more expensive than pc's that do the same.

    - - - - - - - - - -
    sample my google hacks

  14. Prismiq by dpoolman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Check out Prismiq. Supports audio and video (lots of formats - yes divx). Its also extremely hackable, based on Linux - lots of support from the developers on how to hack it, including publishing the communication protocol between the server software and the hardware device.

  15. at $2800 by penguin7of9 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it should include a substantial collection of pre-ripped CDs. You know, the "all classical" MP3 collection or the "all Jazz" MP3 collection.

  16. What a rip-off by sunspot42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why would anyone with a PC buy one of these spendy Yamaha units when they could buy something like this for $200 and use their computer as a massive MP3 server? It's wireless, supports playlists, and doesn't even require a display (which is a huge plus - who wants to hear the whine of a television set while they're trying to listen to music?).