DesignTechnica Looks at the StreetFire RBX1600

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.designtechnica.com/firstlook66.html' target='_blank'>http://reviews.designtechnica.com/firstlook66.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The StreetFire RBX1600 home media device takes management of your music collection in a different direction. Instead of focusing on MP3s and video files, the developers at StreetFire Sound Labs have created a product which uses your PC, home network and a broadband connection to help manage your actual collection of CDs stored in up to four Sony MegaStorage CD changers. The RBX1600 is capable of managing up to 1600 audio CDs. It sits quietly in your home entertainment cabinet alongside your Sony MegaStorage CD changers, providing the ability to control your collection with customizable playback capabilities which can be set from any computer on your network."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/2004.10.04-RBX1600-3D_000.gif" /><br /><br />So from where I'm sitting this seems like fundamentally the wrong appraoch - digital music on physical CDs should become purely digital again...hence the popularity of CD ripping and file sharing. Keeping 1600 CDs in a massive CD changer? A waste of time. :roll:

[Lorddiagram]

Cd's aren't analog they are digital. I wouldn't buy one but it could be good for interfacing with a hi-fi system as it provides full fidelity.

lD

[Jason Dunn]

Cd's aren't analog they are digital. I wouldn't buy one but it could be good for interfacing with a hi-fi system as it provides full fidelity.

You're right, I meant to write "atom" :oops: - as in, a physical-based medium rather than a purely digital one.

[SassKwatch]

I actually thought it was a pretty interesting device....until I saw the price.

I just think this whole digital music craze is just SO overblown. A massive 400cd changer makes perfect sense to me in comparison to spending hours upon hours putting them all on digital media and then maintaining that media and backups thereof. It just amazes me how much time some people spend getting 8 gazillion songs on an iPOD.....and 15 minutes a day listening to them. :)

[Jason Dunn]

A massive 400cd changer makes perfect sense to me in comparison to spending hours upon hours putting them all on digital media and then maintaining that media and backups thereof.

Interesting. To me, having a 400 CD changer is as insane as printing out every email message you get to read it. The content on a CD is digital, therefor it should be digital - restricting it to a physical medium seems the opposite of how it should work. Mind you, I still burn CDs to get that music into my car, so I'm not COMPLETELY opposed to making digital media into physical media. :)

[SassKwatch]

To me, having a 400 CD changer is as insane as printing out every email message you get to read it.

But from my perspective, taking a 400 cd collection and recording them to a hd is *exactly* like printing out 300 emails to read them on paper. You're taking something in it's perfectly functional 'received' form and transferring it to another media. And in the case of recording cd's to the hd, it very well may be degrading the quality from the original, and in many cases will be listened to through a 'sound system' inferior to that which the big 400 cd changer would probably be attached. Granted, that latter is changing rapidly, but for most people today it's more the rule than the exception.

All of which isn't to say I never record anything to the hd. I do play dj occasionally, and record a few cd's to the hd and them burn 'em to cd to carry around in the car. And I'll be only too happy if/when the dust settles with all the DRM nonsense and downloadable music/movies become the norm rather than a 'renegade' activity. But for now, I'll stick with utilizing the media in the format in which it was originally received. And will be only too willing to admit mine is definitely the minority opinion in the world today. :)

[Jason Dunn]

You're taking something in it's perfectly functional 'received' form and transferring it to another media. And in the case of recording cd's to the hd, it very well may be degrading the quality from the original, and in many cases will be listened to through a 'sound system' inferior to that which the big 400 cd changer would probably be attached.

Hmm. The way I look at it is that the digital files give me more freedom and flexibiilty - once I rip a CD I can put that on my MP3 player, my Smartphone, my Pocket PC, listen to it through my TV sound system, etc. CDs seem so limiting to me... :-)