Friday, September 14, 2007

Burmester Introduces Reference Line CD Player

Belt-Driven, 190-Pound 069 CD Player Features 96 and 192 kHz Sample Rate Conversion, Fully Balanced DACS, Oversize External Power Supply and No-Compromise Build Quality for Impeccable Performance

Burmester USA, a division of Burmester Audiosysteme, Germany’s leading manufacturer of high-performance electronics and speakers, introduces the 069 Reference Line CD Player, representing the state of the art in musicality and natural sound reproduction, at CEDIA EXPO ‘07.

The 069 CD Player is an elegant, cutting-edge digital playback system created for connoisseurs of musical performance and sophisticated product design. As the successor of the legendary 969/970 CD Drive/DAC Combo, it achieves its superb performance partly by using a proprietary belt drive built completely in-house (instead of the off-the-shelf direct-drive other manufacturers commonly use), and by completely de-coupling the drive unit mechanically and electrically to insulate the reading process from all external interference. This also allows the 069 CD Player to better capture those small parts of the signal that the human ear translates as spatial image, focus and musical accuracy.

The belt drive is hand-made at the Burmester factory in Berlin. The drive unit rests in the massive double-chamber housing in a solid aluminum capsule block to further isolate it from mechanical and acoustic interference, such as footfalls and sound waves from nearby speakers. To isolate the drive still more, the 069 CD Player’s spiked feet may be set directly on the unit’s proprietary aluminum base (supplied as standard with the unit), using special carbon-fiber spring pucks to isolate them from footfalls.

The 069 CD Player also boasts newly developed and highly precise 96 and 192-kHz oscillators with minimal phase noise and high thermal stability. The oscillators also function as the system’s clock, and as a low-jitter clock for the Sample Rate Converter and DACs. These efforts result in perfect digital replication of the analog wave shape.

The 069 CD Player’s exceptional build quality includes a sophisticated belt-drive CD mechanism built entirely in-house by Burmester utilizing the best available micro optics. The belt-drive unit ensures the CD’s correct rotation at all points. A 4-mm thick spindle — rotating friction-free on a polished sapphire in a precision bearing with a tolerance less then one three-thousands of a millimeter — enables the 069 to read each CD perfectly. No reading errors need to be found, measured and corrected.

The unique external power supply houses oversized and separate 50-watt toroid transformers for both the digital and analog sections, and a central stabilized distribution system with a special DC filter for mutual de-coupling.

The 069 CD Player’s connection panel includes balanced outputs (switchable between fixed or variable), two unbalanced outputs, two unbalanced digital RCA outputs with 75-ohm impedance, and a Toslink optical digital output. AES-EBU and ST (AT&T) Digital outputs are planned to follow as an optional module in 2008. The digital inputs process all incoming signals with the selected sample rate conversion. A remote control is supplied as standard.

The 069 CD Player can be optionally equipped with the newest version of Burmester’s BurLink interface, which features RS-232 and USB2.0 ports. It’s ideal for integration with home automation systems, such as those from Crestron, AMX and other manufacturers.

Burmester’s new 069 Reference Line CD Player will be available in October in a silver housing with a chrome front panel at a suggested price of $49,995. It is also available as an option with a black anodized chassis and in other finishes. It can be seen with the company’s other outstanding products at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown, 1400 Welton Street (2 blocks from the Colorado Convention Center), during CEDIA EXPO.


http://www.cepro.com/article/burmester_introduces_reference_line_cd_player/K3

How to Transform a CD-ROM Drive into a Car CD Player

To be used as CD player, the CD-ROM drive doesn't need to be connected to the computer. This way, it is possible to easily transform a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. Sounds crazy? Not so. With this tutorial you will be able to have a CD player in your car without spending almost anything.

The CD-ROM drive to be use may be of any type, from the first models ("1x") until the most modern ones ("60x"). The only prerequisite is that the drive needs to have is an earphone plug and volume control. And practically all CD-ROM drives have that.

There are two great advantages in transforming a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. First, who will want to break your car window to take CD-ROM drive? And, secondly, since any type of CD-ROM drive can be used, you may take an old drive that is just dusting away in your house (for instance, a 2x drive from an old 386 computer), which brings the cost down to almost nothing.

To install a CD-ROM drive in the car, you will need a female power plug, to be used to fit into CD-ROM drive power plug (that plug can be cut from an old power supply) and a voltage regulating integrated circuit called 7805, that may be easily found at electronic parts stores. You will also have to buy a heat dissipator for the 7805 (sold at the same store).

The car battery is a 12 V one, but the CD-ROM drive needs two voltages to work: 12 V and 5 V. The 7805 circuit is able to convert a 12 V voltage into 5 V (its pin 1 is for the input, its pin 2 is the grounding, and its pin 3 is the 5 V exit). Figure 1 shows the plan for the connection. The grounding pin should be connected to the wires of the plug grounding and the negative pole of the car battery, what is done by simply connecting that pin to the metallic body of the car.


CD-ROM adaptor

Figure 1: CD-ROM adaptor schematics.

All you have to do is to make the connections shown in the above schematics (don't forget to isolate all connections with insulating tape) and you are set: you will have a CD-ROM drive working as CD player in your car.

The audio output will be made using the earphone plug. To listen to a CD, you will have to use earphones. To have the sound come through the speakers of the car, you will have to buy an amplifier with RCA inputs and a stereo P2 (mini jack) x stereo RCA cable (the same type of cable used to connect Discman units to amplifiers). The stereo P2 plug (also known as mini jack), which is the one used for the earphones, should be fit at the earphone output of the CD-ROM drive, while the RCA plugs should be fit at the input of the amplifier. The volume control will be made using the volume control in the CD-ROM drive.

A last warning: in most CD-ROM drives, the reproduction button (play) and the advance button (skip) are on the same key. In other words, to skip a track, all you have to do is to press the play button.


http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/71

Check out this TriPort CD player

If Michael Schumacher is 'the Man' for F1 fans or Big B is 'the Messiah' of millions, Bose music systems are 'the One' for music fanatics. And I am sure that any music lover will vouch for the quality of acoustics Bose delivers.

The Bose TriPort CD player, which I would say is bundled free with Bose headphones (binaural ear-cup type), is worth its cost. The headphones come with the 'just right' clarity of treble and a depth of bass and the end result - a very balanced pristine sound.

Most of us start listening to music when we're young, zero down on a genre(s) that speaks to you on a level that no other music does and inspires you move to the beat of your own music. Listening to music is a religious duty for many, including me. And here the most important part is the sound quality that only a good pair of headphone can give you.

With any other cheap set of earphones, I have always had to crank the volume up all the way and they would still distort the output. And so it was the sound quality of the Bose that sold me. They worked great on MP3 and personal CD players as well as home stereos, but I loved using them with my computer (where I store my treasure of 20GB of solid music).

On songs that carry more bass, for instance hip hop, I thought that there must be a subwoofer somewhere in the room. In classical and jazz pieces, I felt like I was in a concert hall with musicians. I've managed to see a few DVDs with these headphones on and was not disappointed.

Bose has built quite a reputation for its audio magic since they started in 1964. It's now taken for granted that when you purchase a product from Bose, you're not just purchasing a set of headphones or a radio, you're purchasing their years of research and design that come across as an advanced blend of components and technology. I have seen people who believe that Bose systems add character to vocal delivery.

Another nice aspect I found was the ergonomic design of the headsets, which keeps them remarkably comfortable and lightweight - they only weigh five ounces! The soft cushions gently enfold ears for hours of comfortable listening and the slim headband is fully adjustable.

The cushioned ear cups seal out sound, exploiting the spatial representation of sound. Which means that during intense listening sessions, home studio use, private late night jam sessions, and those times when you just want to focus on the music, they are your best friend.

Moving from headphones to the CD player, there's actually not much to talk about. It's a normal MP3 player. It has top loading, shock proof memory, and an LCD display. The best part is that it has an option to 'Add to my mix' which lets you select songs and add it in a separate directory.

This way you don't have to listen to a list of songs before zeroing in on your favourite one when you play the CD. The sales package comes with a carrying case and a headset cord extension (helps while connecting to PC)
Overall, it boasts of a great visual appeal with slick-looking design and high-tech finishes and at Rs 11,999 I think it's an aural treat.


http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/07cd.htm

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Audio Sermons

Living a fast-track life style today, people need a lot of spiritual guidance to lead peaceful lives. As people’s lives become increasingly digitally-oriented, they are left with increasingly less time to spend on daily morning walks, weekend outings and places of worship. There is a remedy, in the form of audio sermons that can be listened to anywhere.

Today, many people don’t have time to go to church to listen to a sermon. It is all right there in his home. What he needs is just to press a button in his CD player or click the mouse of his PC to access an audio sermon. Let’s see a few technical tips as to how audio sermons can be used.

Not long ago, audio sermons were available in standard CDs that contain nearly 75 minutes and 650 Mb of audio content. But today, they come in compressed audio formats. In compressed formats, it possible to fit much more content than on a standard format. Today the most popular compressed audio format is a system known as MP3 and it has replaced the MPEG. MP3 is most effective format for storing and listening to music on the internet. With several ministries utilizing the World Wide Web to deliver sermons and other relevant spoken content, MP3 CDs can be played on any computer that has a CD drive and a media player program installed in the system. They can also be played on standard CD and home DVD players if the product brochure states that they are MP3-compatible.

Though hearing the Word of God in a place of worship is certainly more enriching, audio sermons are very useful, as they can be used even while doing work. As one listens to the audio, it is easy to think about God.

Sermons provides detailed information about sermons, expository sermons, free sermons and more. Sermons is affiliated with Christian Dating.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Audio-Sermons&id=130485

Download Music To Zune

Just got your Zune player and wondered how to download music to Zune. Well, it is actually pretty easy particularly if you already own other types of mp3 players such as the iPod.

To download music to Zune is pretty similar to the iPod. However instead of using itunes software, we use the windows media player. If you want to rip CD and download music to your Zune, all you need to do is place your CD into your computer. Open windows media player. Select Your CD and a list of songs should appear.

Select the songs you want and click on the Rip button or you can right-click and the option should appear. The ripped songs should appear in your windows media player library. Next, plug in your Zune via the USB cable. By default settings, the Zune player will automatically synchronize with the media library and download all songs to the Zune player.

If it does not synchronize properly, you may need to manually copy the music files to the Zune player. It will show up usually as a removable drive on your computer. Usually it is E drive but will depend on your computer configuration.

Do note that the Zune player only plays windows media player supported formats such as WMA, WMV, MP3, MP4 and MOV. It will not support RM (Realmedia) or DIVX format so make sure you select the correct music format when ripping CD.

The other way to download music to your Zune player is to purchase it from a web store. Examples are itunes and Napster. Microsoft has also set a Zune marketplace where there are more than 2 million soundtracks you can purchase and download. The prices ranges from $0.99 to $2.49 each.

There is another option if you plan to download music to Zune which is to join a paid Zune membership site. These websites have millions of soundtracks for you to download all for a one time charge or a one year period. It is definitely more cost effective and cheaper in the long run.

As you can see, it is not difficult to download music to your Zune player. All you need to do is click a few buttons and synchronize and it’s done.

Discover the best Zune download site recommended by Ricky Lim. Click here to find out.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Download-Music-To-Zune&id=442758

How Do MP3 Players Work? Digital Audio Technology Revolutionizes Music Enjoyment

Millions have enjoyed recorded music since 1877 when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Then came radio, records, tapes and CD's. But today's digital audio players are a quantum leap forward in music technology. To understand what makes these music players so revolutionary, let's explore the question, "How do mp3 players work?"

Until recently listening to music recordings involved mechanically moving the media past an interface to pick up an analog signal called a wave-form. This signal of vibrations was amplified and sent to the speakers where we heard it as sounds. When digitized, the wave-form becomes a WAV file. It's a major improvement, but the file is very large and a CD disc is limited to about 80 minutes of music.

So What is an iPod, and How does an iPod work?

Apple's iPod is the best known mp3 player. In answer to the question, How do iPods work, the next two paragraphs really describe how all portable digital music players function.

Software converts the music to a small digital file, usually WAV to mp3, using a codec like MP3 or WMA. The codec compresses the file by discarding sounds inaudible to the human ear. The digital file is stored in the mp3 player's flash or micro-drive memory. Because the file is so small, a player no larger than a deck of cards can hold up to thousands of songs.

For play-back the mp3 player executes several functions. Embedded software reads the file, decompresses the encoding, converts it back to analog, amplifies the signal and sends it to the headphones. And voilá, we have crystal clear sound without the annoying cracks, pops and hisses particularly common to records and tapes.

How We Do MP3 (Player Types, Functions & Features)

Even with a seemingly never-ending stream of new products, there are basically three types of audio devices that work well for audio CD duplication in a portable personal player.

1. Flash Players - the smallest, least expensive, and most reliable. Using solid state memory with embedded software, they have no moving parts, so batteries last longer and skips are eliminated. They have limited memory, but will still hold dozens of songs. Most players have search, shuffle, repeat and other popular features.

2. Micro-Drive Players - the tiny hard drives in these mp3 players have up to 60GB of memory and will hold thousands of tunes. Some also store and display photos. Anti-skip technology helps, but shock or vibration can still cause skips. They typically have more functions and features than flash players.

3. CD MP3 Players - the new generation of portable CD players. Using formats like mp3, WMA and ATRAC, they play (some also burn) CD's that hold 10 to 45 hours of music per disc. They play standard and/or 3" MiniDisc CD's. Standard CD sized units cost less than most mp3 players. MiniDisc player prices are higher but they hold the most music, and they're about the same size as a micro-drive mp3 player. Most play both pre-recorded and CD-R/RW discs. Features are similar to the other players.

For more information, see Compare MP3 Players

MP3 players information from A to Z: player types & features, how they work, accessories,comparisons and more - plus free music download tips and info at A-Z MP3 Players.com, Your Complete A-Z Resource for MP3 Players, Accessories and Information.

This article may be re-printed in its entirety, with no changes and this resource box included. © 2005 http://www.a-z-mp3-players.com All rights reserved


http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Do-MP3-Players-Work?-Digital-Audio-Technology-Revolutionizes-Music-Enjoyment&id=60853

Country Music CDs

Undoubtedly, music CDs are one of the most popular ways to record and listen to the country music. New technology has made it very affordable to own a CD player and most avid music fans wouldn’t be caught dead without one. Listening to your favorite country music CD has never been easier or more affordable. You can go to any music store or online music site and order all of your favorite country music.

Unfortunately, CD sales for country music and other forms of music have run into serious problems in the last few years because of piracy. As a matter of fact, in the last three years, the International Federation of Phonography Industry (FPI) reported that every CD that is sold is a pirate copy. The federation has reported that every third CD sold is a pirate copy.

Piracy has made the country music CD sales business more competitive, because if people are going to buy CDs, the prices have to be reasonable enough afford them. It’s seems this is the case, as you can find great deals on Country Music CDs including sets like Time Warners, Classic Country: Great Story Songs for $199. This is an incredible buy considering you are purchasing 30 classic songs on 17 CDs, sung by country and western all time favorite singers.

There are hundreds of online music stores where you will find country and western CDs featuring all of your favorite singers. They usually offer special free shipping if you spend over $25, and they also usually run special daily deals. Many sights also offer you the opportunity to download your favorite music for as little as $.75 a song. Some popular CDs sold on site like www.amazon.com and www.buy.com include Johnny Cash, Man in black; Tim McGraw’s Greatest Hits; Faith Hill, Fireflies; and Merle Haggard, Live From Austin.

Country Music provides detailed information on Country Music, Country Music Lyrics, Country Music CDs, Country Music Videoes and more. Country Music is affiliated with Classical Music Downloads.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Country-Music-CDs&id=271922