what media center?

[admin_exported]

what media center??

can anyone help? l am looking to purchase a media center, on to which i can download a number of cd's, mp3s etcetc and also playback dvd. the main focus here is to then run this through 2.1 'surround' in conjunction with my bravia lcd, my main aim is to get excellent hi fi quality playback for my sounds.....

ideally, i am looking for both media center and 2.1 system, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, my budget is up to £2.5k

ta

 

[Anonymous]

You can get an awful load of kit for that money. You want a Media Centre PC and a 2.1 system?

 

[Anonymous]

I am looking really for mainly cd storage/playback, and also dvd (upscaling) playback with 2.1 speaker set up for that money. i really want as good an acoustic experience as possible, and am looking to 'retire' my old hifi seperates. the arcam server is out of my price range (esp when you include speakers), and other than bose gsx, cant seem to find anything that stores and serves cd/dvd. other boxes such as the denon s302 dont have storage....any suggestions welcome

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there, have you looked at our range of product, we make Hi Fi quality media centers specfically for the audiophile market, We are called Passive Technologies, check out our website www.passivetechnologies.com

 

[Anonymous]

thanks simon,

looks vgood, havent seen or heard of these before.....will have a good look at the site and try for a demo somewhere in london. could you let me know the rrp for the base model and also, what (2.1)speaker set up you would put with these???
thanks for your response....

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="fergs"]
what media center??

can anyone help?
[/quote]
Same topic was discussed some time ago. Read the following thread: "Media pcs as music servers". Good luck!

 

[BreatheEasy]

I'm looking at this myself in a similar vein - have a look at the TViX range - they are basically PVRs that'll handle HD output - they have a HDMI output on the top models and will play many video and audio formats.

http://www.kjglobal.co.uk/acatalog/TVIX_M5100.html
http://www.kjglobal.co.uk/acatalog/TVIX_M4100.html

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, have you had a listen or viewed any of the output? Primarily, the mc will be for music playback and secondly for film/dvd...?

 

[Anonymous]

hi mate, dont waste your time buying a media pc, build your own. i have a fully silent fanless media center that feeds my sony bravia and standmounts and sub. if you want the best quality sound from your media pc use a lynx l22 soundcard (its good enough to feed my 2500 pound 2.1 system as my main cd player!) a company called hfx supply the cases for www.passivetechnologies.com and if you go to www.hifiatx.com you can see all there passive cases. the best possible graphics card for dvd and hd-dvd or blu ray playback is the 8600gts. i havent seen a dvd player, hd-dvd or blu ray player that beats it. avoid vista like the plague and pick up a copy of pure video hd and windows media center. i also use a external 7 inch lcd touch screen with my media center when i want to control my music with out turning on my tv. www.kustompcs.co.uk can supply you with all of the above (except the sound card) at stupid low prices, thats where i bought all my stuff. there really helpful too since there only a small buisness.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks, great reply, what do you think the cost/build time would be for a novice like myself? what extra tooling would i need to build this eg. soldering iron etc?

i have to say simon at passivetechnologies has been vhelpful, and am considering a trip up there for a listen.

by the way, what speakers and amp are you teaming the mc with, i currently run an old (but good) nad amp, with 'big box' jpw speakers (that i am looking to downsize), ideally i am after some front speakers that can give a 'spatial and detailed' effect, with a relatively low profile woofer, any thoughts??

thanks again

 

[Anonymous]

this is pretty much my exact pc

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds)

REF
DESCRIPTION
QUANTITY
PRICE
COST
REMOVE

1276
mCubed HFX Chassis Silver / Black (Bare)

£205.11
£205.11

1776
Silverstone ST30NF PSU

£68.94
£68.94

1277
iMon Kit for HFX Mini Case

£51.91
£51.91

1278
BorgFX CPU classic - Heatpipe Processor Cooler

£51.06
£51.06

1281
BorgFX VGA - Heatpipe GPU Cooler

£44.25
£44.25

1312
BorgFX Extension - Heatpipe Extension Set

£29.78
£29.78

3856
mCubed Vertical Silence Drive Bay v2

£20.43
£20.43

5390
Asus GF8600GT Fan Cooled PCI-E 256Mb Graphics Card

£61.27
£61.27

6255
Seagate 750Gb Barracuda NCQ 7200.11

£109.78
£109.78

99525
Asus P5E3 Deluxe / 2Gb GSkill DDR3 Bundle *Sale*

£260.00
£260.00

4238
LG Electronics GGC-H20L HD-DVD / BD-ROM

£143.83
£143.83

5641
Intel Core 2 DUO E6550 775 2.33Ghz CPU
1
£92.77
£92.77

6019
Thermaltake A2413-01 7" Motorised TFT

£146.38
£146.38

Subtotal
£1,285.51

VAT
£224.95

Total
£1,510.46

Shopping Cart Items: 1

Remove

Description

Qty.

Unit Price

Total

Lynx L22 PCI Card

£595.00
£595.00

Product Cost
£595.00

i have seen the lynx card on ebay for a 199 pound and thats a silly low price! i really recomend you pick it up while you can the link is http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lynx-L22-24-bit-192kHz-Digital-Audio-Card_W0QQitemZ150179441163QQihZ005QQcategoryZ123445QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118

for less than two grand you can build a media pc that will beat anything you can buy ready made, and at half the price!

i use a pair of monitor audio gs10 with partington dreadnought stands linked to my musical fidelity x150 with qed silver genesis biwire and a rel stamped as my sub. the media pc sounded so good i sold my densen 400plus worth 1400 pound since the pc sounded better! if youve built a pc before you should have no problem with building it except that the heat pipes can be a bit tricky at times. i built mine in a few hours and it runs perfectly ( as well as a pc can run ). also if your really anal like me it is completely silent since it has no fans at all!