My digital audio system
I've put my 1999 IBM Aptiva 595 computer (128mb RAM, 600MHz CPU) into service as the main music source for my stereo system. I also have an Aiwa CX-NA888 bookshelf stereo (200 total watts, 50 wpcX4) which I am using almost strictly as an amplifier; the stereo has a very good amp section (graphic EQ and surround, et al.), so I figured--why not use it as the basis for a digital audio system? Most of my CDs are now ripped onto my hard drive (I have over four hundred songs on it at the moment, but I'm not done yet--I have about 20 more CDs to rip into the system). Also using Winamp 5.3 media player, skinned with the Kenwood Allora III skin. (I'd use 5.35 or even 5.5, but the former doesn't seem to work for ripping CDs and the latter will not run, period, on Windows 98SE, the OS I am currently using.) As I write this I'm listening to the Internet stream of WKSU-FM (
www.wksu.org), the classical music station of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, about 60 miles from Cleveland. WKSU is on 89.7 over the air if you're in the Kent/Akron area or 89.1 if you're in Lake County, although 89.7 comes in reasonably well in the Cleveland area. Eighty nine one is a translator station (known as WKSV) located in Thompson, Ohio, some 40 miles east of Cleveland; it brings WKSU to areas of Lake County that do not or cannot, for any reason, receive the station's direct signal.
I'm sold on the idea of using a PC as a digital music source. Almost any recent-vintage computer will run Winamp or most other media players (but only systems with XP or Vista can use WA 5.5), and the Internet streams of most classical and other FM stations mean there are no reception problems (I listen to stations hundreds or thousands of miles from here, as well as local stations, over their Web streams; the sound is great--I like it so well that I rarely if ever listen to over-the-air radio anymore).
Digital audio is here to stay, and I'm glad of it. I'm 51 years old and grew up with vinyl, cassettes and eight-tracks, but this is the age of CDs and mp3s; I am ready for it. I still have a cassette collection which I partially digitized some time ago, but I lost everything when my computer crashed a few months ago--so, here we go again with the ripping process. I have a Radio Shack SCT-11 stereo cassette deck with Dolby NR and CrO2 capability; it's over 30 years old but still works like a champ. I patched it into my stereo system when the built-in cassette decks went West a few months ago (my Aiwa system was new almost eight years ago and is, IMO, really not worth repairing anymore). The problem is likely as simple as broken or stretched belts, but as old as the system is, I'm not putting any more money into it. The local TV repair shop's techs agreed with me (that the unit was not worth repairing) when I had the system in to get an estimate for repairing the cassette decks; that's when I decided it was time to go digital. I'm glad I did.
Long live digital audio and AK!
I imagine that that kind of coding system would introduce compromises as well, but if not, then the limitation would be lower than what the .wav can depict. (Exploiting limitations in the .wav format.) That appears like other compression alogorithms, just further above the same much lower demonstrated percievable threshold.
