Hi,

I've been using my empeg hooked up to my home stereo to play music for parties. It is okay, but needing a laptop to easily search for tracks and insert into the playlist isn't alway practicle. This could be helped by getting a hub and moving the laptop near the bar or something (instead of using my 10ft. crossover cable) but another concern is heat. Finally, aside from it not always convenient to plug it in my stereo rack, the sound level from the empeg isn't that strong so my amp is cranked and gets HOT.

Building a home dock for the empeg seems like too much work for my limited skills and considering that extra sleds are not available, this could be a daunting task.

So I've been looking at getting something "else" for home use. It would also serve as a backup for my mp3's. The Jupitor, or HSX-109 or whateveritscalledthisweek is nice, but the drives are too small (fixable) and it is a wee bit expensive. Also, I don't need ripping or burning built in (hint, come out with a model with fewer features to broaden the product range?).

Getting a bare bones system or used PC seems like a good option. I certainly wouldn't want it in my stereo rack, so I was looking at getting something like a RioReciever. I have to admit that I'm a little confused about how it works... I heard that the empeg can't supply a RioReciever because it would require too much memory. I have also read in an ad that the Rio can run off of Winamp or MusicMatch or other popular mp3 players.... I don't get this! Does this mean that the RioReceiver is just a terminal and doesn't do any decoding of mp3's? So it doesn't stream data, it just pulls decoded audio from the PC? I'm confused. So that would mean you can't build playlists like with emplode? Instead you can only play m3u files created with another program? I guess that wouldn't be too big of a limitiation in itself, but I really get the feeling that I'm just not getting it...

I'm not crazy about using the little display either.. Is there a way to get a notebook hooked up the receiver? This would mean needing 3 "boxes" to use this thing..

What are other options out there? Does anyone know of any good reviews of the reciever that wasn't writen by someone at Slashdot?

Short answer: get a Receiver. "Trust me."

Long answer: The Rio Receiver is, essentially, a simple little computer that pulls audio files off a server and plays 'em, either through a line out or through its own amplifier into speakers.

The client end has a decent interface (though not without its shortcomings), letting you select music by artist, album, title, or genre, or by playlists you set up. It receives MP3 or WMA data and does the decoding locally.

The server end is either pretty bare bones but solid (the supplied windows server simply finds and indexes your music for you, then provides a query engine for the receiver to hit) or very full-featured but somewhat tempermental (the JRec project, which allows you to create dynamic playlists, like "select where title like "%christmas%" or "songs added this week").

Get a decent computer (an old 400 mhz box would probably work just fine), and slap in a nice disk drive (preferably, two, one for music and a small one for the OS, so you don't trash your music when next you upgrade). Install windows or linux, copy your music in, and install one of the servers. If using JRec (either windows or linux), you'll need to worry about a database and things like DHCP and NFS, but once those are set up, you can forget they exist. If using the stock player (windows only), it's all "Magic."

Once you get the server software installed and running, plug the Rio into your network. You *do* have a network, right? If not, the Rio brand (not Dell brand) comes with an HPNA card and you can run it over your phone lines. Turn it on, it'll find the server, download its software, then in just four clicks and one twist, you can have music playing. It's that simple.

With the windows server (I believe, I've always used the Linux ones), you can use any regular playlist editor to make playlists (like "Party Mix" or whatever), and the server will make them available right on your box. So you configure it in the back room, but use it from the bar.

Does this help? Read around on the board here, and I'm sure you'll get a better feel for what it does and how it works...


david.

Thanks David! I also checked out your site for some more info... I think my first task will be finding a bare bones system to do this off of... and hopefully a nice "sync to pc" option will become available through emplode soon. hhm....

So what was this talk of being able to use mp3 aps like Winamp that I swear I saw in early marketing? What functionality would I get by using a notebook to interface with this thing (say from across the room)?

So no other RioReciever fans here?

I like the Receiver and it's a good product.

However, if you need a notebook to DJ-select tunes on the empeg-car player, then the Rio Receiver will not be any better in that respect. The Receiver's user interface very scaled back and simplified compared to the empeg-car. There is no option to insert tunes into the current running order, for example.

For me, I think the Receiver is fantastic and I love it. However I am not a deejay and I do not use it to individually select tunes. I queue up a shuffled playlist and then just let it run for hours. Occasionally I might turn off shuffle and select an individual album or song. That's about it, nothing else fancy.

Since you seem to like using your notebook to select tunes, I have to ask: Why don't you just play the tunes from your notebook?

So what was this talk of being able to use mp3 aps like Winamp that I swear I saw in early marketing?

Well the server software can import MusicMatch playlists, perhaps that what you saw ?

What functionality would I get by using a notebook to interface with this thing (say from across the room)?

Nothing out of the box, however Frank has create a version of DisplayServer for the Receiver which you can use to control the Receiver remotely.

So no other RioReciever fans here?

I'm a fan, though it is not a perfect product by any means, the main issues being:

- the screen is nearly impossible to read more than a couple of inches away
- the server software is a little limited (addressable by using jrec)
- the software on the Receiver itself could do with gaining some advanced features from the car player (like the dynamic playlist append/insert/replace menu for a start)

Why don't you just play the tunes from your notebook?

Laptops generally have dire soundcards...

Why don't you just play the tunes from your notebook?

Laptops generally have dire soundcards...

/me misses his laptop with a 5.1 compliant sound card, complete with an digital optical out

Perhaps the Laptop disk is not that big, and currently the only place the MP2's are stored is the Empeg ?

Since you seem to like using your notebook to select tunes, I have to ask: Why don't you just play the tunes from your notebook?

Everybody beat me to it! The reasons are that my notebook only has a 10gb drive, the mp3's are only stored on the empeg, and I'm looking for something with even better sound quality than the empeg on AC power.

Basically, I NEED to backup my mp3's. I was looking at an external FireWire or USB2.0 drive, and someone said "for a little more $, you can get a bare bones or used PC. Then it will not only backup your mp3's but you can maybe use it to rip (save wear and tear on the notebook) and serve something in your stereo rack."

That Turtle Beach thing looks kinda cool, but I guess I will just take my time on this...

> That Turtle Beach thing looks kinda cool, but I guess
> I will just take my time on this...

The big problem with the Audiotron is that the "list smarts" all reside locally, on the player. It works by, at bootup, asking around the network for anyone who might have MP3s on a given windows share. If it finds that, it scans the share, remembers what's in it, and builds an internal list of songs, albums, and the like. Lose power, lose your list. And if you've got a big music share, it'd probably take a long time to rebuild the list.

With the Rio, the list magic stays on the server. Basically, Rio decided on a simpler player with required extra software on the server, Turtle Beach built a smarter player that doesn't require adding anything to your server -- but with, as I opined above, disadvantages...

The other cool thing about the Audiotron -- much brighter (but simpler) display, and (I think) digital audio out (which isn't such a huge deal when you're talking about lossy-compressed audio, anyway, IMHO).

It does have TosLink out (optical) and a better display... AND a bigger price tag.

I sooooo wish that I knew that a Mk2 Rio Reciever was coming w. video out.

This post would have been better in the Receiver forum, and FWIW I did think I was posting it there initially!

I guess I am really warming up to the idea of the Reciever if I can get it for $99. Then I can simply use it in another room if something better comes along.