Hi,

It's been a while since I've been to the forums. I'm a several empeg/riocar, two karma, one pearl and single Rio Central owner who hasn't really used these products much in the last few years.

But I have stayed current in one esoteric semi-related tech...as I've been writing drivers for cd/dvd duplication robots in my spare time, including writing drivers for dbpoweramp's batch ripper software (on a volunteer basis).

I was wondering what other Rio Central users (anyone here? hello? thought about the new generation of CD-ripping NAS units, such as dbpoweramp's RipNAS ( http://www.ripnas.com/ ) on sale next week or Ripfactory's Ripserver ( http://www.ripfactory.com/ripserver.html ) which has been out for 6-12 months?

I know they would only be 1/2 of a replacement of a Rio Central, and you'd still need Sonos or Slim Devices type equipment to complete the loop.

...thoughts?

-brendan

Whoops, logged in using the wrong account (brendan instead of brendanhoar).

I've seen a few customers of RipFactory complaining about problems with the software. If RipNAS is as well implemented as dBPowerAmp then it should be excellent.

"High partner acceptance factor"? I don't think the Rio Central could really boast that!

It doesn't seem to do some of the neato stuff that Rio Central could -- all the things like playing the CD while ripping it, even allowing fast-forward and rewind. But actually I bet not one Central owner in 100 even knows it can do that (and that's assuming there are 100 owners). But for the task the RipNAS sets itself -- completely headless music serving, with no pretence that it can be used in a computer-less household -- it does seem to tick all the boxes: fanless, dual encode (FLAC+MP3), freedb+AMG, UPnP+DAAP. Unlike the Central (but like the Central would if we were doing it now) it fulfils for CDs my new mantra for home entertainment gear: terminate incoming signals to Ethernet at the boundary and let UPnP sort it all out. (Next they need to invent the FreeviewNAS.)

And naturally it strokes my Empeg pride just a little bit that they need a 1.6GHz Intel Atom and Windows Home Server to do in 2008 a fraction of what we did in 2002 on a 200MHz StrongARM and Linux.

Peter

Oh, and while I am over here, I figure I might as well explain what I meant about the robots with* a video of my "alpha" level robotic drivers running with an alpha release of the batch ripper ("filmed" last october):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YYfQiV9OQA

Off-topic apologies.

-brendan

* read that as: "...might as well show off with..."

...with no DMA, all programmed I/O. And a bandwidth sucking LCD

Hugo