Re: PC Driven MP3 Players

["Rick" <rcalvin.lee@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks again Bill.  And thanks for overlooking my ignorance.  As I
said, my knowledge in this area is limited.

One more thing.  What is the deal with buying the CAV6.6  I know
Russound is sold only thru authorized dealers, but there are lots of
"unauthorized" sources on the net.  I am not one to take chances with
this kind of money, but all the "authorized" dealers I have spoken to
(recommended by Russound customer service) only want to sell an
installed system.  There are 5 dealers in my area, and only two seem to
even know what the system is?  What is up with this?  Did you buy your
system from "authorized" dealer?

Any other Russound owners out there, I would like to know about your
experience.

Thanks.
Rick
Bill Kearney wrote:
> > I would like to know more about your setup. I have much to learn about
> > PC/home audio-video interfaces, and all things related, so please
> > excuse my ignorance if some of the questions have obvious answers.
> > Do you have a PC dedicated to your home audio/video system?
>
> Yes.  It's a waste of time trying to use the PC for anything else.  At least
> not for anything else that would require using the screen.  Best to leave it
> as the only thing running.  I've got mine plodding away on a 1gHz Celeron
> box, running XP with 256mb of RAM and it barely gets above 30% CPU
> consumption when playing all three zones.
>
> > With a dedicated PC, could one not connect via the R232 and avoid the
> > MP3 usb interfaces?
>
> Uh, 232 is serial, how you gonna get SOUND out of a serial connection?
> There's a serial connection from the PC to the CAV66.  This is how the CAV66
> Uno keypads control the PC running MC11.  Each USB sound interface supplies
> *audio* to the CAV66.  I happen to use three zones.  The other three are
> Tivo, DVD and CD Changer (which hardly /ever/ gets used).
>
> > As for system control, how do the Russound keypads work with MC11?  I
> > must have a system that my wife is comfortable with, and she needs
> > simple controls from the keypads.
>
> If you've got a playlist selected in MC11 then the Uno keypads can play
> tracks from it.  Step forward/backward/stop/pause/play, etc.  You see the
> track info on the keypad screen.  Basically works pretty much as you'd
> expect.  The only issue is selecting a playlist on the PC first.  Thus I
> keep three zones set up, each with a different 'theme' to make it easier.
> There's no way to work your way around the 'entire' library of tracks from
> the keypad.  But then again you can't do that on the SMS3 either (you use
> the TV interface to work it visually, just like you'd use MC11 on the PC).