www.gisvold.co.uk - Audio

A new Bluetooth headset

tor — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:43:24 +0000

I'e used the original Jawbone Bluetooth headset for a long time, and have been a reasonably happy customer. The sound quality was good, and it worked with both my MacBook and my iPhone.

But it had 2 serious drawbacks :

- It could only connect to one of the devices at a time, you needed to fiddle around to switch between them.

- The earloops were difficult to get over the year, and I have broken all of them without applying excess pressure - and they (Jawbone) do not sell spares!

So I have a old and now largely useless original Jawbone - as I have no more earloops, and let wondering if I have strange shaped ears (-;.
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I've ordered my first Arduino RFID kit

tor — Sun, 10 May 2009 12:33:53 +0000

I;m getting closer to getting a RFID doorlock at long last - I just ordered the key component as a Arduino shield:
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Technorati Tags: Array Audio electronics

Madonnas latest album - what's my problem?

tor — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:13:05 +0000

Hm. I have a strange problem with the latest Madonna album.

I bought this off iTunes, and downloaded it wirelessly. On my iPod it did not sound too bad, but then again I listened to it on a plane to somewhere, so I may not have been to critical to the quality of the recording. (I have to say that all previous Madonna albums have been produced to a very high audio quality).

So it cam as a bit of a surprise when I played the album on the main stereo at home. (Background: The album now lives on my laptop - which publishes it's music to the local area network, and this in turn is picked up by a iMac living by the stereo - with my old Quad loudspeakers.) The sound quality was so bad that I started thinking that the mains supply to the loudspeakers had been turned off (electrostatic loudspeakers keep the charge for a very long time after you turn off the mains - with the quality gradually getting worse and worse).
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Technorati Tags: Audio restaurant

Multi-room and multi-zone audio and video

tor — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:36:41 +0000

Cambridge Audio seems to have started manufacturing the only multi-room audio/video system I like so far - and they sell it through Richer Sounds as well (there is a outlet in Guildford which is close to where we live), and even better, the price and functionality seems to be right.

Cambridge Audio’s new Incognito Multi-Room Entertainment System delivers audio to every room of the home at a more affordable price than ever before.

Enabling users to access any of six audio sources (CD player, tuner etc.), the AH10 then distributes music and video around the house simultaneously, using just one run of Cat5 or Cat6 cable per zone.
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Technorati Tags: Audio cats

The tale of a Honda Civic and it's iPod connection

tor — Sun, 20 May 2007 14:42:01 +0000

As we just bought my son a Honda Civic (2001) one of the first questions is of course “How do I connect my iPod to the stereo”.

The car comes with a radio & cassette-player, plus a one-slot CD-player.

So we bought a Harman Kardon Drive + Play 1 off a Amazon.co.uk associate company for less than GBP 50, and will blog the trials and tribulations of installing this.

we also found a excellent site with a description on how to take the Civic's console apart, and off we went.

More later :
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Technorati Tags: Audio cats

Interesting HiFi device for the digital age#10 Slim Devices Transporter Digital Music Player Review#10 —#10

tor — Sun, 20 May 2007 14:32:49 +0000

Slim Devices have been making opensource MP3 software and non-transportable players for connecting to a standard stereo for several years now, and I have earlier blogged their announcement of a high-end player, called Transporter.

But this is the first review I have seen:

Slim Devices Transporter Digital Music Player Review — Audioholics Home Theater Reviews and News :

Slim Devices Transporter Digital Music Player Review

#9by Clint DeBoer

The reviewer seems to have done a reasonably detailed job, and his conclusions are really that the device is very, very good.

So now - can I afford one??

Technorati Tags: hifi
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Range Rover Audio amplifier replacement

tor — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:02:53 +0000

After the accident that burnt out the audio amplifier in our Range Rover I decided to see how difficult it would be to replace the factory amplifier with a standard audio car amplifier.

The only original issue was that the amplifier has a connector for a databus (BMW's iBus interface) which is not standard in any amplifier I could find in any normal shop, so I decided to do some test. Armed with a iPod, and standard car audio amplifier from Maplin (A Nikkar 4 channel power amplifier) I started sorting out the wiring harness. Maplin even provides the handbook online as a pdf.

Working from the theory that the thicker cables were for the bass loudspeakers I worked my way through the twisted pairs.
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Technorati Tags: Audio ramblings

Polaroid LCD widescreen

tor — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:17:56 +0000

We went out yesterday to look at computers for one of our neighbours, and in the sale we found a extremely inexpensive LCD TV, so we bought it.
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Technorati Tags: Audio cats ramblings

New Hi-Fi product from SlimDevices

tor — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:36:20 +0000

This is one of the more exiting products I have seen for a long time in the “hi-fi” arena:

Slim Devices : Product Info : Transporter:

Slim Devices' Transporter™ was designed to appeal to the most discerning audiophiles and

music lovers. It streams digital music with sound quality that surpasses even the most exotic compact

disc players.

At the heart of Transporter is a “no compromise” attitude to component selection and electronic design.

This product seems to be able to tap into most music files stored on a computer, and electronics to match - giving you the best possible way to play your computer-based files to a decent stereo. I have been waiting for this for a while - so now I need to get my hands on one to test!!!
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Technorati Tags: Audio electronics

Mediacentral at home - a home theatre on a Mac Mini (and other macs)

tor — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 18:10:50 +0000

I've just invested some of my hard-earned money in 3-pack of Mediacentral for our Macs.

This is now the best solution for a media library run from a central server for our home.

We have a main server where most of the storage is attached (a Mac Mini), and a number of Macs spread around the house connected to various hi-fi solutions and TV's. MediaCentral is a a example run off a old Macintosh Powerbook (a 1 Ghz version btw.) running MediaCentral, with the media filesystems from the central server mounted as remote filesystems on this through Ethernet.
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Technorati Tags: Audio games

What I'm listening to

tor — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 14:50:47 +0000

I'm sitting on the deck in the garden listening to music from the stereo, which is controlled by a different Mac - s0 iTRC is a godsend for my wireless remote control needs.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Audio, Godalming, osx

Technorati Tags: Audio Godalming