PhatNoise, the creator of the Phatbox and Music Keg (for Kenwood) digital media players for car audio systems, has just introduced two new products.
One is the PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player (http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php), which plays MP3, WMA, FLAC and WAV formats. It has a port to plug in the DMS (hard disk) cartridge from the PhatBox or Music Keg, and supports the popular SSA (Simple Stereo Architecture) interface for easy sorting and searching of your music. It retails for US$349. Here are the specifications:
• Plays MP3, WMA, WAV and FLAC formats
• Enhanced SSA interface (Playlist/Album/Artist/Genre browsing)
• Infrared wireless remote & front panel controls
• Bright white Liquid Crystal Display
• 108dB SNR/108dB Dynamic Range
• Digital Audio (Coaxial) Output
• Analog Audio (RCA) Output
• S-Video & Composite Video Output for TV-based browser interface (album and song information display)
• Sleek aluminum front panel
• USB port for networking upgrades
The next product is the PocketBox™ Portable Digital Media Player (http://www.phatnoise.com/products/accessories/pocketbox.php). 128MB, three-line LCD display, voice recorder, and a price tag of US$139. Specs:
• Plays MP3 and WMA formats
• 128MB Flash Memory
• Holds four CDs worth of music
• Digital Voice Recorder
• Three line graphical display with backlight
• Plug-and-play USB flash drive
• USB Mass Storage Compliant
• 12 hours of playback with included AAA battery
• Automatic transcoding with the PhatNoise Music Manager
The official PhatNoise announcement page (http://www.phatnoise.com/images/email/happyholidays.html) also describes a special offer they currently have for a 20GB PhatBox for your car plus the Home Digital Media Player for a nice discount.
Why am I the last to know!
This is a natural addition. The DMS cartridge slot is especially cool if you've already got a PhatBox.
Josh
Why am I the last to know!
This is a natural addition. The DMS cartridge slot is especially cool if you've already got a PhatBox.
Josh
Not to worry...the news was only 21 minutes old when I posted this. They kept this very hush-hush...none of us regulars on their forum even suspected this AFAIK.
DMS support is great, but with a network adapter connected to the USB port, tracks can be played from over a LAN also...we'll see if they offer any kind of additional network hardware to go with it.
The timing of their release was perfect...my 20GB DMS just died 3 days ago (or rather..."I killed it"), and I've ordered a 60GB one, preparing to re-rip/encode my collection into FLAC this coming weekend. Now I'll have another place to use the DMS...as soon as Christmas comes, anyway.
-- Chris
If I didn't what to use a DMS cartage. Could I plugin firm/usb external harddrive. I am not sure. But I'd like to know. Thanks. Also can I hook up my Kilpsch 2.1 Speakers to it. It uses the a basic LineIn plug similar to most soundcards.
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The timing of their release was perfect...my 20GB DMS just died 3 days ago (or rather..."I killed it"), and I've ordered a 60GB one, preparing to re-rip/encode my collection into FLAC this coming weekend.
Hey Scor,
I just knew you couldn't suppreess your ripping and encoding hobby for too long. I think you did the entire collection 6 times last year when you were trying to settle on a format and a bit rate. Now you resort to killing off your hardware to do it for the first time this year. You know, I am for hire. I can sit in your house for 30 hours per month and do the process for you so you would have more time for..em..."productive" activites.