Audio question

Alan Wrigley

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Jan 20, 2013, 8:00:08 AM1/20/13

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Does anyone have any experience of the Selwyn Audio Cocktail X10?

http://www.selwynaudio.com/#/overview/4555678400

It looks as though it might fill a specific need of mine but it's not
entirely clear from the specs. I won't bother going into the full details of
what I'm after just yet unless someone is familiar with the unit.

TIA, Alan

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Alan Dawes

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Jan 20, 2013, 12:17:52 PM1/20/13

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In article
<gemini.mgxdg8007n...@keepyourfilthyspamtoyourself.co.uk>,

Alan Wrigley <spam...@keepyourfilthyspamtoyourself.co.uk> wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience of the Selwyn Audio Cocktail X10?

> http://www.selwynaudio.com/#/overview/4555678400

> It looks as though it might fill a specific need of mine but it's not
> entirely clear from the specs. I won't bother going into the full
> details of what I'm after just yet unless someone is familiar with the
> unit.

No I don't have any specific experience but a couple of things bothered me
in the overview and specifications sections of the website.

http://www.selwynaudio.com/overview/4555678400
says

"The X10 storage comes in the form of 3.5" SATA hard disks. The maximum
capaciity is currently 2TB, which is the largest 3.5" hard disk available
on the market. A simple firmware update will be release to support larger
disks as they are made available"

The second sentence isn't true. Hard disks with capacities greater than
2TB have been readily available for around 2 years so they should have
sorted this out by now and you should not have to rely on their producing
a future upgrade. The 500GB disk that it comes with certainly would be no
where big enough for my classical music collection even in lossy mp3
format - I would want lossless which takes up much more room.

http://www.selwynaudio.com/specification/4554862805
says that the output to 8ohm speakers has a total harmonic distortion of
1% - hardly HiFi - although for line out and headphones this drops to 0.1%.

The database option seems to be rather limited and suited to a "song"
based system. If you are interested in classical music you need fields for
things like composer, conductor, orchestra, soloists, title, record
company, genre

Alan

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alan....@riscos.org
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Stuart

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Jan 20, 2013, 2:27:54 PM1/20/13

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In article <5311188d03...@argonet.co.uk>,

Alan Dawes <alan....@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> http://www.selwynaudio.com/specification/4554862805 says that the output
> to 8ohm speakers has a total harmonic distortion of 1% - hardly HiFi -
> although for line out and headphones this drops to 0.1%.

Which is still very poor. Douglas Self's 1996 preamp had a distortion of
less than 0.001%, at 8V rms, using commonly available, and cheap, NE5534
op-amps!

These days I would expect even a moderate quality power amp to be better
than 0.1%

--
Stuart Winsor

Only plain text for emails
http://www.asciiribbon.org

Alan Wrigley

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Jan 20, 2013, 4:15:34 PM1/20/13

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Alan Dawes <alan....@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> In article
> <gemini.mgxdg8007n...@keepyourfilthyspamtoyourself.co.uk>,
> Alan Wrigley <spam...@keepyourfilthyspamtoyourself.co.uk> wrote:
> > Does anyone have any experience of the Selwyn Audio Cocktail X10?
>

> Hard disks with capacities greater than
> 2TB have been readily available for around 2 years so they should have
> sorted this out by now and you should not have to rely on their producing
> a future upgrade. The 500GB disk that it comes with certainly would be no
> where big enough for my classical music collection even in lossy mp3
> format - I would want lossless which takes up much more room.

I would be looking at no more than 1TB. If I've got my maths right, a CD is
not likely to require more than about 700MB, and many not as much as that,
so a 1TB drive should hold about 1500 CDs. I currently have about 600, and a
lot of the non-classical ones would be fine as MP3 so I think the drive
would expire well before I ever filled it.

> http://www.selwynaudio.com/specification/4554862805
> says that the output to 8ohm speakers has a total harmonic distortion of
> 1% - hardly HiFi - although for line out and headphones this drops to
> 0.1%.

I wouldn't be wanting the speaker output but I would certainly be interested
in the overall sound quality of the line output.

> The database option seems to be rather limited and suited to a "song"
> based system. If you are interested in classical music you need fields for
> things like composer, conductor, orchestra, soloists, title, record
> company, genre

I think for the foreseeable future I would be buying the CD anyway as I
still like having the physical object.

My situation is this: currently I listen to music either upstairs in my
office while working, or downstairs in the lounge. I have some middling
hi-fi (Rega Planet and Audiolab 8000) with top-notch speakers and
headphones. Because of the hassle of moving two heavy items of equipment up
and down stairs I tend to leave it in the office and don't get the benefit
of relaxing with music in an armchair after a day of slaving over a hot
Wimp. I'm in the process of moving and will have carte blanche to rewire the
house and rearrange my audio capabilities as the entire house needs
redecorating. So I'm looking for a solution which enables me to leave the
hi-fi downstairs and listen remotely upstairs. It would need remote control
as well as just a long headphone lead because I don't plan to rush up and
down stairs to control it.I will be putting an ethernet core into the house
and probably also headphone extension cables. I want identical quality both
up and down otherwise one will sound inferior. So I'm looking for a unit
which can output to my Audiolab under remote control, or send equivalent
quality to some other amplifier that I might buy in the future.