I finally yanked the Nakamichi 200 CD player out of the home stereo line up. It just never ever gets used. Next to go is the dual cassette player. They are destined for the basement –although we are mumbling about possibly having a garage sale.
I did take the time to rip some of the cd’s. This led me to think about upgrading my mp3 player.
We recently came back from a two week road trip on which I used my Neuro 30HD digital music player extensively. It still works pretty well although I’ve gotten lazy about installing the sync software on the last few generations of computers laying around the house. So before the trip I just dumped a bunch of mp3′s on to the Neuro’s hard drive. You can still play music using the file browser. The thing keeps on ticking but it’s getting awfully hacky and Mad Max-ish.
I bought the Neuro probably over five years ago. It was a little less expensive than the iPod but it had some big bonuses. For starters, and the main reason I bought the thing, you can record analog straight into it with a 1/8″ stereo chord or using the built-in mic. That works pretty darn sweet. I used it to record all the performances on three separate little road trips when I was playing with THE LATEST and then churchbus. I used it for an art collaboration with my wife where we recorded a ridiculous amount of visual/sonic data on a 10,000 mile road trip across the entire Northern section of the US. In short, it’s served me well –though we got off to a very rocky start. I had to send it back for a replacement three times within the first two months of ownership. Neuro’s quality control was that shitty.
I remember really laying into the tech guy on one call, even though (being that I got into software development through the first-rung tech support gig myself) I’m usually pretty nice to tech people. I know how to hurt too. I wasn’t yelling or calling him names. Besides, with three returns in two months, I had a lot on my side. But the dude was so sincere. So bummed by my call. And so earnest about wanting to see his company succeed that he is probably the reason I stuck with it. Now many many years of abuse later, this Neuro is still going.
Not so sure about Neuro the company which is (or was) based in Chicago. They had a damn hard time competing with Apple. They dropped the mp3 game, started doing video stuff. Then Internet on TV stuff…then I’m not sure. Tough world; but I sure wish more local players could play in that sand box and survive. I’m so bored by Apple and all the stupid electronics that have to work on these ridiculous telephone networks.
That being said, we had a brown out last night and I was grateful for my cell phone in order that I could set an alarm for an early work meeting.
Anyway, maybe I won’t get the new mp3 player just yet after all.
Besides now that the 200 CD player is gone I can take all these cd’s out to the car in that big useless CD jacket we have.
The 5 cd player in our 2003 Ford doesn’t have a jack for mp3 players. That seems sucky for 2003. It also means I don’t really want to look around for another car stereo just so I can plug my new mp3 player into it. Because I would want to do that.
The Neuro has a built-in fm transmitter (another awesome thing that the iPod had not). It works great for road trips –and really that’s just about the only time I use the thing if I’m not using it as a recording device. It doesn’t work so great though for big city driving. If I got a new player, I’d want it to work in the car. That’s definitely gonna add to the cost.
We’ll take it slow.
In other updates to the state of my reference music access, my basement flooded. Not connected? Sure it is. This meant two boxes of old cassette tapes got wet even though they were in a big plastic box. That’s because something mysterious happens when stuff floats around in rooms not particularly arranged for floating stuff. Some how it got tipped over; filled with water that turned tan as tea; and sank.
These are old cassettes I recorded on. Old stuff I bought going back to high school. Demos. Goodies from ancient SXSW and CMJ conferences. Bootleg cassettes I bought in the Middle East. In other words junk.
But MY junk!
I put them out on the porch and let them dry for weeks. We had a BBQ party last weekend. I smoked some meat. Had lots of free time. So I stuck a cassette in the old jam box out on the porch which has sat out there for five years and hasn’t been played in almost as many. The cassette was the Police’s Ghost in the Machine. The ghost in the machine started to eat the tape. Pulled it out and tapped it on a healthy chunk of apple wood. Worked great after that.
That night I also played the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Junior Brown. However it was surprising how many cassettes I had no interest in even after all these years.
Nevertheless they have a new home on the porch next to the dusty jam box just waiting for some meats to get smoked.
We’ll take it slow.
Those big CD changers had a reputation for breaking down. Will you not have a CD player in the house anymore? Don’t think I could possibly go without that.
I’ve been thinking about getting a combo CD player/tape deck component unit, cuz my fancy tape deck has become really unreliable, maybe due to lack of use, or maybe due to that stupid white grease they use that eventually gums up. That’s what happened to my old trusty 5-CD changer, which I finally gave up on and got rid of. I’ve been playing CD’s in my DVD player, but it’s annoying for a few reasons, including that it sometimes decides that a CD isn’t a CD half way through. Unfortunately, the combo units seem to be a bit pricey, so maybe I’ll just get separate units from a thrift store or Craigslist. Am hoping though for a nice reliable cassette deck so I can import stuff to hard drive, and it’s hard to guarantee that used.
I ended up buying a new cassette deck about a year ago when I decided I should digitize some of my many old cassettes before they degrade any further. I looked at some used ones on eBay, but eventually didn’t feel like I could trust a used cassette deck, so I ponied up $100 for a new one. There really aren’t very many options for new ones anymore and cheap new ones seem nonexistent.
When I went to transfer DATs, I did feel like I could trust a used DAT player, so I got one of those from eBay. I was disappointed to find out that some of the DATs I’ve been storing in a shoebox have begun to accumulate errors, so they buzz and skip on playback. I transferred them anyway, because when the choice is a heavily flawed recording or nothing, I choose the former. I then re-sold the DAT player for approximately the same price I paid for it.
Well played – great way to handle the dat xfer. I don’t see why you’d need to keep one around.
You know, I bought that 200 disc player used years and years ago and it got use for a while. It never stopped working although it would occasionally mangle discs if you kept it on random and it was moving around a bunch. I was surprised to find them on ebay, and apparently people buying them, for triple digits.
there’s also a rack mounted Tascam CD recorder (can record analog) in the basement. I used to record live to CD and sometimes mix down straight to CD.
I abhor k7s but the idea of them and BBQ made me abhor them a bit less.
Ramon – I wish you’d a been there. There was one taste of home, in that I smoked a brisket (with apple wood mind you). But the tape deck doesn’t swing both ways so it was a bother to have to go mess with it after every side.
Ghost – We won’t have a cd player in the house, aside from computers and the dvd player connected to the tv. I haven’t purchased a cd in years. I get one every once in a while through locals bands and what not. I figure I’ll just rip the ones I want. What gets played most in the house for entertainment purposes are records and music straight off the computer using windows media player (not particularly well organized).
I also run around in the old Golf with a cassette player. Usually have a jazz or Chicago blues cassette in there and it’ll stay put for months.