Install a nice car stereo (not that marine crap at triple the price)
into the boat with nice speakers everywhere. Lionheart has a JVC
KD-SX990 that Circuit City sells for $200, but we bought it from
digitalphotoclub.com for $103.55+shipping with a factory $30 rebate
(1-888-920-3332 or 718-686-2940 in NYC) It plays MP3 CDRs made by
your computer (10-12 hours per CDR in MP3 format) or you can plug an
external audio device into it from the front panel, easily, making any
portable audio device into a 200W powerhouse throughout the boat.

I've been using an Archos Jukebox Studio 20, 20GB hard drive MP3
player for many years. My first one failed after 1.5 years and I sent
it in under warranty. Archos sent me a whole new one with all the
latest upgrades and a far superior hard drive completely free! No
finer service from anyone. The Studio 20 is no longer made, but you
may find them still in stores for around $150. 20GB is a LOT of MP3
space, around 1000 hours! The USB port plugs straight into your
computer, which handles the Archos as an external USB hard drive with
standard Windows file structure.

I'm losing the battle trying to resist Archos' NEW MP3, MPeG-4, WMA
player:
http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500570.html
This new one has an EIGHTY GB hard disk drive, the biggest one made
for notebook computers (400Gs shock rated? Rugged?) It stores 320
hours of near-DVD-quality color video in Mpeg-4 format....or.....4000
hours of CD-quality MP3 music.....or......800,000 jpeg photos or bmp
photos. Probably enough so you can go on a long voyage and never have
to listen to the same song over again. $899 is the mfg dream price.
Street price is around $700-750. It also records music, video and has
a camera that plugs into the end of it very neatly. No memory cards,
DVDs, outside media necessary....

Unlike other "music players" that bow down and kiss the MPAA's or
RIAA's ass by restricting how movies or music can be stored and
played, Archos players are all "portable hard drives" and no such
restrictions are built into them. You can upload and download ANY
kind of computer files to its hard drive that Windows can handle,
without any copyright games. It's also a great way to transport any
kind of computer files, software, data between one computer and
another with its new USB 2.0 interface, which is very fast. These
hard drive players eliminate the CD or DVD burning, completely. You
just copy your favorite ripped or stolen music from your computer, or
even the internet, straight to the Archos hard drive, a standard
Windows file structure, complete with multi-layered
folders/directories like any Windows hard drive.

I want one.....WITH the video camera and all accessories,
please!.....(c;



On 08 Feb 2004 23:17:31 GMT, (TORMAC53) wrote:

I have a 53' sailboat and want to be able to take my music collection with me.
I would like to sort through songs by artist, type of music etc. I usually use
car components as the units are mounted below decks.
I have read about the Rio Riots, but they use powered speakers and they rarely
sound good.
We like to have good quality sound in the center cockpit as well as a dance
level volume when appropriate. If I have dedicate a seperate computer to this I
would but I would keep it apart from navigation as I like redundancy and
independant systems for important items. Life has a sound track if you listen
close enough.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks
Bob Glennon


Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....