speakers for carnatic music

[venkat1926]

Is there any audiophile there? what type of speakers either for computer or for audio system are good (or enough) for hearing carnatic music mostly vocal . for western music for Symphony or even for jazz I can understand that various frequencies must be heard. But why for carnatic music. I am little confused with 2.0,2.1,5.1 and mega bass usb powered or AC powered etc. has anybody well versed in carnatic music done any studies on this.

[Rsachi]

I have been buying and using speakers for listening to CM since early 1970's and have spent a little, a lot, and LOTs of money.

Carnatic music available in good commercial recordings and also broadcast on the waves by TV and radio is STEREO. so you need 2.1

You need Bass and Treble controls to make sure you hear at the right level the deep sounds of the mridangam as well as the natural sound of the voice and strings/wind. You need a big speaker (=subwoofer) to make sure the sound is "cool" and not tinny.

Computer speakers with subwoofer need a mains power connection. USB or battery operated speakers (except costly ones like Bose Sound Dock Portable) compromise on Bass.

You don't need 5.1/7.1/100W plus power for CM.

That said, I have a 5.1 Bose system which converts all music (including mono) to a 5.1 surround experience with calibration the room acoustics, and I really enjoy well recorded CM through that system including FM broadcasts of mono records!

Carnatic music is also best heard on stereo headphones on the move, but be careful you don't turn up the volume too much.

[varsha]

Aam Aadmis choice.
After many years of struggling with laptop speakers , which are such a mess on my table ( always interfering ) I have settled down to a nice reverie with phillips soundbar priced at 7000 rs . phillips is doing these throw away sales because sound bars have not caught the listeners imagination . I have been very happy .comes with a remote. looks good on the wall too

[Rsachi]

Yes, sound bars were invented to overcome the poor audio output issue from LCD/flat TVs. They take different kinds of inputs and can connect to laptops also.

I also recommend the Fenda 330 2.1 which costs much less (4k) , sounds great, connects on bluetooth too!

[Nick H]

Is there any audiophile there?

I hate to admit it <Blush>.

You do need all frequencies for carnatic music. It may lack the very high stuff, like the shimmer of cymbals, but still, in so far as speakers can, it is better to cover the 20-20,000 range*.

I might admit to being a bit audiophile, but I do not have an audiophile computer speaker system, I have a not-cheap-but-value-for-money system: M-Audio AV-40 speakers. These do not need the .1, they are full-range. In fact, mostly, 2.0 will do. Stuff like Bose depends on the subwoofer, because the satellite speakers don't cover much range at all. Having said that, there are genuinely audiophile products (check out Magepan if you have $1500 to spend!) that also need a sub-woofer.

My ambition is studio monitors such as Genelec or Adam, but there won't be much change out of 1 lakh rupees.

If you check out sites like hifivision.com, you can find out the difference between "active" speaker systems, and merely "powered" systems. My ambition speakers are actives, what I have is powered --- but, ambition is one thing, still what I have makes for good listening, even for western orchestral music.

If you have low bit-rate music mp3 music files (eg the CDs that sell by number of hours music on them!) then expect a really good system to make the music sound worse --- but anything over 128kb should benefit from better speakers.

So... you put a pair of at least half-decent speakers on your desk. The next upgrade is a USB DAC to feed them better quality sound


*ok, audio pedants will point out to me that the kind of speakers I'm talking about, with, say 4-inch woofers, will only go down to 40hz, if that far. Yes, it is enough. They will do everything except chest thumping!

[parivadini]

My 2 cents - Except Nagaswaram kuthceris my suggestion is to use bluetooth headphones for carnatic music.
Most of them have wizard software which will help you reach optimum output.

Cheers

[vasanthakokilam]

I recently bought these two speakers that play music out of a USB stick.(no affiliation with any of these products)

http://www.amazon.com/Craig-CR4189BT-Di ... 00COGA87I/
http://www.amazon.com/GOgroove-SonaVERS ... B0089ZV1WY

This is for the mainstream 'good enough'phile! I am hiring them for a very specific job: Sharing content with people who are not gadget savvy. (copyright free, let us assume)

They bring back the convenience of a two-in-one/boombox in a much smaller package. The second one fits in the outstretched palm of my hand and puts out decent volume with speakers on either side.

There are many other such devices: http://www.ebay.com/bhp/boom-box-with-usb
Google displays a whole variety of them: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm ... YA#imgdii=_
I do not have any personal experiences with any of these except the above two.There are some really cool looking USB speakers and USB Boomboxes.

[cacm]

I hate to admit it <Blush>.

You do need all frequencies for carnatic music. It may lack the very high stuff, like the shimmer of cymbals, but still, in so far as speakers can, it is better to cover the 20-20,000 range*.

I might admit to being a bit audiophile, but I do not have an audiophile computer speaker system, I have a not-cheap-but-value-for-money system: M-Audio AV-40 speakers. These do not need the .1, they are full-range. In fact, mostly, 2.0 will do. Stuff like Bose depends on the subwoofer, because the satellite speakers don't cover much range at all. Having said that, there are genuinely audiophile products (check out Magepan if you have $1500 to spend!) that also need a sub-woofer.

My ambition is studio monitors such as Genelec or Adam, but there won't be much change out of 1 lakh rupees.

If you check out sites like hifivision.com, you can find out the difference between "active" speaker systems, and merely "powered" systems. My ambition speakers are actives, what I have is powered --- but, ambition is one thing, still what I have makes for good listening, even for western orchestral music.

NICK,
I have done extensive comparisons of various SPEAKERS- Actually TAUGHT COURSES &BUILT THEM MYSELF & ALSO WORKED with US speaker manufacturers in the fifties& sixties-. Without going TOO MUCH IN DEPTH let me SUMMARIZE WITHOUT going into details:
ALTEC LANSING "VOICE OF THE THEATER" which cost 15,000 us dollars in 1960 are the ones used in recording in SERIOUS CLASSICAL MUSIC (WESTERN) RECORDINGS. With the advent of ROCK&ROLL, ROCKET LAUNCHES(SCI-FI) etc the SILENCES NEEDED were not THAT IMPORTANTBECAUSE like today's Carnatic music SILENCES RARELY EXIST. As a matter of fact just singing slower is taken for proper speed etc. AS SPEAKERS cannot be designed for the entire range- Shuttle launch to very high frequencies- cross over circuitry+ sub-woofers came into vogue. Classical cos. like duetsche gramophone& conductors like Van Karajan refused to use them. But the Hollywood market place won out & THE SMPTE organization- I was a member of the technical committee-came up with a sampling rate of 48khz as well the ability to reproduce frequenciesfrom 5 cycles to 25,000 cycles FOR DVD'S as it was EXPERIMENTALLY DETERMINED THAT YOUNGER PERSONS CAN & DO HEAR THAT RANGE AS OPPOSED TO THE 44.1 SAMPLING as it exists in cd's for example.
Actually RE-SAMPLING 44.1CD' S WITH 48KHZ SAMPLING WAS SHOWN TO PRODUCE BETTER SOUND ACC.TO EXPERIMENTAL DATA THO' THEORETICALLY IT SHD. NOT BE!
OF COURSE FOR CARNATIC MUSIC THESE ARE NOT EVEN ACADEMIC & THE APPLICATION OF ACCUSOTICS IS PRETTY MUCH IN THE STONE AGE......VKV-

[Nick H]

Whilst auditorium sound systems remain in the stone age, it is a sad fact that even the most basic of home music equipment is better to listen to than the live experience.

[VijayR]

Moving up the speaker totem-pole is an option that may not always be feasible due to various reasons (cost, availability, etc.). In that case, another (complementary) option is to use software to shape the audio output. For example, I use Hear (http://www.prosofteng.com/products/hear.php) - the usual disclaimer added that I have no affiliation with them. It allows for very fine-grained tuning of the audio output. Using this, I have been able to maximize the "bang for the buck", if you may, even from inexpensive, commodity speakers or headphones. While it does have many presets that work well, a bit of careful manual tuning really makes the audio output shine!

My present setup involves audio processed using Hear that is output to a Philips 5.1 home theater system. So, two different axes (speaker and software) of optimization.

[Nick H]

EQ... Free, for Linux.

Even if I ever get my most desired speakers, I will still have to cope with increasingly imperfect ears. EQ can help.

[vasanthakokilam]

Vijay, thanks. Let me check it out.

I think a Raspberry Pi based audio system ( say, read from micro sd and output to blue tooth ) can be packaged like a small remote. We can then run algorithms like Hear on this 'remote'. volumeio tools can be run on Raspberry Pi already ( http://volumio.org/faq/). This is still in the tech/audio geek hobbyist state but it is promising that high end audio features can be made available at a really low price.

[VijayR]

Vijay, thanks. Let me check it out.

I think a Raspberry Pi based audio system ( say, read from micro sd and output to blue tooth ) can be packaged like a small remote. We can then run algorithms like Hear on this 'remote'. volumeio tools can be run on Raspberry Pi already ( http://volumio.org/faq/). This is still in the tech/audio geek hobbyist state but it is promising that high end audio features can be made available at a really low price.

What a coincidence that you mention this!! Just this past semester, I had an undergraduate student in my embedded systems course do this with a Beaglebone Black and USB sound card (although he did not use volumio, but a bunch of other software running on the Raspbian OS). He even did a nice fancy jukebox thing, where multiple people sitting around can just send their music (over wireless) to a common playlist on the Beaglebone. I absolutely agree - it is pretty amazing what one can do these days with an embedded platform that costs a few tens of dollars!

[Nick H]

There used to be a very good range of wifi players called Squeezebox. It became part of Logitech, and, some time ago, the range was axed. There are a number of community/open projects to do something similar (and some commercial products too, of course). There is Community Squeeze, for one, and there are some RasPi based projects too.

These are fascinating projects, both in themselves, and as practical means to link media content on your PC to a hifi system. However, don't forget that one can always attach a pair of speakers direct to that PC --- and play music.

Beware, beware of the label audiophile. It may just mean "made for a ridiculously gullible sector of society." Generally, I do not believe that the adoption of the label "audiophile" makes anything actually sound better. When you see it, turn on the critical senses! Much of the stuff that people say needs to be done to make a PC sound good is absolute rubbish. One good indicator is how people use the word "jitter." Often, it is complete nonsense. The hifi crowd did not stop to ask themselves how PCs work... they just stuck their hifi thinking on them, whether appropriate or not. Some of the stuff they have come up with is more like a Rube Goldberg machine!

(hey... I'm a hifi person too!)

The other side of the coin is that just because people use words that I mentioned does not mean that their system is a nonsense. it could be good. Particularly something like this which is custom made to run as an embedded system.

I use a Linux distribution and tools developed for musicians and studio folk. It is entirely lacking in "audiophile" language. I like it that way --- even though, if pressed, I have to confess to being a bit of an audiophile.

Just... keep the guards up, approach with caution ...and have fun )

[vasanthakokilam]

What will be fruitful for both the low end and high end is a clean separation of Input, Processing and output (IPO). That separation is nothing new but with a RaspPi like system as the processing unit we can have tremendous flexibility for audio processing while shrinking the entire system to incredibly small form factor. It is all doable today and it can go head to head with the performance of commercial systems that costs a lot of money.

I think the winner in this space for mass adoption will be someone who packages it with a good UI ( play, FF, Rewind, skip, volume etc with soft or hard buttons ) so it is useful in a standalone mode without any network support. Where there is a network support, rest of the complex control and configuration can be delegated to an app running elsewhere.

Main objective should be that it is usable in a convenient fashion by non-tech people who do not want to deal with computers or headphones.

[Nick H]

But... you are talking about a computer! Just... it's a small one. And people use headphones only because they want, or need to use headphones.

What you are saying is akin to a two car family: we have a big one, lets buy a nano to roam the city. But it's still a car!

Yes, I use an Android app to control my Logitech squeezebox: it works better than the supplied remote control

It started with a request for speakers only. Of course, we made the assumption that they were to be attached to a PC.

[vasanthakokilam]

Nick, Yes, I agree on what you say there.

But the people I have in mind are the millions who do not want to go near a big computer for listening to music. RaspPi is a computer alright, but the difference is same as the diff between a bath tub and a swimming pool, if I may use that cliche. In reality, these people can care less about whether it is a computer or not.. They want the convenience of someone handing over a thumb drive and them playing it on a simple home audio system they have ( say thru an aux in cable ). Requiring a computer for that is a failure from their perspective.

If there is a little adapter that takes a USB thumb drive on one end and an aux plug on the other, they will be happy!

( Is there one? I have ten different people I can give that to which will enhance their music experience in a big way ).

Now the $30 speaker I bought serves that need. But I am trying to add the 'Here' kind of sophistication to their listening experience with the $35 RaspPi.

That would have been a wishful thinking just a few years back but as you know it is indeed a reality today. It is just waiting for that packaging ( which is not easy but very much doable ).

My optics for that is a credit card sized thing that has buttons for audio controls, that can take a few different types of input media and you connect it to the speakers. This is the lowest level. That is incredible in itself.

( If I can upgrade my 'millions' to blue tooth speakers , then you can bring this credit card sized thing away from the speakers to your couch. This is now starting to resemble a miniature mp3 player that have a micro sd card input and bluetooth output but that is only in appearance. This is much more open and capable in terms of what you get to run in there. )

I am not saying anything new from a technical perspective but this is more from how all that can be simplified and made usable comfortably by the people at large.

[Nick H]

As I read that post, my mind formed the words, "hey, these days you can do that with your phone!"

Well, maybe not exactly. Not the thumb-drive thing, maybe. Or not yet... it will come.

Because I am, perhaps, a little but geeky, I am not very familiar with the current "media player" products. At various price ranges, though, they do make all sorts of things possible. For myself, I take a glance and say that my PC is fine.

There are media players, bluetooth speakers, wireless speakers, "multi-room" systems, and stuff all the way down to, I suppose, what used to be called a boom box, and now takes that thumb drive. Or many CD players now take a thumb drive. We have the technology already!

[vasanthakokilam]

>Or many CD players now take a thumb drive. We have the technology already!

Yes, indeed. In one of my posts in this thread, I have included ebay and google links which list many dozens of such things.

But they can not run audio processing algorithms like your big computer can. It is limited to what the manufacturer provides. Vijay's mention of 'Hear' is what got us talking in this direction.

[Nick H]

What sort of audio processing algorithms did you have in mind? Most audiophiles want there to be as little as possible n their signal chains. bit-perfect is the order of the day, and before bits had anything to do with it, tone controls were banished from amplifiers.

This is all part of my history, because I swallowed a lot of that stuff, and my amplifier has no tone controls --- which is a pity, because it would be the simplest way to make an approximate correction for high-frequency hearing loss.

So I have experimented with EQ. First lesson: there are no easy answers. However pretty the software looks (I use Calf Plugins) It is not easy to get it right. That's why sound engineers take quite a bit of time and experience to learn their trade. I think you've played with this stuff, too, wouldn't you agree?

So, I'd suggest that DSP, past old-fashioned tone controls or presets (once again, even the phones are giving us this stuff now), is, for most people, probably not that great an idea.

But it's available and anyone can play at low, or no, cost. :-B

By the way, these days I carry a small pocket computer around. I use it for navigation and several other things. You know the function that I always fumble with? Making phone calls! )

[vasanthakokilam]

A phone or tablet with thumb drive input and analog out would come close in functionality but not in 'form'. More on the form in a bit.

Regarding the kind of audio processing, since we started this with Vijay mentioning 'Hear', he can fill us with his experience with it. For me, given the variety of sources of CM we get from spool recordings, may be some noise management and auto gain control and such things to start with. ( with a simple button to turn them off )

I want to let this target audience use it without having to get tech support from their geek relatives and at the same time have the flexibility for the geek relative to update the internals with better things. The latter is just a stretch goal.

The answer to the first part is really one of form and not function. The lowest common denominator packaging is a little 'adapter' with usb input and an analog out. It can be powered by a rechargeable battery. ( we need a micro usb charger port as well ). I am confident that these 'peeps' I have in mind can manage to use it without much tech support.

This I think is possible, but I have not seen it in such a packaging. I would expect such a thing to cost no more than a few dollars since this is essentially a sub-component of other products that are out there. ( as an intermediate substitute the usb speakers will do the job )

Next higher up are more output options: HDMI, Blue tooth etc. ( my target users do not care about this )

The next higher tier involves replacing what is in the middle, from a pre-packaged circuitry to a little computer. Again, my target user base does not care if it is a computer or not but they are capable of hearing and appreciating any improvement in audio quality for the kind of music they are interested. This again would not ( should not ) look like a high tech gadget.

[vasanthakokilam]

My interest in this started a while back when I reflected on the fact that I know so many CM listeners who do not get to listen to what is in Sangeethapriya. ( their smartphone apps do help some of these people ) And more recently, there was a little discussion in the Kalyanaraman thread about a piece by him that Varsha uploaded which was out of this world. I wanted to share it with someone who I know would enjoy it tremendously. The steps involved in having them listen to it were so daunting I did not even try. That is when I decided to buy them these usb speakers so in the future I will have the flexibility to share such great music with them. In fact, I can probably get a local internet cafe folks to put it on a drive and deliver it to them for a fee!

I can think of at least 20 people who can use this but I can not afford spend $30 on each one of them, but definitely I can buy them my hypothetical adapter if it only costs a few dollars. They all have some sort of audio equipment with analog input that they are comfortable using.

[Nick H]

Hmmm... It must read files, do the DSP stuff and include, or output to, a DAC.

I'm afraid that's called ....a computer! Except that some of them are now being packaged with names like media player, and, indeed, they could be pretty small.

My answer to the person who doesn't want to "compute" is the CD-player, or DVD player, with the thumb drive USB socket (and if they do not have CD or DVD then music probably means getting together and singing and playing: what a lovely thought that is ). But that's only my answer at this minute!

Actually, I feel that all will come, and soon, to phones and tablets --- and they seem to have much less of an age/technology barrier. Already, of course, they have analogue outputs.

But that is no reason not to go on thinking about and developing other boxes.

(With the very inventors of computer technology themselves now aged, or no longer with us, it seems odd to think of age being a barrier.)

Here is some experience about connecting Android tablets to an external DAC: Android tab as digital transport!

I feel this is going to be the good-looking, nice gui, easy to use way forward.

[vasanthakokilam]

>My answer to the person who doesn't want to "compute" is the CD-player, or DVD player, with the thumb drive USB socket
Agreed. But that is not commonly found among the people I want to share music with.The 'job' of this adaptor is for those people who have good audio systems without a thumb drive USB socket.

>Hmmm... It must read files, do the DSP stuff and include, or output to, a DAC.
>I'm afraid that's called ....a computer
It can be a piece of special purpose silicon like this one http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/ENA2171-D.PDF which you can get for less than $5.00
But granted, my stretch goal of 'replacing the middle' does involve putting a RaspPi which indeed is a computer, but the user does not care.

[vasanthakokilam]

My answer to the person who doesn't want to "compute" is the CD-player, or DVD player, with the thumb drive USB socket

Agreed. Unfortunately, these people do not have a system with the USB socket.The 'job' of this adaptor is to serve these people.

Hmmm... It must read files, do the DSP stuff and include, or output to, a DAC.I'm afraid that's called ....a computer

It can be a piece of special purpose silicon like this one http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/ENA2171-D.PDF which you can get for less than $5.00

(My stretch goal of 'replacing the middle' does involve putting a RaspPi which indeed is a computer, but the user does not know or care it is a computer)

[VijayR]

My comments about 'Hear' will need a longer post (soon), but here is a cheap MP3 player option that does part of what vasanthakokilam wants. It has USB (actually microSD, but it comes with a microSD to USB adapter) and analog out. Costs $9 and comes with player, microSD card, and the microSD to USB adapter. Missing the audio processing, of course...

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... der/1.html

[vasanthakokilam]

Vijay: Thanks very much.You are right, this looks to do the job.
I am not sure if it comes with a MicroSD to USB adaptor. I see that in the picture but I found this online manual and it does not say anything about it : http://www.sansacommunity.com/downloads ... UM_ENG.pdf

Anyway, I can get such an adator, that is not a show stopper.

So, connecting this to an external stereo system is through an audio cable from the headphone jack to the Aux in on such systems?

The price is definitely right. It is actually $6.00 without the micro sd card.

[vasanthakokilam]

Vijay: This may be scraping the bottom of the barrel so it is just a curiosity. I found these two on ebay for $3.27 and $2.53 new . Do you think this can be used with a USB/microSD adaptor for my purposes?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Screen-Clip ... 1308182302

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Metal-USB- ... 1027423701

[vasanthakokilam]

Vijay: Your post clued me in for a good search term and I found a whole lot of gadgets in all shapes and sizes in this space.
http://usb.brando.com/search.php?keyword=usb%20mp3

[Rsachi]

Scraping indeed
I did understand the original question to be affordable and good speakers for CM.

Given that most folks these days have portable music devices combined into their smart phones, the two good listening options are head phones and speakers. like the Fenda 330 which connect via 3.5 mm earphone jack as well as bluetooth. BTW I also have nifty bluetooth headphones from Sony I bought on Flipkart for ₹ 2K. plus Fenda at <₹4K, great combo for all listening needs!

[VijayR]

Vijay: This may be scraping the bottom of the barrel so it is just a curiosity. I found these two on ebay for $3.27 and $2.53 new . Do you think this can be used with a USB/microSD adaptor for my purposes?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Screen-Clip ... 1308182302

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Metal-USB- ... 1027423701

VK: Boy, those are cheap. Yes, they can be used... in fact, no adapter needed. Just put in a microSD card and they will act as USB flash drives when connected to a PC using the USB cable. However, odds are that they will sound really bad... The headphone amp. on these super-cheap gadgets is usually horrible. Further, the quality/distortion/loudness will all depend on what speakers you connect these to and the amount of impedance mismatch. So, will work, but your quality mileage may (no, will) vary!

[vasanthakokilam]

yes, I agree

Back to that sensa player, if the input is usb flash drive, what kind of adapter do I need to buy?

Sachi: Yes, we have deviated from the original topic, so bear with me, I am almost done with the detour.

[VijayR]

yes, I agree

Back to that sensa player, if the input is usb flash drive, what kind of adapter do I need to buy?

Sachi: Yes, we have deviated from the original topic, so bear with me, I am almost done with the detour.

The $6 version does come with a USB to microSD adapter (I'm guessing its a bundle of some sort). But, any other USB to MicroSD adapter should work... For example, http://www.tmart.com/TF-Micro-SD-USB-2. ... 09927.html

Did I interpret your question right?

[vasanthakokilam]

Hmm.. these things seem to be to transfer content to the microSD card from the computer using the USB port. True?

What I want is the ability to directly plug in a usb flash drive on to the player itself so it can play out of that thumb drive.

[Rsachi]

VKM,
the type of MP3 players you're discovering do this:
Take removable microSD card for storage (a 32GB card is about ₹2K.
They can transfer files back and forth with a computer etc. using the USB port.

They have a play ffunction to play MP3 files to output jack for headphone or speaker etc.
The best of breed for this is from Sony, which includes FM and a voice and FM recorder along with equaliser etc. But it's not cheap and has no removable card.
Some years ago, there were dozens of Korean makes in this space. But the advent of smart phones has killed this industry. The music is in the cloud, you see!

[Nick H]

There should be music for all... but we must have a care with all this stuff, because MP3 and portable music players have been the greatest contributors to destroying quality sound in music. I've handled a cheap-chinese-fake ipod, and it was horrible, physically and acoustically.

On the other hand, I continue to be astonished by the drop in price of genuine components, and I am equally wary of the "audiophile" attitude that says it must be expensive to be good!

The audio section of our ancient laptop has failed, and I have ordered one of these. The DAC I have on my desk cost about £100; the headphone amp around £150. That is low cost in audiophile eyes, yet here is a DAC/headphone amp at 10% of the cost. GB£25 to connect headphones (or amplifier, that works too) to USB port!

But is this "cheap chinese rubbish." Actually, no... Together with some hifi mates, I've heard one. Granted, the one I heard had had some modification done by its electronics-whiz-kid owner, but in that state it stood up well to other DACs many times its price. VK: check out the HiFimeDIY site!

[VijayR]

Hmm.. these things seem to be to transfer content to the microSD card from the computer using the USB port. True?

What I want is the ability to directly plug in a usb flash drive on to the player itself so it can play out of that thumb drive.

Oh, got it... You will not get that ability at this price point. The reason is that you need the main microcontroller inside the system to have a USB host interface (that is brought out as a USB female port to connect the USB flash drive). Most cheap, low-end (in capability) microcontrollers do not have this. MicroSD is much easier to handle because it is over a serial bus called SPI, which almost every single microcontroller has.

In the Sensa player, the microSD card plugged into the USB adapter "is" the flash drive. Yes, your peeps will have to transfer the MicroSD every time they want to load more music, but hey, $9 after all.

[varsha]

they want to load more music, but hey, $9 after all.

As you all go down the price ladder (and up the technical capability ladder) , I just could not resist re-circulating an old joke :

An old man goes to a hearing aid shop to enquire for a set he wants to buy . The salesman shows him a few models . One at at 50 $ which the doctors prescribe mostly , and one at 250 $ that translates into 14 languages and so on .

The old man is a conservative type and asks : But which is the one with largest sales , and most popular ?

The salesman shows a model that comes for 10 $ . Ten $ ? , the old man is amazed . How does it work ?
And the salesman replies ...
Well you see , it does not need to work actually . It is only a set of earplugs with a wire hanging around .Folks have figured out that once you wear something like this , it is surprising how loud people will start talking . . :-ss

[Rsachi]

Good one!
It's the same with scooter helmets. You Can buy really cheap and fake ones on the road side. The they work very well in keeping policemen away.

[vasanthakokilam]

>once you wear something like this , it is surprising how loud people will start talking

[vasanthakokilam]

>As you all go down the price ladder (and up the technical capability ladder)

Indeed. There are a few trends that are definitely making that kind of a good thing possible.

Nick, I understand what you are saying about mp3 but in this case the files are already in mp3. But the players I am looking at should be able to play higher quality files too. That does not seem to be a problem.

Vijay, may be I need to reconcile myself to go with the micro sd card as the medium. I was mainly worried that these people will lose them.

The two USB flash drive external speakers I wrote about earlier does the job cleanly but the cost is a bit high for me to buy a dozen of them. I am quite tempted to include a few of these sansa players in the mix once I get over the micro-sd worry.

[sridhar_ranga]

I too am looking for a device (including good speakers) that can play music off a 1 TB external USB drive - a solution that does not involve hooking up to a laptop or a TV screen for viewing / selecting the songs.

[vasanthakokilam]

Sridhar, welcome to the club. Good to know I am not the only one who is looking to solve this problem See if some of the links I posted in http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 53#p256430 are useful for your search.

[Nick H]

The two USB flash drive external speakers I wrote about earlier...

Was there a link? I didn't find it. Would like to check them out.

[vasanthakokilam]

Nick, the first two amazon links I included in this post: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 53#p256430

Hope you can access them.
Here are the pictures

[Nick H]

Oh dear, and I remember seeing those links now. Sorry... unfortunately the warranty on my brain is over! <Blush>

[newid]

I posted last year about good quality carnatic recordings and didn't get too many responses. Audiophile quality speakers and amplifiers are moot if recordings are potato quality.

I am still on the lookout for good quality recordings. So far I've only found Margazhi Ragam recorded with fidelity and quality in mind. Another beautiful recording is called Vidwan: Music of South India by Ramnad Krishnan. It puts the singer in front of you unlike the production qualities of Margazhi Ragam. Could you kindly share any other recordings you might recommend?

If someone is still looking for expensive (aka audiophile) music systems for carnatic music, planar speakers are the way to go. Martin Logan and Magnepan sell two versions of these (magnetic and electrostatic) - as NickH suggested at the top of this discussion, Magnepans are where the magic is. I have the cheaper Magnepans with a separate bass panel and a subwoofer. I use a modified PA system amplifier to run the Maggies (surprisingly the high end PA amplifiers are flat as can be and cost 1/50th the price of music amps. The mod you need to make is replacing the noisy fans inside the PA amp). I also use Quobuz playing through Sonos Connect to play uncompressed FLAC and high resolution digital audio.

This is different from other suggestions here, but the question was for an audiophile setup and what I have mentioned above is the audiophile setup best suited for carnatic music. The quest continues, however, to find recordings that are audiophile quality, as well.

[shankarank]

The best speakers for Carnatic music are in any old Camry , station wagon or not, may be a Honda now after Toyota's woes, on the road in Ohio or Texas on a rainy day with bass up! Play all the eras - no difference .

The really hissy Ramnad/Murugabhoopathy cassette sounded so out of the world!

Well the Camry was quieter!

[lasyaraaga]

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