HDX!

Congratulations EJ.

Keep posting your findings.

We went through this parallel process last year. The CDX2 was hard to part with but in the end it left the rack and is hopefully in a home where it is appreciated and loved as much as it was here. I'll be interested to hear how your experiences pan out. 

I have found the DTC to be just the job for adding cover art.  The HDX can be sluggish picking up albums which are not in a designated music store, but once locked in the album art is easy to add.

We have the front screen fed to the telly and the flash interface running on a PC, but for the most part use n-Serve on an iPad.  It may be overdue for a serious bit of development (shortly to be addressed) but it's perfectly usable and oh so convenient.

Have fun.

Harry, there is no mac equivalent for the DTC, is there? Perhaps I should install Bootcamp.

You touch a couple of areas that I still need to look into. For starters I would like to backup but if at all possible straight to a USB drive connected to a networked PC. And then there is the control. The flash interface works well on safari, and the remote + touchscreen works equally well - but an ipad2 and the promised nserve look tempting!

Cheers,

EJ

what is DTC?

aysil: DTC Desk Top Client

EJS: congrats on the HDX. When my dealer brought over his HDX for a home demo, he also installed VMware Fusion and a Windows OS on my MacBook Pro. Took just 10 minutes and worked like a charm. I really liked the HDX btw!

Cal

Hi EJS,

Don't worry too much about the DTC. From other threads on this forum I was told that there will be no new developments for the DTC and that all of it's functionality will be made available via either the front panel display or iPod / iPad app.

Control of the HDX via my iPod Touch works perfectly, this is what I use in most cases. I can really recommend it! The upcoming iPad update for the n-Serve app will be even better.

BTW: I changed from CD5X to HDX and have never looked back!

Regards,
Michel

I took delivery of an HDX-SSD a few weeks ago. I'm really pleased with it. It replaced a CDX2. I run the DTC on a MacBook[pro] under VMfusion and Windows XP. Works fine. Make sure you select 'bridge' mode in VMs options or else it can't see the HDX on the network. The ripping is really speedy and almost effortless though I do have to upload or change cover art from time to time. The odd disc has to have the meta data manually added. The depth of metadata catalogued can be amazing. I use a combination of n-Serve app on my iPhone or web browser on the Mac. Looking forward to the iPad app. The front touch panel is convenient as a small display but a bit awkward from a control point of view. Still burning in but the SQ is better than the CDX2. Brilliant piece of kit. Forget cobbling together a streamer, PC, ripping and server software. This is much better. Tried the other way myself. No contest.

       

That's very good to know. All the best with it Keith. I'm sure it will bring you as much enjoyment as it did us. 

EJ. I hope things are bedding in nicely. As has been said, the DTC isn't available in native Mac. I've found it very useful for a number of jobs but there is more than one way of skinning the HDX cat. When I was tentatively cogitating the prospect of running the HDX, backup was a big concern. At the time it was only available with twin internal HDDs. It was inexpensive and very easy to install a wireless bridge for the lounge. This was a useful end in of itself because the WiFi signal is weak there and we run PC and AV equipment which could do with something stronger to lock onto. Having achieved this technical feat with no hassle, the HDX was wired to one port and a NAS to another. The hook up was perfect. Not only did this allow us to take the music off board, but when no differences in quality were heard the NAS became the default location for music stores. In addition to mirroring, the NAS can easily be backed up via a USB connection of a portable HDD - which is what I do every time I rip or add new music.

Things are easy for us because we play music through the lounge system from a NAS which is hard wired into the HDX via the bridge. The WiFi  connection is used only to access the Internet for album/track data and art. It gets this right I guess about 80% of the time.  If we were streaming across WiFi for serious listening I can't say how well it would work. But I do play back HDX ripped music on my office PC across WiFi and it's fine. Because the sound quality is seriously limited by my little office speakers hanging off the back of the PC.

When I say something like CD replay is a dead end for me, this can be misunderstood. CDs are not dead because they are still where I buy the vast majority of source material. But playing CDs is long gone. This step was taken only when we were convinced that playback via a server was at least as good as playback from a CDP (the CDX2/XPS2 being our bench mark).  In fact it's better - which is why Keith now has our pre loved CDX2. As with everything else, findings will vary and subjectivity rules. But we're sitting very comfortably and I hope you are too.

Hi Harry,



The NDAC + CDX2 is a nice and (relatively!) inexpensive way of starting down the computer audio road. We may progess to the Unitiserve or HDX later. We listened to the NDX on Saturday and all ageed it was no match for the CDX2 + NDAC. I remain a UPNP sceptic, but S/PDIF is different matter. The idea of not having a CD player is still difficult to cope with, but no one ever seems regret buying an HDX. However, it does need the DAC.



Keith

Harry - like you my wireless was quite weak but I have the HDX hooked up to an airport express, in bridge mode - which increased wireless reception as a bonus. For the back-up though, I'm looking for an incidental solution, say a back-up once every six months, and directly to a drive that I can place in a remote location. A NAS would be overkill and not what I'd ideally want anyway. However, if it's the only way, so be it - preferred solution would be to get read access to the HDX internal drive from the mac. 

KRM - the DAC may be an upgrade to the HDX but I find the internal dac very good as well. The HDX did win from the slightly more affordable UServe + DAC combination. It may be me - I auditioned an XPS for the CDX2 and that was an improvement but not one that blew me away.
Having said that, I love the (bare) CDX2 too much to let go. It remains my primary source just because physically handling a CD is so much more fulfilling than playing with a laptop or remote.

Finally: I've set up a working windoze partition on the mac. Now to install VMWare to get seamless access. Cal, thanks again for the tip.

All the best.

EJ

EJS,
I am just curious: If CDX2 remains your primary source, what is the function of HDX for you? And how do their sound compare?

Aysil,

I just use them both, but will move a good part of my collection to storage... I'll report on the sound quality once the unit has had time to break in but initial impression is that they are similar, the HDX a tiny bit warmer and the CDX2 a bit more upfront. I read an older post comparing the HDX with a CD5X but having heard that unit as well, in my room/system the HDX sounds much closer to the CDX2 in terms of presence and voicing.

Cheers,

EJ

EJ,
Enjoy! I am also keeping both HDX and a CD transport.