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Avoca VIP Music Edition lets you sweet talk your system into playing your favorites
Fancy music servers are great, but you still need to scroll through lists of files to find the music you want. Now, following in the path of Ford's SYNC voice command car system, a company called Avoca has introduced the VIP Music Edition server that you control by talking into a hijacked HP Ipaq. The server's 160 GB hard drive (larger drives are optional) stores your CDs as lossless FLAC files, then downloads metadata and cover art from AMG and displays them on the Ipaq. You can also add an iPod dock, and the server will download your playlists automatically. The main catch I see is the system's steep $3995 price tag.
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By BoxerFanatic at 10:46 PM ON 09/07/08
Gee...
My good old trusty Mac, with my library in iTunes, broadcasting to my AirPort Express, fiber-optically connected to my home theater, all controlled by free software (Apple's Remote) from my iPhone... Most of th media is Apple Lossless, transmitted digitally all the way to my receiver's DAC.
And I can do that with multiple libraries, and multiple AirTunes nodes throughout the LAN, for comparatively little additional cost.
Does all that for less money, and does it with smart playlists.
Granted I don't "talk" to it. But I don't have speakable items enabled on the mac, and the iPhone works just fine as a touch-screen remote without talking to it.
I have other things to spend the rest of $4K on.
By simpleman at 1:37 PM ON 09/08/08
I saw this at a store in Ontario and it was amazing! It understood my voice right off the bat. What I really liked was the fact that I could think of a song and it played. In fact I liked it so much I bought one.
I finally found one simple device that does not require a PHD or software engineering degree to link everything together. I just hooked up my amp, loaded some CD's and said what tunes I wanted and it played. What I especially like is that the kids can use it without me having to switch users on my MAC to tune up another playlist.
A happy customer.....