So, I work at a high end audio store (like 5 figures for pair of speakers high end). And one product were getting in soon is the AudioReQuest S series.

http://www.request.com/products/sseries.asp

Basically its an headless audio server with 1.5 TB of HD space, a digital out, and three RCA/XLR outs, it auto rips cds into WAV, and some other stuff too, but at 10k, its pretty overpriced, in my opinion

Anyways, they actually market a "freedom handheld" which is jsut a branded n800

http://www.request.com/products/freedom.asp


itll cost almost 800 US for the n800 and the software completely setup by them alone







I get almost the exact same funtionality with a few dozen man hours, mythtv and canola2.

Interesting. OS2007. They don't even bother to upgrade it to diablo before installing. I wonder how they handle having to re-flash (or how much of a deal that is if you arn't hacking around).
I'm guessing thier biggest selling point is the no-programing, the even stress that you don't even need a new interface. So it's not likely someone who bought it would wind up here, thier butler might though.
The $10k is for the 1.5TB 'server', plus their software correct? I wonder how much they charge for the IT, maybe around $1k (based off the original sell price)?

One of us is doing that!

I'm in the process of doing that with my N800. I'm using Eventghost, a USB-UIRT, XBOX w/ XBMC, 3.5TB unraid server and will be integrating X10 so I can control my lights.

Almost full home control for less than $1k.

J

Wow, I need to mimic that business idea.

I'd like to add that functionality to my itunes/n800, "netsync for itunes"

This is not overpriced, but a complete rip off. You could buy a 770, decent computer, High End audio card, 3 TB storage, and really good speakers for under 5k, with the bulk of the cost being the speakers. It wouldn't be that hard to tie them together either.

Or you can be cheap and buy an modded xbox, 770, and cheep 5.1 speakers for like 500 bucks.

Maybe I am underestimating the quality or something, because 10k seems way too expensive...

ELAN Home Systems does this also. ELAN even removes the Nokia logo from the device, leaving the "N800" marking hanging oddly in space.

I went a different route...

I bought this wireless audio bridge (Sondigo) which it connects to your receiver via either Toslink or RCA, I chose Toslink, once it is connected you can control and play your music from your pc in any Media Player of your preference, I ended up using MediaMonkey since it manages pretty well songs over 10,000 entries, pretty smooth and if people don't like how it looks, the skin is also customizable to make it look like the Itunes app. From there, I just connect my beloved N800 via VNC to my pc.

Well the products been around for a lil while, so im guessing
A. They didnt bother to update the spec sheet
or
B. They didnt bother to look into updating their n800s
presumably it does everythingthey advertised, so while bother with diablo

jsut a guess though



Its about 400 for the "freedom" remote alone (ie a plain ol n800 OS2007) and 370 for the software
so $770 USD



Well, my initial thought was I can do the exact same thing with about 2 large

But

A. This is audiophile gear, you expect to be given a bit of snakeoil (RE: $500 "audiophile" ethernet cable)

B. This is built as a showpeice in a media station, and is supposed to be pretty plug n play. So programming server time for customers would need to be included if you were to market it

B. There is built in xlr/rca outs. Getting a card thatll do that proper with the expectations that alot of audio tweekers would want would cost near a grand alone.


C. FItting it all in one enclusive headless box, that is noise insulated would add quite a bit more cost and time

D. Its rather pretty, consdiering

So, IMHO, while 10k is a ripoff, I dont think its as big of one as my immediate reaction. You can get similar results for less, but an all-in-one with seamless integration can cost a pretty penny


The resellers price is 9k, the retail is 10, im guessing their cost is around the 7.5-8 mark