OFF: Music player advice, Return of...

[Keith Henderson]

Hey Folks...

As you might remember, I'm in the process of going to some sort of digital music playback for routine listening in our house, including (or even primarily) for my Mom's music collection.  I've got (the ripping of) her collection virtually done now, about 600 discs, plus or minus, plus some rare LP and cassette stuff that I converted to AAC with Audacity some months/years ago.  Her collection is roughly 52 GB, give or take.

So now I'm ready for serious shopping opportunities, as all her CDs are packed now for the move, and not intended to be unpacked on the other end (until/unless needed).  After giving up on the idea of an actual stereo component-style digital player (the one we discussed not being AAC-compliant, I've already forgotten its name), I've focussed on tablets or iTouches as an option.  The iTouch itself has the negatives of being rather small (4" display), and an Apple product (iTunes) (although I guess XBMC could potentially operate it??), and is rather expensive ($400) for the necessary memory (64GB).  That said, it offers that much internal storage, unlike most tablets with flash-only memory.

The Nexus7 seems like a decent option, as they are being sold at a discount ($180 or so) due to the new version coming out soon.  However, their maximum storage seems to be 32GB (even for the next rollout?), and they don't have expandable storage via SD-micro from what I can tell.

So now I'm looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, which is being offered for $200.  It's only 8 GB internal storage, but has a SD-micro drive that can offer a lot more effective storage.  And here's the rub....Wikipedia and Amazon insist that it takes a 64 GB micro SD card, but Samsung's own specs page (including the official PDF manual) for the device insists its compatible only with a 32GB card.  What's the deal here?  How can it be both?  Or what could cause the discrepancy?  This is rather important of course.  I gather it's a software thing, the card is the same size after all.  I need to figure this out before I order/buy one.

Like the Nexus7, it seems to dock landscape-style, and the docks are ridiculously cheap (like $3) - how can that be?  I would of course have to spend $50 on a 64GB SD card, and then also get some kind of USB adapter (they seem cheap too...less than $10).  SD chips I think of a camera battery cards, and I've only ever used them in a "one-way reader", but I imagine that the new adapters are two-way things that allow for writing onto the card, which is of course what I'll need to do.  Plus, I have to figure out how to get the formatting right (FAT instead of, what is it...NFTC or something?).  The manual also suggests it is compatible with AAC (MP4) audio, but then it says it depends on the op software, which is Android "4.1.2 Jelly Bean."  Anybody know if that is indeed the case?  Again, I intend to download XBMC and try that out as a player, but I won't bother until I get the device in my hand and get all this physical work done on the house.

So, I'm leaning towards this device at the moment, unless someone tells me that it would be a disaster for any reason.  (The HP Slate 7 is also on sale here, but it seems definitely limited to 32 GB cards, so I want to hold out for the true 64 GB capability.)

The wifi aspect I need to figure out at some point, but I am so ignorant about what to do/how it works, that I'll hold off on that at the moment.  It looks like a router is in the $50-$80 range...is that all I need?  The fact that a tablet (and our TV and my Mom's Kindle) has internal wifi capability just means that it will pick up signals either near of far of a certain strength.  I need the home router to put my external drive(s) on this desktop computer into use elsewhere in the house obviously...don't know how simple (and troublefree) that is until I try it.

Anyway, it looks like I can get it done for the less-than-$400 I was budgeting for the project....that's good news.

Thanks for any more advice...Keith H.