[plug] Cheap Eth=>Audio Solution?

[Cameron Patrick]

On Tue, Dec 16, 2003 at 03:06:46PM +0800, Trevor Phillips wrote:

| Aaah! The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it (and Googling for 
| "Wizard" is far from useful).
| Sounds neat!! The Netway web page lists them as costing $200 now tho - 
| although if you order 10 they're $150. Not sure what I'd do with so many (and 
| doesn't help with the "budget" slant).

*grin*  You never know when they'll come in handy, though! :-P  They'd
make a good gateway/firewall with a USB ethernet adapter, diskless X
terminal or music system with the BIOS flashed to allow net booting,
stick in a bigger drive and you've got a file server, etc.

OTOH I didn't buy ten even though they were selling for $100 each at the
time.

| You said the sound on it isn't too good though?

It doesn't really impress me.  It really depends on what you want it
for; it'd be more than sufficient for making "ding" noises and playing
low-bitrate MP3s through cheap computer speakers :-) but I have mine
hooked up to a reasonably nice amp and speakers and there's a noticeable
amount of noise present - it's seems to be picking up bus activity, so
graphics output, disk activity and network traffic are all audible :-(
My SB Live has a lot less noise, despite ~7m of RCA cable between it and
the amp.

A USB audio adapter would probably fix the noise problem but I've no
idea where to get one cheaply in Perth :( and it would be nice to not
have to resort to spending yet more money.

Craig Ringer said that he noticed much the same problem, while others on
the Wizard list seemed to be happy with theirs.

(Which reminds me - if you get one, you'll probably want to subscribe to
and read the archives of the mailing list which Bernard set up:
	http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/wizard
)

Cameron.