Music set-ups. Something else to fuss about....

And on the subject of radio..... the new digital radio (Hitachi TRK100DAB £40 Richer Sounds) is proving to be a great thing. Granted it hasn't opened my listening up to 100s of new stations, I still listen to just Radios 1, 2, 4, 5 like I used to. But the one new station that I wouldn't be without is BBC Radio 6 (or 6 Music as they like to call it). All the new music I want, nothing too shit, nothing too yoof, and a good mix of old stuff as well.

In fact, between having all the radio I could want within easy reach and the mini I-pod set up next to me as well the only reason I still have the separates system is to act as a big pair of speakers for the I-pod. Cds are now an archive medium or just for the car.

Like many other of my male friends, I have a room. Why I have a room and Louise doesn't I do not know, possibly because she finds it convenient to consign me somewhere, possibly because I am an obsessive muppet who needs someplace to organise my cds, books, files and computer.

Anyway, my computer is one the desk at one end, my separates system is at the other end of the room. This was obviously a problem as it required getting my ass out of the chair to change the music.
Part of the solution came with the free mini I-pods provided by Louise's nieces (Hi Helen, Hi Rachel)& the cool JBL donut speaker fromLouise'ss sister (Hi Sharon).
After obsessively transferring all 17Gb of music onto the computer I was then stuck with how to play it. (No, not through the computer, sounds awful, and I don't like the idea of using the hard disk like that to play tracks - sad and obsessive eh?).
But eventually I hit on the solution. Dock the I-pod in the JBL speaker and set up an input to theseparatess system through the I-pod headphone socket. The result means I can play music through the JBL alone, the separates alone or using both for a weird 3 speaker setup.

The final problem was the radio. i love the radio. I like the different music, the chat, the news. But I didn't like the getting up and changing settings on the separates. But the Hitachi DAB solved that.

There you go. Perfect solution.

Well, nearly perfect, I still need to get around to buying the big I-pod, but April's credit card budget went on a new palmtop (Tungsten E2 - lovely and shiny) & May went on a new camera (Kodak Z740 - thanks to Jess for therecommendationn) so it will be at least another month before funds are available.