Neuros open sources their hardware development, too
posted Oct 19th 2005 11:15AM
You may remember Neuros as the company who had
those early "backpack" audio devices, and more recently (soft-)launched their
442. Well, they've long tried to rock the open-source
firmware for their products, but now it seems like they're stepping it up for some much-anticipated advances in their
next device. Not only are they going directly to the audiophile crowd—a group largely un-catered to by the portable
media device market—for input on their forthcoming player, but they're actually eliciting said audiophiles' help in
designing the hardware platform. The product is still in the planning phase, but the "open-source" platform they're
going with will run Linux and can support (but may not necessarily feature) a 200MHz ARM CPU, up to 128MB of SDRAM and
8MB of flash, USB 2.0, SD/MMC/CF slots, 10/100 Ethernet, S-Video out, 24/96 audio I/O, and SP-DIF. Anyhow, the real
news here remains the paradigm shift back to the old school when personal computers were almost infinitely hackable;
herein a niche product is developed not solely by a devicemaker's team, but with the welcome help of the wayfaring
light of the actual user base. Next step: completely user-created electronics, designed by audiophiles through online
collaboration for small manufacturing runs.
[Via slashdot]
Yup..I peruse Head Fi.org regularly and yes they have been asking the crowd there what they are lookign for...it has been a very cool thing and a smart marketing move that costs nothing...of course allthat good will could evaporate if really nothing substnatial comes about..but still its good to see that they aren't catering to the normal zombified crowd and actually talking to people who care about what they hear.
I love that they are going open source with their firmware because this allows people to mod it so it provides gapless playback (something the Ipod can't do *rolls eyes*)..allows for better support for lossless codecs, and the list goes on at head fi at least lol...
The DAP's that are being suggested are also pretty damn good...IPod, Zen's and others have had horrendous DAP's.....which is fine for those who really don't know the difference in sound quality between a low freq encoded compressed lossy format and near lossless...but god when I listen to an Ipod or a Zen I despair.
closest I got to okay were Rio's products ...but...the possible suggestions for Neuros's new players sound cool...
Wifi would have to be a must for this beasty...