When I attended the Iowa School for the Blind in the fifties, I had the opportunity to play extensively with one of the early talkingbook machines whose model number I do not know.
At any rate, this thing had a reasonably good A.M. radio which even had terminal posts for external antenna and ground. Since I never used either, it may have been a much better radio than I realized. Also, this thing played talkingbooks of course but also had a speed modifier control. I was told but never confirmed that the brits had some sort of talkingbook system which ran at 24 RPM rather than the 33 1/3 RPM discs which we then used in this country. As I recall, the sound of that thing was pretty darn good. The tone arm as I recall was also a bit on the heavy side. Later, perhaps around 1952, in the school library we had a talkingbook which would play 33, 45 and 78. I believe this was still slightly before the 16 RPM records were produced. So I am not certain whether it had a 16 speed on it although I somehow think it did. That machine sounded mighty good on music discs for a portable player. It was kind of a suitcase design with a handle on the side. Don't recall the model number. Don Roberts ----- Original Message ----- From: "DJ DOCTOR P" <djdoct...@att.net> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 12:38 PM Subject: Re: digital talking book player Hello Christopher, Lets face some facts here. The majority of iPods and MP3 players that are on the market, aren't blind user friendly. If it works, it works. There is an old saying that goes, "if it isn't broke, don't fix it." I'm glad the NLS player is a versatile MP3 player for blind people, if I can call it that. If you look at the previous thread, you will learn that play back equipment that was only mint for talking books only, was used to listen to music. That kind of a thing has been going on for more then 7 decades. The talking book program was introduced in 1931, right along with the special machines that were designed for it. But even then, a group of kids found out that, they could play their music on it. >From the 1930's right up to the late 1960's, hardly anybody had money to buy good record players and such. So If you came by records, you played them on whatever you could get your hands on. Here it is 79 years later, people are still having tuff times. So If you come by it, and if you can get it to work for you, be faithful for it! My best regards. John. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Chaltain" <chalt...@gmail.com> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 1:50 PM Subject: Re: digital talking book player > Well, what it was designed for and what it will do are different questions > than what NLS is committing and willing to support. > > I for one have no problems funding the NLS, the Talking Books program and > the move to a digital format. As a US tax payer though, I would not be > happy having my tax dollars spent to pay for and support a music or MP3 > player for the blind. blind consumers, like everyone else, have other > options for music and MP3 players. If this needs to be subsidized for the > blind then I think that would fall under a different program. > > The NLS also needs to travel a thin line here. I doubt very much their > funding from Congress included any kind of development or support for a > generic MP3 player. I'd hate to have this funding jeopardized because the > general public found out it was being used to fund the development and > support of high quality MP3 players for the blind. > > Remember too that the patrons of the NLS service with computers and the > desire to play MP3's are a minority of their overall patron population. > > I think the NLS official "no support" statement for anything other than an > NLS book an an NLS cartridge is appropriate. Since, as far as I can tell, > they aren't prohibiting anyone from using a flash drive, or playing MP3's > on the player, there's nothing wrong with users sharing this information > and their findings. > > I agree the player seems to be able to handle music and was made with high > quality audio components, but I'm not sure that still isn't appreciated > when listening to spoken recordings. I prefer listening to the same book > on my DTBM over my booksense, and I assume this is in part due to the > better sound quality. I believe the NLS also has music and other > recordings in their collection. I also wouldn't be surprised if this was > in part to anticipate the availability of multimedia content (voice with > music) in the future. A book on Mozart that also included some > performances for example. > > -- > > Christopher > chalt...@gmail.com > > > On 3/25/2010 11:48 AM, Joe wrote: >> Here's something to think about. If the NLS players weren't made to also >> play music, they probably wouldn't have designed the headphone Jack and >> amp to play stereo. Also, the audio quality of that speaker is clearly >> designed for something bordering on hi fidelity. The base response of >> that player is far superior to anything you would need for the spoken >> word.The frequency response goes above and below the voice range. Its far >> superior to the plex talk and other player recorders that are >> ridiculously over priced for what they are. I'll. bet if we could buy >> this player, it would cost at least $300 >> To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: >> pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org >> > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
