TAM questions - How is it as a stereo?

[KnobsNSwitches]

I admit I've always been intrigued by the TAM. I've never seen one in person. Trying to justify owning one, I was thinking about it as fancy stereo; it plays CDs, should be able to handle an early version of iTunes. So for those of you who'e had one:

1) How is the audio? Does it sound good enough to fill a small room ?

2) Is there any kind of 'aux in' way to do sound? like, say, if I had Spotify playing on an iPod touch or something, could I use the TAM's speakers/sub?

 

[bibilit]

I have had a pair at home for a while, sound was pretty good, the Bose Subwoofer and system being up to the job.

Concerning iTunes, probably, don't remember really what kind of version can be supplied with Mac Os9, SoundJam IIRC was the program supplied in that era (but SoundJam was the the ancestor of Itunes anyway)

A sound "In" is present.

 

[LaPorta]

Absolutely. If you go in via the microphone port, select “Line In” as the source in Monitors & Sound, and check play through, it should work well.

 

[ScutBoy]

Yes - There is iTunes that will work on the TAM in OS 9. I have it on CD. I will have to verify the version, but it was the one Apple was passing out for free in Apple stores early on.

Recently sold my TAM to a friend here in town, but i can verify that the sound quality is awesome and will do perfectly well in almost any reasonably sized room.

 

[EvilCapitalist]

As long as you're not expecting it to rattle the windows it works perfectly well.  Think of it as being in the same class as an Executive stereo system; it certainly fits the bill as far as looks go and it's got the remote too.

I've got iTunes 2.0.4 installed on my TAM, which if I'm not mistaken is the last version that will run on OS9.

 

[LaPorta]

If needed I have installers for early OS 9 iTunes still.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

Well, you've sold me. Now to start...saving...for a 20 year old computer ?

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Despite what eBay would have you believe, these aren't all that expensive if you're only after a good condition functional machine, and not all the original boxes and pack-ins.  Granted, ~$700-800 is still technically "new computer money" for a lot of folks (myself included) but they seem to have leveled off in value so even if you bought one at that price I figure you'd still be able to sell it for that much later if you decided you didn't want to keep it.

 

[Byrd]

The TAM sounds great in a small room, the satellite speakers are directional so best if you position it in front of you, not to a corner or side of the room.  Also check the satellites aren't degraded, and ensure there is no speaker buzz in whatever unit you buy.  It does a particularly good job with medium and low but bass is a little muddy.  The FM radio is quite good too, you can get nice compact antennas that plug directly into the back.  TV-in quality is pretty crap.  A G3 accelerator will allow you to use the built-in iTunes visualiser at non-slide show speeds, also look out for third party visualisers such as GForce. 

I'm using the SCSI2SD V 5.5 in my TAM with a 128GB microSD card that I copy my entire collection to every now and then from my Mac Pro.