Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Yet another 901 use: HD Audio Recorder

As I've written about many times, my Asus Eee PC 901 is about the best and most useful tech toy I ever bought. I use it for checking email and surfing the web from the road. I watch (standard definition) movies on it in perfect quality. I use XBMC to stream my music collection anywhere in my apartment, including to my bedroom stereo. I play emulated old school video games on it. Recently I found another use for it: recording HD audio. I tested out the line/mic 1/8" input on the 901 for recording audio at 24-bit/96KHz by sending it some high-quality flac recordings I had laying around. The results were so good, I couldn't even tell the difference between the original source and the recording. Even though it might seem like a measly analog stereo input, the 901 is packing the Realtek ALC662 audio chipset. This chipset can capture and decode HD audio like a champ. This is great for podcasting, recording lectures, or for recording concerts, assuming you can get the 901 in the door. If you're considering a netbook purchase and haven't looked at the 901, do yourself a favor and give it a look.