Network Music discussion.

[kernow]

I've done a bit more reading, and I don't think I can resist buying a black squeezebox 3 sometime in the future \\o, I've read a lot of reviews and it does well every time.

I guess its good it relies on the squeezeserver software, but I'd rather have it just access a directory of flac files, I guess the web frontend is provided though, and thats useful as you could access it with any web enabled device in your house.

Probably going to get one and just try it with the optical or coax out as my hifi system has no analogue inputs, and maybe try internet radio for a bit, I should get the wireless one but I could cope with wired too no problem. I can still get my geek kicks by building a nice server to store my music on.

thanks for the info, I'm all excited now hehe

[Tankshell]

As I understand it its a closed system basically. You CAN buy a bareboned qnap and whack any drive size up to 500 gig you like, indeed Scan.co.uk were offering these as a deal of the week not too long ago like that. However you will not be able to install the version of software that slim requires by yourself. Any more querys would be better off being posted in that qnap thread I mentioned on www.slimdevices.com. Someone had already bought the system without the slimserver software on it and wasn't having a lot of luck with it.

The person who runs cooltopia posts on the slim site so any further querys might be better off being pmd to him, though hes quite quick at replying in the normal thread. His user names ultra238a.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393

To the discussion itself.

I figure I should be good to go at copying the music over onto the qnap in about a week or two, so will let you know how I get on with it then if anyones intrested.

Hi all, have decided to get myself a Squeezebox3 and QNAP combo, and having done some research it now appears that any QNAP device can be manually upgraded to run the slimserver simply by download a few install files...check it out here >

http://www.store2go.net/shop/discountstore/p/category/0707112715-QNAP+SlimServer/

This sounds good non?

Also, this thread was started a fair while ago now....might there be a better all around solution these days?

T

[charlesr]

For those people happy with mp3 rather than lossless, mp3tunes.com now have unlimited free storage for your music and is integrated into the squeezenetwork, so you no longer need a NAS box or to leave your PC on. Filesize is limited on the free version but shouldn't be a problem for 99.9% of mp3s.

[charlesr]

I've installed a couple of cool plugins for the squeezebox this week.

a) CDPlayer..... er yeah... random eh? But you get back from the shops having impulse purchased a CD and this lets you drop it in the PC's CD tray and then press play from the squeezebox and it comes out the speakers. Woooo.

b) FindArt - while listening to an album you click this and it finds the album art from amazon (via their AWS link) and saves it in the same folder. Very cool.

c) BBCiPlayer - seems to work better than AlienBBC for me.

d) SuperDateTime - weather and stuff as the screensaver. Very customisable.

[charlesr]

http://whathifi.com/News/Linn-to-cease-production-of-CD-players-in-2010/

Linn are firmly going down the digital streaming route now. No more CDs. But vinyl are still go.

[charlesr]

I went with the Squeezeboxes because they were a little bit like "Open Source" with community driven software development.

When Logitech bought them out, I predicted they would not support it for very long. Lo and behold they have stopped supporting it.

In their wake they have left a dependency on an external website (mysqueezebox.com) for running many Apps, and a hugely bloated but admittedly easier to use front web front end.

One of my squeezeboxes has broken. Now is a really bad time because it's not clear if it's worth throwing any more money at the system. There are community replacements being worked on, but I don't think any of them have screens and rely on using your Android or iPhone to control them. They will be cheap but good. Firing up an app to control music is inefficient although I do have a Joggler box that sits being a squeezeplay remote 24/7 in the kitchen.

So, what are the alternatives like these days? Linn? Sonos?

I have a PC that is always on.

[wakka]

I use an old iPhone 3G running the jailbreak app Airfloat, sitting in a dock hooked up to the mains and my amp 24/7. It makes it an Airplay receiver so I can send audio from any Apple gear (or PC) wirelessly.

Probably won't help you as IIRC you are a stickler for FLAC. But it's a good ghetto solution that may help others