Topic: Any thoughts on wireless media players?

[plucks]

I know that Squeeze box is out there, but has anyone tried out any products similar to those in this link?

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=484&name=Network-Media-Players

Having a way to link 24bit on my computer to my stereo would be great (without making DVDAs)

[cheshirecat]

I have a squeezebox 2, I actually think it is one of the best purchases that I've made over the last 5 years (honestly).

I recently bought a Tvix 4100 which is similar but will do video/audio etc. and to be honest, I'm not that happy with it.  The squeezebox is well worth the cost, it is a product that works well for what it does and has an excellent support network.  The SB2 and SB3 will play 24 bit audio.

[heath]

question about the squeezebox.  is it something I would want to look at to simply play iTunes library wirelessly on my computer?  or is it overkill for that?  i have seen the airport based stuff for iTunes and it looks pretty simple.  I desperately am looking for a way to wirelessly stream iTunes around the house

[pfife]

question about the squeezebox.  is it something I would want to look at to simply play iTunes library wirelessly on my computer?  or is it overkill for that?  i have seen the airport based stuff for iTunes and it looks pretty simple.  I desperately am looking for a way to wirelessly stream iTunes around the house

I echo earlier sentiments - Squeezebox rules.    It communicates with the Slimserver software, which can import Itunes library.  I have not done so, but its in the optinos.  Slimserver can also be used to stream music anywhere in the world over the internets, which is what I do for about 3 hours every morning at work.

Squeezebox and Slimserver are really awesome.

It might be overkill price wise, as I believe the airport is like $99, and the sb3 is around $250 now.  But I'd be quite confident in saying that you won't be disappointed in an SB3 purchase.

[Since85]

The squeezebox will do 24/96 wirelessly without a hiccup? FLAC or WAV?
I just want to stream masters off the hard drive to my stereo without any quality loss, would this be the way to go?

Thanks for any info.

[Brian Skalinder]

The squeezebox will do 24/96 wirelessly without a hiccup? FLAC or WAV?
I just want to stream masters off the hard drive to my stereo without any quality loss, would this be the way to go?

I use the Squeezebox to stream from my PC in the home office to the living room.  I play back 24/48 FLACs.  It won't do 96k, only 48k.  It downsamples on-the-fly from 96k to 48k.  I forget if it downsamples in SlimServer on the PC or on the SB itself.  It probably doesn't matter much - on-the-fly downsampling probably isn't the best sounding option, either way.  But all my personal recording's are 24/48, so...doesn't bother me much.

[Since85]

Thanks Mr. Moderator!

Would you say the playback quality is as good as if you were listening to the file directly to the hard drive?
Does it also do 24/48 wav?
Also, do you recommend going analog out or coax digital out to your preamp?

thanks again!
 

[bgalizio]

Agreed with the above comments on the Squeezebox. I have the 3rd version and it has changed the way I listen to to music. I can't tell a difference in sound. Wireless range and strength are great. Best birthday gift ever!

[Brian Skalinder]

Would you say the playback quality is as good as if you were listening to the file directly to the hard drive?

Tough to say exactly, since I have different playback setups in my LR v. office.  But...I'd say it's no different.  Just bits over wireless...buffered on the SB...and then sent to my DAC.

Does it also do 24/48 wav?

Yes.  Specs here:  http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html?

Also, do you recommend going analog out or coax digital out to your preamp?

Well, you'd need to run coax digital out to a DAC of some kind, not directly to the preamp.  I can't recommend one over the other since <1> it depends on the relative quality of the SB DAC v. your external DAC, and <2> I've only ever run it digital-out.

[cheshirecat]

Thanks Mr. Moderator!

Would you say the playback quality is as good as if you were listening to the file directly to the hard drive?
Does it also do 24/48 wav?
Also, do you recommend going analog out or coax digital out to your preamp?

thanks again!
 

The A>D is pretty solid in the thing, however if you have a nice DAC in your pre then I'd do digi out to your pre... or experiment and see what you like.

Not sure about 24/48 wav, I tend to use flac for everything since it will read your flac tags to allow you to catalog music (whereas wav will only use filename, not as nice imho).

Well worth every penny, I ripped all my cds and transferred all my shows to flac and put it on my thecus 5200 (linux based NAS) where I run slimserver.  That is then connected up to the hifi and it is really the dope spot for listening to music.

[Brian Skalinder]

One comment on my experience, one recommendation:

Wireless

I had to hack my wireless access point (with 3rd party firmware) to increase it's signal strength since I encountered stuttering due to a weak signal.  I haven't seen many reports of people needing to do so, but I did, so I thought I'd pass along the experience.

Best Practices

If you move to HDD-based listening, I strongly recommend:

• Some form of HDD redundancy, so you don't have to reload 200 GB of FLACs from DVDs in the event of a HDD crash.  Plenty of options:  fancy & complex with greater risk of failed recovery (RAID), some form of plug-n-play (NAS), or the approach I've taken:  reasonable redundancy.  Other options, too, of course
  
• Effective, diligent backups to external media, in case you have a catastrophic failure of your redundant HDD setup
• If you can swing it, off-site backup storage, in case you have a catastrophic failure across your redundant HDD setup and on-site media backups (e.g. fire or flood or theft).

[Nick's Picks]

I use a $20 chaintek sound card and a 15' glass toslink cable.
$40 in total.

my "remote" is my laptop.

but, I like the SB3 better.  I really enjoy using Johns when I'm at his house.  slick ass remote.

[cheshirecat]

One comment on my experience, one recommendation:

Wireless

I had to hack my wireless access point (with 3rd party firmware) to increase it's signal strength since I encountered stuttering due to a weak signal.  I haven't seen many reports of people needing to do so, but I did, so I thought I'd pass along the experience.

Best Practices

If you move to HDD-based listening, I strongly recommend:

• Some form of HDD redundancy, so you don't have to reload 200 GB of FLACs from DVDs in the event of a HDD crash.  Plenty of options:  fancy & complex with greater risk of failed recovery (RAID), some form of plug-n-play (NAS), or the approach I've taken:  reasonable redundancy.  Other options, too, of course
  
• Effective, diligent backups to external media, in case you have a catastrophic failure of your redundant HDD setup
• If you can swing it, off-site backup storage, in case you have a catastrophic failure across your redundant HDD setup and on-site media backups (e.g. fire or flood or theft).

Great points.  I've had no issues with my wireless, but generally have a 90% + signal strength (small apt, so good signal).

As far as backups, once I decided to centralize my music collection, I started with a single 500gb drive with a second using robocopy to do an occasional mirror.  After I grew beyond 500gb, I bought the thecus box which works as a standalone slimserver and has reasonable redundancy (I also use this as my NFS share for the tvix box to use as a video jukebox).  For added security, I backup certain directories to another external RAID0 device using robocopy to pickup any changed files.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

I'm also a big long-time squeezebox fan.. I bought the first version of their product, the slimp3, around 2000...  I haven't had a cd player on my system in many years..

I run my sb3 directly into my dna125.   No pre-amp required. I find putting a pre-amp in the chain significantly degrades the sound quality.

[pfife]

• Some form of HDD redundancy, so you don't have to reload 200 GB of FLACs from DVDs in the event of a HDD crash.  Plenty of options:  fancy & complex with greater risk of failed recovery (RAID), some form of plug-n-play (NAS), or the approach I've taken:  reasonable redundancy.  Other options, too, of course
  
  

I did what you delineated in this link, and it works nicely. Very easy to set up +T

The DAC on the SB3 is pretty nice.

[/list]

[Brian Skalinder]

I did what you delineated in this link, and it works nicely. Very easy to set up +T

Not sure when you did it, but...if you used Argentum Backup...WARNING:  Argentum stinks, re-read the updated thread.

[Jamos]

question about the squeezebox.  is it something I would want to look at to simply play iTunes library wirelessly on my computer?  or is it overkill for that?  i have seen the airport based stuff for iTunes and it looks pretty simple.  I desperately am looking for a way to wirelessly stream iTunes around the house

The squeezebox is really slick...

but $79.99 for a refurb Airport Express from Apple has given me everything I need for now.

[bobbygeeWOW]

I'm going to jump firmly into the Squeezebox camp here, having recently gotten one - this thing is fantastically well thought out.
Trivial setup, loads of little usability details (like the instant font adjustment on the remote).
Then being able to casually browse the entire archive.org live music collection (incl. GD) via remote in yer living room? 'nuff said!

[cheshirecat]

Oh yeah, I love the sirius plugin for the squeezebox as well.  I can stream sirius content directly to the box, so no need to have additional sirius receiver.

[pfife]

I did what you delineated in this link, and it works nicely. Very easy to set up +T

Not sure when you did it, but...if you used Argentum Backup...WARNING:  re-read the updates I've made to the thread today.

nope, just made a bat file and set up scheduler to run it every night.

[bobbygeeWOW]

Gee, I just noticed that with the aid of the CustomScan and CustomBrowse plugins, you can view a show's source info right on the squeezebox using the remote via the Now Playing right click menu! Now that's slick!
Can browse by source too, which is kinda fun..

[Gordon]

how did I not know about this till now?!?      looks really nice!!  only thing I don't like is no 96k support.   been thinking of a way to play all my masters and mp3s on my stereo via the hardrives.  the pc and hdds are in the office and the stereo is in the den.  was thinking about getting a interface for my laptop but then the harddrives would have to also be moved to the den and the laptop would have to sit right beside the stereo or have some long ass cables.

anything else like the Squeezebox?? 

[it-goes-to-eleven]

how did I not know about this till now?!?      looks really nice!!  only thing I don't like is no 96k support.

Not sure if you saw it but 96k is supported by on the fly resampling to 48k.  Not ideal but much better than no support.

I don't think the alternatives are worth much consideration. The squeezeboxes hold their value very well on the used market (check ebay).  The open source model has worked Really well for slim devices and the product just keeps getting better and better.

The sonos is a Much more expensive alternative and it is a closed platform. Roku is a knockoff that tried to be a little cheaper by using the slim devices software but not contributing back any development or improvements.

[bgalizio]

For he features and sound quality, the Squeezebox is VERY tough to beat. I looked at quite a few others wireless media players, but none had the features I wanted except the SB3.