apple ipod music on your ML system - Wadia dock or Airport extreme???

[JonFo]

Atom based "Netbooks" make good SC servers.

This Shuttle mini-pc also makes an awsome SC server:

http://us.shuttle.com/ConfigurePackage.aspx?package=SLX2700

Quiet and small, just what you need for AV.

 

[gordonmenninger]

ok, I just bought the Squeezebox3 off amazon for $260 incl free shipping (actually it was JR Music world off amazon). Ebay had them used for around $200... not worth it imo to go that route. What's an extra 60 clams in this crazy hobby!

I will report back when I have it in my system and everything hooked up! Thanks everyone for all the great advice as usual!

Now does anyone have the optional remote with the color screen on it??? That looks pretty nifty, but seems kind of expensive...
Any suggestions?

 

[amey01]

ok, I just bought the Squeezebox3 off amazon for $260 incl free shipping (actually it was JR Music world off amazon). Ebay had them used for around $200... not worth it imo to go that route. What's an extra 60 clams in this crazy hobby!

Congratulations!! Enjoy - I'm sure you'll be happy!

Now does anyone have the optional remote with the color screen on it??? That looks pretty nifty, but seems kind of expensive...
Any suggestions?

See post #30!! Do you own any of those devices?

There are many options, but the easiest is to start off simply with any web browser enabled Wi-Fi device.

 

[PinePoint]

Give some though to a Zune...

I purchased a Zune 120G a few months ago, and have loaded app 40G of .wav files so far. I'm not a huge microsoft fan, but portability of carrying a LARGE % of my collection with me (I travel a lot) was very desireable. IMHO, the sound through my etymotics surpassed anything any other devices I've tried, including the Cowan I4 (very good) and a Sansa E280 (pretty good). I then antied up for the Zune AC dock, and cabled into our party room Adcom GFA 535 to the in-ceiling speakers....Whoa...very nice! Got me thinking, what if I plug it into the Jolida>ML Aerius i's?? Stinking good!...not SACD level....but surprisingly it bumps up uncomfortably close to the standard CD playback (depending on the recording) of my Sony XA 9000. Anyone else tried this???:rocker:

 

[gordonmenninger]

Update:

I just received the squeezebox 3 this afternoon. This thing is about the easiest piece of equipment I have ever hooked up! I thought it would be a bit more complicated. I lieterally had this thing connected to my computer and synced all of my ipod files within about 5 minutes and I was ready to go!
First impressions, it sounds very good! Very intuitive, and I think I am going to love all the internet radio stations - I am streaming Pandora right now... The possibilities with this thing are endless! Thanks everyone for all the advice in making me lean to this device over the Wadia ipod dock!



I do have a few questions for the sb3 experts on here:
- can you play the music that the squeezecenter is streaming also from your computer speakers that the SB3 is hooked up to???
- do I need to change anything on the audio output settings to be sure I am gettin maximum bitrate, sound quality, etc...?
- volume control - what do you guys do? Should I just leave it on 100 and call it a night?
-the optional Squeezebox remote controller with the nice lcd screen that sells for $299 really intrigues me... My only question - is the actual remote wifi as well so I can use it anywhere in the house / deck the network reaches or do I have to actually be close to the sb3 and point it at its IR port?????


thanks!

 

[amey01]

I just received the squeezebox 3 this afternoon. This thing is about the easiest piece of equipment I have ever hooked up! I thought it would be a bit more complicated. I lieterally had this thing connected to my computer and synced all of my ipod files within about 5 minutes and I was ready to go!
First impressions, it sounds very good! Very intuitive, and I think I am going to love all the internet radio stations - I am streaming Pandora right now... The possibilities with this thing are endless! Thanks everyone for all the advice in making me lean to this device over the Wadia ipod dock!



I do have a few questions for the sb3 experts on here:
- can you play the music that the squeezecenter is streaming also from your computer speakers that the SB3 is hooked up to???
- do I need to change anything on the audio output settings to be sure I am gettin maximum bitrate, sound quality, etc...?
- volume control - what do you guys do? Should I just leave it on 100 and call it a night?
-the optional Squeezebox remote controller with the nice lcd screen that sells for $299 really intrigues me... My only question - is the actual remote wifi as well so I can use it anywhere in the house / deck the network reaches or do I have to actually be close to the sb3 and point it at its IR port?????


thanks!

Haha - damn cool, isn't it?

1: Yes (actually, you can do anything because it's open source - you just need to know what to do). In this case, install SoftSqueeze (a software based SB3) and sync the players. SoftSqueeze is also open source and cross-platform.

2: The volume control is digital so make sure it is at maximum and use your preamp to control listening level. Also, there is a setting under the player preferences (I think) that can limit bitrate - it should not be set by default, but it enables you to limit bitrate to 128k (for arguments sake) so you can stream your lossless library over the internet to a SB3 in your office for example. Make sure this is not limiting bitrate for your critical listening player!

3: See 2: - yes, leave it on 100.

4: The remote is WiFi - you can use it anywhere, to control any number of SB3s - even the SoftSqueeze instance I mentioned in 1:

There is a great user community at forums.slimdevices.com

Have fun!!

 

[gordonmenninger]

wow amey01 - that was quick! Perfect, just the answers I wanted to hear. I just placed an order for the remote.

I have been cranking my system for the last 5 hours, while my wife is upstairs drinking wine ... I almost have to say that the sound is better than my current cd player (blu ray - sony bdp 500)... Can't put my finger on it, it just sounds better. Great detail, especially in the bass... I was playing around with Pandora (love it) and listened to one of my stations (guy Gerber) that plays basical minimal deep techno / house, mostly instrumental stuff... The bass was amazing, it was knocking glasses around in the basement kitchen... after listening a while I realized that I actually only had One of my JL Fathoms playing, the other one was unplugged! Holy crap those subs are great with a good source!

 

[amey01]

wow amey01 - that was quick! Perfect, just the answers I wanted to hear. I just placed an order for the remote.

I have been cranking my system for the last 5 hours, while my wife is upstairs drinking wine ... I almost have to say that the sound is better than my current cd player (blu ray - sony bdp 500)... Can't put my finger on it, it just sounds better. Great detail, especially in the bass... I was playing around with Pandora (love it) and listened to one of my stations (guy Gerber) that plays basical minimal deep techno / house, mostly instrumental stuff... The bass was amazing, it was knocking glasses around in the basement kitchen... after listening a while I realized that I actually only had One of my JL Fathoms playing, the other one was unplugged! Holy crap those subs are great with a good source!

Yes - as we said, the DAC (or to be more pertinent, the analogue output stage) in the SB3 is no slouch - but to really bring it to its own, use an outboard DAC.

 

[gordonmenninger]

Couple more squeezebox questions:
1.) is there way I can open another squeezecenter on another computer (laptop for my deck) so I can change tunes from a second computer??? Right now I can just do it from my main office comp that has all the mp3's on it...

2.) when searching artists in squeezecenter and I click on an artist with multibple songs, the down arrow only shows the album title and not song title. How do I get the song title to show up without the album title???

thanks

 

[amey01]

Couple more squeezebox questions:
1.) is there way I can open another squeezecenter on another computer (laptop for my deck) so I can change tunes from a second computer??? Right now I can just do it from my main office comp that has all the mp3's on it...

2.) when searching artists in squeezecenter and I click on an artist with multibple songs, the down arrow only shows the album title and not song title. How do I get the song title to show up without the album title???

thanks

1) YES - you will notice on your SqueezeCentre computer, when using the interface it will say http://<LOCAL COMPUTER>:9000. All you need to do to access it from another computer is point it to that same address, substuting LOCAL COMPUTER for what is now the remote computer, that is, the SqueezeCentre computer.

Make sense? ie. If your SqueezeCentre computer is called "squeezecentre" then point the second computer to http://squeezecentre:9000. That's all. Better still, you can run something like Moose on the second computer and point that to the SqueezeCentre computer too, which is a much nicer interface. Or open the web interface from a Pocket PC or iPhone/iTouch. The options are literally endless.

You can do everything remotely that you can do on the actual SqueezeCentre terminal. I don't even have a screen on my SqueezeCentre server. It just doesn't need it.

2) Are you using "Search" on the front page of the SC interface? Not quite sure what you mean, but if you click on the album then you should see the songs, right?

 

[gordonmenninger]

1.) my squeezecenter says http://127.0.0.1:9000/
so my laptop should say what to access it? Would I have to install sqcenter on the laptop???


2.)I meant when I am playing a song on the SB and on the front of the unit I am looking under now playing>My media>artists>album

I want it to say "song title" istead of album as I do not know always which song is on what album!

 

[amey01]

1.) my squeezecenter says http://127.0.0.1:9000/
so my laptop should say what to access it? Would I have to install sqcenter on the laptop???


2.)I meant when I am playing a song on the SB and on the front of the unit I am looking under now playing>My media>artists>album

I want it to say "song title" istead of album as I do not know always which song is on what album!

Okay - 127.0.0.1 is the local "loopback" IP address. It basically means "itself":9000. What you need to tell your other computer is to go to that laptop, so you would certainly not enter "127.0.0.1" as this would mean the remote computer. If you've given your comptuer a hostname (like "GordonLaptop") then you can use that......ie http://gordonlaptop:9000, otherwise find the real IP of your laptop (if Windows, select Start-->Run, type "cmd" and press <ENTER>. Then type "ipconfig" and it will tell you. It should be something like 192.168.1.2. This is the real IP of your computer, so on the remote computer, enter http://192.168.1.2:9000 and you'll see your SqueezeCentre.

You certainly don't need to install SqueezeCentre on the remote computer. That will get confusing. ONLY 1 INSTALLATION of it!!

2: As for the display, there are options for how you want your display under Settings --> Interface. You can select from the little buttons as how you want your display. When scrolling through artists and you see an album, pressing the <RIGHT> arrow again will show individual songs.

Hope that helps - I was getting a little tongue-tied!

 

[JonFo]

Gordon, maybe I missed it, but you really should be using the digital output of the SB3 into your Theta. that will give you the best quality from the combo.


BTW- one of the best ways to play back digital audio tracks is to have the preamp be able to do it directly.

The mighty Denon AVP-A1HDci can do this, and it is even cleaner than having my super high-end PC solution (firewire audio interface and all), do it.

When done inside the preamp, that is also supplying the final D/A steps, there is zero jitter, as the unpacked audio streams are synched to the preamps master clock.

Litterally, the ideal way of performing digital playback.

The next best is to link up a Denon Universal player (2930 in my case) via DenonLink3, again, no jitter, full rez, lossless all-digital link-up from player to pre.

 

[amey01]

BTW- one of the best ways to play back digital audio tracks is to have the preamp be able to do it directly.

Personally, I think any good DAC is great, but if you want to do it inside the preamp, there's always the EMM DCC2!!

 

[JonFo]

Amey, even with a good DAC, the problem is that often that just adds another layer of D/A/D to the equation.

The reason is that some preamps (like the Theta) might be doing the bass management, in which case there will be a round of A/D to apply the crossovers (and other EQ) in the digital domain.

So a if your preamp is doing any form of signal processing (room correction, bass management, etc.), then you are forced to listen to the preamps DAC's.

In those cases, a direct digital feed is the cleanest.

 

[JonFo]

Oh, for those who do have a DAC or pre (like the EMMLabs Dcc2) that has Word Clock ouput, you can link up a Squeezebox Transporter (which has word clock input) for a totally jitter-free hookup.

But then, the transporter has excellent DACs anyway.

I believe there are 'mods' for the SB3 that allow for a word-clock input. That might be a solution if you already have an SB3 and a DAC with WordClock outs.

 

[gordonmenninger]

Gordon, maybe I missed it, but you really should be using the digital output of the SB3 into your Theta. that will give you the best quality from the combo.


BTW- one of the best ways to play back digital audio tracks is to have the preamp be able to do it directly.

The mighty Denon AVP-A1HDci can do this, and it is even cleaner than having my super high-end PC solution (firewire audio interface and all), do it.

When done inside the preamp, that is also supplying the final D/A steps, there is zero jitter, as the unpacked audio streams are synched to the preamps master clock.

Litterally, the ideal way of performing digital playback.

The next best is to link up a Denon Universal player (2930 in my case) via DenonLink3, again, no jitter, full rez, lossless all-digital link-up from player to pre.

Yes, I am using the spdif out of my sb3 into the Theta CasaNova so yes the Theta is doing all the D/A conversion. Yes the Theta does have a few modes for example a "special Matrix" mode. However I do 90% of my listening in Stereo mode, as I hate the majority of the sounds to come out of the center channel!
I will be bying the new Emotiva processor as soon as it is released; not quite sure how good those D/A converters are in that unit... I may end up having to go the seperate D/A route if they are not up to snuff...

 

[New2ML]

Anyone else as astonished and irritated that, in an era of cheap and efficient hard drive data storage, decades after the conversion to digital music sources ...

... that easy to use and install, and inexpensive, digital media servers are virtually non-existent?

Every music message board has threads about "how can I do something that SHOULD be simple"

 

[MiTT]

Anyone else as astonished and irritated that, in an era of cheap and efficient hard drive data storage, decades after the conversion to digital music sources ...

... that easy to use and install, and inexpensive, digital media servers are virtually non-existent?

Every music message board has threads about "how can I do something that SHOULD be simple"

I would hardly consider myself a computer guru, but I just bought a Sonos system with 2 zones. I had it set up and streaming music in about a half hour without a hitch. NOW, I'm installing a NAS tomorrow night, so we'll see if I change my tune after that?!?!?!

 

[JonFo]

Yes, I am using the spdif out of my sb3 into the Theta CasaNova so yes the Theta is doing all the D/A conversion. Yes the Theta does have a few modes for example a "special Matrix" mode. However I do 90% of my listening in Stereo mode, as I hate the majority of the sounds to come out of the center channel!
I will be bying the new Emotiva processor as soon as it is released; not quite sure how good those D/A converters are in that unit... I may end up having to go the seperate D/A route if they are not up to snuff...

Gordon, that's great, and I agree, too many 'surround' modes are not as good as good old Stereo (Meridian TriField is the only exception IMHO).

However, even in Stereo, both the theta and the Emotiva will be doing bass management for your subs (unless the preamps have bypass modes), so feeding a straight digital signal is usually best.

So even if you get a separate DAC, unless there is bypass of bass management and time alignment, your will go through unnecessary D/A - A/D cycles.

And, if it does have bypass, then you lose the subs.