I have been using a squeezebox for many years and was about to add some more to the network but alas Logitech are discontinuing them in favour of another product which doesn't really meet my needs. I'm looking for a solution that can: Play music from my own collection (FLAC, OGG, MP3) Works off a local server - does not require internet to be up Will play internet radio Decent Audio quality What is there on the market for playback devices and related music server tech. Specifically it cannot depend on having a full PC/screen/keyboard. Thanks.
I am using a Raspberry Pi with the Squeezebox interface. It is quite nice as you can control it from your smartphone. Also, I find the audio quality from the Pi to be okay, but I guess that is because I only use it on some small bookshelf speakers in my kitchen.
Thanks for the pointers. The catch is that this setup is used by my wife as well and thus has to be something that works without fiddle and looks tidy. I was also wondering if the whole LMS/Squeezebox is the best architecture or is there a better alternative if you were starting from scratch now.
Sonos, clearly. Costs a few more pennies than Logitech did, but well worth the extra, and very wife friendly.
I took a look. Pricey all right, I'm not sure what I'm getting for the extra cash. Not a display for a start!
No fiddle and looks tidy as per requirements - why on earth do you need a display? For the money, one of the bonuses is the scalability and resilience over Squeezebox (not sure if you've had any issues with that though), the "just works" factor, runs straight from a NAS share, integrates with most (all?) music streaming services/internet radio and the fact that the Android and IOS remotes (and the PC one for that matter) are utterly flawless and wife proven. The Play:3/5 boxes can be handy as well, for spaces which don't need the full hi-fi treatment.
It does look tidy I agree, but since we don't have a mobile signal at home we don't always have a smartphone to hand so I guess the advantage of an old-world ir remote you point at a box. That said you could probably buy a £50 android smartphone without a sim as a dedicated control but it seems a bit of a botch. I will take a look and dig up some reviews.......
I run squeezebox on a O2/Openpeak Joggler. It's a now old touchscreen/photoframe that can install third party operating systems. There's a forum over at http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/ that has a fairly large following. I've updated the current firmware with PnP3 which is a updated standard firmware, added apps including squeezebox. I then output my audio via USB analogue to digital converter which then goes into my valve stereo. You can get these for sub £40 on eBay, I did. Sod buying something that is locked, with this install ubunto and play It's a nice alternative.
This. I'd rather go without gin than Sonos these days I think* *this may not strictly be true, but Sonos is basically cheesecake.
I currently am using a single play 5 on my main floor and love it to bits. The sound quality is amazing for a such a small unit. You don't need a computer to use it as there are apps available for both android and iOS. I know it can play both mp3 and m4a not sure on ogg and flac. Sonos products are expensive but they are really well built and pretty simplistic to use. However keep in mind that if you want to use either the play 5 or play 3 wirelessly you will need a sonos zone bridge.
We have the play 5 in one room, play 3 in the other and hooked up to 2:1 speakers in the lounge and sonos is easy to use and just works! The only bad thing at the moment is it doesn't support zune pass if you have a windows phone
So with sonos the whole system is in the player or speaker and it just reads a network share? I must say it looks good but the cost in non-trivial. For a couple of rooms it is goign to run up a bit of a bill On the other hand I find the squeezbox server can be a bit sluggish and wish it would wake up a bit faster but still I'm not too worried about the LMS software disappearing as it's open source already and there is a pretty big community behind it. I might just look at some second hand squeezeboxs to see me through for now and have a fiddle with the DIY versions as well.
Well - for Sonos, you can get the whole lot in one box - the Play:3 and Play:5 (they're the Sonos unit with an active speaker), the Connect:Amp which you connect to your own speakers, or the Connect which connects to an amplifier. Plus there's a TV soundbar and a Sub you can pair with various zones. Do you already have a decent hi-fi set up in any of the rooms you want to put Sonos in?
The kitchen has an ok amp and bad speakers but I will upgrade them in due course. The new room will probably get a surround setup in other places a stand alone speaker would be handy enough. Slight catch is a preference for wired over wirless due to a lot of granite in the building!
Sonos sets up its own mesh network between players which is surprisingly good - I didn't expect the network coverage to be up to much, but I've been very impressed.
Do bear in mind, though, that as Sonos sets up it's own network, it does need at least one hard line in to your network. This can be in the form of an inexpensive stand-alone bridge or any one of your players (that is, any of the players have bridge capability built in). Sonos can play anything I've thrown at it, including FLAC (most of my music) and OGG.
I remembered the 'hard wired' point once I'd finished the post and meant to go back to add it. Whoops... Cheers for the confirmation on OGG - never used it. Flac, however? Awesome, isn't it.
