SQUEEZEBOX

[falcoron]

Just had a really good chat with Bryan ( Brifi) and the subject of the squeeze box came up.

Now i must confess to being a techno-phobe TBH so i have always sherked away from such talk.

But as i am starting to buy vinyl im running out of space with cd's and now Lp's "cluttering up the place" ( her words not mine )

Bryan suggested i get one and load on my collection, its not that big anyway at 300 or so, but given i have a great Cd player Bryan told me this would sound great through the Sugden using its DAC. He explained how this could be done and it was simple, but it really was over my head. So all you budding techies, how do i do this? Please, stupid as feck laymans terms only please.

Quite fancy having the conveniance without selling any of my kit on as im really happy with the system, hence the forray into a Turntable and vinyl. Just to keep my eye in, so to speak.

I would be interested in the Duo as i quite like the handset idea with all the info of the cd's at your fingertips.

Thanks

[falcoron]

Is this in the wrong place?

[gsrai]

Ron, there are a lot of threads in the 2-channel sectio of the forum but I will try to explain as simply as I can.

If you have 300 or so CD's you probably need a hard drive with about 200Gig of Data - a decent USB drive would set you back about £70 for 500gig - loads of space.

In a simple setup with as a PC, a squeezebox, an external harddrive and your CD player you would install the slimserver software that comes with the squeezebox onto your laptop and tell it that all of your music is stored on the external hard drive (there's a bit in the setup where you tell it which directory you have the music on).

Obviously with the hard drive connected to your laptop the squeezebox would then be connected to your PC using a LAN cable and it would then serve as an interface from your music to your hifi.

The squeezebox has analog and digital outputs so you can connect the squeezebox directly to your amp or use an optical/coax digital cable to connect the squeezebox to your CD player and then change the input on your CD player to play the squeezebox music.

The hard bit is getting your music onto the hard drive and for this you could use some ripping (which basically means sampling and copying) software like EAC,Musicmonkey and many others and rip the CD's onto the hard drive at a suitably high bit rate for MP3 files or you could rip them in FLAC lossless format which I struggle to tell the difference between it and the CD.

Sorry if the explanation is a bit too general but it's not hard and as long as you have the basic tools you will be fine - plenty of us on here know how to do it so we can help - I'll try and find some links for you :0

[gsrai]

Here's a link to the logitech website and the how to PDF is quite okay.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/sp...1&cl=gb,en

Just remember if you have a wireless network in your home this gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to squeezeboxes.

If this is a little complicated then Sonos does the same but maybe it's a little easier.

[browellm]

Hi Ron

First off, you need some software to convert your CD's to files. This is called "ripping"

There are loads of packages available, most are free, one or two aren't but the odd one is worth the 30 quid or so.

Squeezebox support all the major lossless file formats. The two main ones are FLAC and ALAC.

FLAC is an open standards format
ALAC is Apple Lossless

Both sound the same, so no need to worry.

If you are technically very unsure, I would install iTunes and use that as it is friendly for new users. You need to change your rip settings to use Apple Lossless (ALAC). Squeezebox has a setting in it to integrate with iTunes, which makes it ery easy for new users to set up.

iTunes will get the Artwork and Tags (information about the songs) as long as you have your computer connected to the internet.

As I said, iTunes is an straightforward ripping package for a new user, the only thing I would caution against is if you have a large classical collection - the tag data isn't the greatest with iTunes.

If you don't want to use iTunes, then post back and I will tell you how to use dBPoweramp, which is my preferred software. This uses a database called AccurateRip, to ensire you have a perfect copy of the disk you ripped.

Other peeps have their favourites such as Foobar and EAC. Try a few out if you have the time and inclination. They all do a similar thing.


As to squeezebox itself, i have the Controller myself, which is the remote control bit of the Duet with the display.

I would actually recommend a new user to get a Squeezebox Classic with an iPod touch instead. The Classic is easier to set up for technophobe users, and the iPod touch makes a much nicer remote when you add a 5 quid app called iPeng.

Hope this helps, post back if you have any more questions.

[falcoron]

Thanks guy's,
I can rip CD's ok with the media player in my laptop. It gives me bit rate up to 125 and the latest version it easy to use. ( windows media player version 11)Maybe not good enough?
So basically get a good big storage hard drive, rip all my cd's onto that and then do i load these all onto the squeezebox? Or do i need my laptop on at all times when playing my squeezebox?
i probably have this all wrong but i thought i could load my whole collection actually onto the squeezebox then plug it into my cd player to use its DAC. get control of the files via the remote ( or Ipod) and Roberts yer mammys brother. Is this just too simple? I have it wrong don't I?

[falcoron]

would this do as a remote?
found it looking at ipod touch on ebay. a lot cheaper and as i only want it as a remote. Any use to me for all i need with a squeezebox classic?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Touch-Screen-M...3A1%7C294%3A50

[dudywoxer]

falcoron wrote:

Thanks guy's,
I can rip CD's ok with the media player in my laptop. It gives me bit rate up to 125 and the latest version it easy to use. ( windows media player version 11)Maybe not good enough?
So basically get a good big storage hard drive, rip all my cd's onto that and then do i load these all onto the squeezebox? Or do i need my laptop on at all times when playing my squeezebox?
i probably have this all wrong but i thought i could load my whole collection actually onto the squeezebox then plug it into my cd player to use its DAC. get control of the files via the remote ( or Ipod) and Roberts yer mammys brother. Is this just too simple? I have it wrong don't I?

The squeeze box does not store the files, it is in effect a receiver. You need to have the music files stored on a computer, and the computer needs to be running the squeeze centre server software to feed the files to the squeeze box. The squeeze box can either talk to the server by wired, or wireless ethernet. The choices you make on how to do it really depend on how your current system (computer) works. Do you use a PC, or a MAC, is your internet connection wired, or wireless.

[browellm]

falcoron wrote:

would this do as a remote?
found it looking at ipod touch on ebay. a lot cheaper and as i only want it as a remote. Any use to me for all i need with a squeezebox classic?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Touch-Screen-M...3A1%7C294%3A50

No you can't use that as a remote. It won't be able to talk to Squeezebox Server.

[browellm]

falcoron wrote:

Thanks guy's,
I can rip CD's ok with the media player in my laptop. It gives me bit rate up to 125 and the latest version it easy to use. ( windows media player version 11)Maybe not good enough?
So basically get a good big storage hard drive, rip all my cd's onto that and then do i load these all onto the squeezebox? Or do i need my laptop on at all times when playing my squeezebox?
i probably have this all wrong but i thought i could load my whole collection actually onto the squeezebox then plug it into my cd player to use its DAC. get control of the files via the remote ( or Ipod) and Roberts yer mammys brother. Is this just too simple? I have it wrong don't I?

Whilst you can use Windows Media Player to rip, I would advise against it.

If you rip to WMA Lossless, you might find you have the issues our good friend IceHockeyBoy had, where WMP applies some kind of DRM to the files, causing them not to play on your SB.

[falcoron]

Thanks Mark,
Getting the gist now,
i have a pretty good Laptop and am broadband wirless connected. Itunes seem to be very well thought of so i'll load that on tonight and have a play with it to get the feeling of how things work.I'll have a good think about what way im going to do this if at all, and make my choice.
Can i use this with an ipod touch?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Logitech-Squee...3A1%7C294%3A50
or just the claccic? Thought this would be a good cheap way of doing this £99 for the receiver and about £70-80 for a used touch.
want to do this on the cheap as poss option in case i just hate it.
Thanks again
PS havent a clue what all those abbreviations are.
Only ones i know are; FFS, AND SWMBO. LOL!

Oh, and not a MAC.

[falcoron]

gsrai wrote:

Here's a link to the logitech website and the how to PDF is quite okay.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/sp...1&cl=gb,en

Just remember if you have a wireless network in your home this gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to squeezeboxes.

If this is a little complicated then Sonos does the same but maybe it's a little easier.

Cheers, having a good read,

Thanks for the info, i'll probably need loads of help.

like most things though, once you start its quite simple in the end.

[browellm]

falcoron wrote:

Thanks Mark,
Getting the gist now,
i have a pretty good Laptop and am broadband wirless connected. Itunes seem to be very well thought of so i'll load that on tonight and have a play with it to get the feeling of how things work.I'll have a good think about what way im going to do this if at all, and make my choice.
Can i use this with an ipod touch?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Logitech-Squee...3A1%7C294%3A50
or just the claccic? Thought this would be a good cheap way of doing this £99 for the receiver and about £70-80 for a used touch.
want to do this on the cheap as poss option in case i just hate it.
Thanks again
PS havent a clue what all those abbreviations are.
Only ones i know are; FFS, AND SWMBO. LOL!

Oh, and not a MAC.

OK, now, there *is* a way to configure at Duet receiver without a Controller, but it is not for the faint hearted, and I would certainly not recommend it for a self-confessed technophobe. So, if possible beg, borrow or steal a Controller first to set it up.

As for pricing, I find Superfi has the best online prices. It's currently £80 for a receiver.

I still like the Classic though. Even having a remote with album art and info, I find the display on the Classic useful.

They pop up s/h quite regularly for £90-£100.

[falcoron]

Thanks Mark

[icehockeyboy]

browellm wrote:

falcoron wrote:

Thanks guy's,
I can rip CD's ok with the media player in my laptop. It gives me bit rate up to 125 and the latest version it easy to use. ( windows media player version 11)Maybe not good enough?
So basically get a good big storage hard drive, rip all my cd's onto that and then do i load these all onto the squeezebox? Or do i need my laptop on at all times when playing my squeezebox?
i probably have this all wrong but i thought i could load my whole collection actually onto the squeezebox then plug it into my cd player to use its DAC. get control of the files via the remote ( or Ipod) and Roberts yer mammys brother. Is this just too simple? I have it wrong don't I?

Whilst you can use Windows Media Player to rip, I would advise against it.

If you rip to WMA Lossless, you might find you have the issues our good friend IceHockeyBoy had, where WMP applies some kind of DRM to the files, causing them not to play on your SB.

I second that!