Starting an mp3 based sourced from scratch

[Craig]

OK, this has been on my mind for a while, so ...... let's say I wanted to put together a source for listening to ripped music.

Is there any way thatI can do without a 'fulltime' PC?

I appreciate that I have to rip the CD's to a hard drive first, but once done, is there anywayI can connect said device and move on ? I have neither desire nor space for a PC, wirelss connection or not.

WhatI do have space for is a squeezebox and a few of those wee 256gb hard drives

Is this do-able?

 

[HoopsOnToast]

what about a pc using this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=259099

fits in your hifi rack.....

 

[jonjin]

Craig wrote:

I appreciate that I have to rip the CD's to a hard drive first, but once done, is there anywayI can connect said device and move on ? I have neither desire nor space for a PC, wirelss connection or not. WhatI do have space for is a squeezebox and a few of those wee 256gb hard drives

You need a device that can interface with the data on the harddisk, so a harddisk by itself won't suffice... If you have a Squeezebox, then it'll easily play the songs on a computer harddisk (but then the computer will have to be on). Alternatively, get one of those harddisk player jobbies, eg Transporter by the same company as Squeezebox...

Of course if you have the SB (or something similar) you can listen to internet radios without a computer on, but you'll still need an internet connection.

Hope that helps...

JJ

 

[dudywoxer]

or something like this

 

[Craig]

The Cambridge has interested me, but I'd figured that cost of Squeezebox plus hard disk, minus the numerous bugs in the Cambridge (unless there's a recent firmware I don't know of) was the best option.

There's also the Yamaha version 1300 wotsit, but squeezebox interface seems the easiest.

Tannoyboy. Thanks, but what exactly is it ??

I'm loathe to have a PC running non stop, so perhaps this is not really a realistic goal. Sonus is a wee bit out of my range as I still like CD, but don't want to start building classical and other music selections with all the CD's that go with it.

 

[jonjin]

Think I've made a mistake... the Transporter is actually a suped-up SqueezeBox with better internals/electronics aimed at audiophools... But Slimdevices do a 1 terrabyte server... so don't have to have computer... Price on their website was US$1500 with 2 SBs:shock:

JJ

 

[meninblack]

The squeezebox won't work without a PC to act as a music server. A hard disc unit on it's own cannot act as a server - you need a processor running some kind of operating system and network software.

Without a PC, you are looking at dedicated devices such as the Cambridge - I believe there are other options too.

An iPod (or similar) would work, but you need some kind of PC to get the music onto it in the first place...

The thing in Tannoyboy's post is a home theatre PC.

 

[HoopsOnToast]

Craig wrote:

The Cambridge has interested me, but I'd figured that cost of Squeezebox plus hard disk, minus the numerous bugs in the Cambridge (unless there's a recent firmware I don't know of) was the best option.There's also the Yamaha version 1300 wotsit, but squeezebox interface seems the easiest.

Tannoyboy. Thanks, but what exactly is it ??

I'm loathe to have a PC running non stop, so perhaps this is not really a realistic goal. Sonus is a wee bit out of my range as I still like CD, but don't want to start building classical and other music selections with all the CD's that go with it.

Its a computer case, that has a remote control (to control music etc) and is the same width as av/hifi componets, made as a Home Theater PC (HTPC).

 

[dudywoxer]

Craig - what about contacting andrew on here, he has some interesting ideas, and you could even consider a older basic PC runnimg some flavour of Linux for the server side, you could get away with something like a well abused AMD 650 with a fair lump of memory and a hulking big hard drive or 3 for a squeeze box to talk to. Shove the PC in a cuboard close by?

 

[cjr]

Craig not sure what you will end up with, but if your going to have a 256Gb hard drive, you dont even have to go to MP3, Uncomped WAVs - you will still have loads of space on their for that. MP3 wise, not knocking it, I actually find Mp3 320 very listenable to these ears, now MP3 @ 320kbps on 256Gb HDD - well that zillions of tunesTBH.

 

[davidcotton]

Hi

The cambridge is a music server. You basically rip all the cds onto the harddrive and it plays out to the amp like normal. Plenty of opinions either way for it over on avforums.com

The route I've gone is the Qnap/Squeezebox 3. The qnap is basically a hacked NAS (networked attached storage device) which can run the necessary software for the sb3 (in this case slimserver). At the most basic level its possible to have the qnap connected to the pc and rip all the discs to the qnap, then when all the cds are ripped just have the qnap connected to the sb3. I went for the 500 gig version purely because I didn't want to have to worry about space. I've also set the folder structure so its Artist>Album>songs in FLAC format.

One proviso, make sure that if you go the qnap route that you get one with slimserver preinstalled. As of present time there is no way of doing it yourself. Advancedmp3players sell them.

Its also worth pming Andrew 1810 on here as he knows his stuff about this type of thing far more than I do and was extremely helpful when I was trying to decide which way to go!

Its also worth checking out the slim forums over at www.slimdevices.com.

 

[jonjin]

Andrew's website is www.audiofi.co.uk

JJ

 

[jon]

I noticed Maplin doing this for what seems like a good price - http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?C=Newsletter&U=06P11-2star&ModuleNo=99078&T=11094255 Never used it, so don't know how well it works (apparently has digi outputs at least, so it can go into a dac if it sounds shite)

btw CJ - have you tried a blind test with MP3 vs lossless? I gather it's *possible* to here the difference at 320, but most can't (and I can't if the MP3's been ripped properly...)

 

[The Swedish Chef]

jonjin wrote:

Andrew's website is http://www.audiofi.co.ukJJ

good website that.

i've got a netgear network storage unit, is there any device that can read that over my wireless lan? as i can use my wadia for the dac.

 

[Craig]

Oh crikey, the shame of this one. Realised that i never said a big thanks and :^for the replies on this thread.

I'm still working out what to do, and also how much I have to spend on it.

Andrew, I now realise, helped me elsewhere and his advice was indeed spot on. A few more loose ends to tie up and I'll be onto this soon enough

Anyway, this thread may be useful to others so get's a bump. And thanks once again