streaming stereos - suggestions?

[eFestivals]

I need to get a new music system for the kitchen (so I don't want anything that's too physically big), and my preference would be to buy something that had all of DAB radio, CD player, plus the ability to stream MP3s from my home network server.

Because I've got a huge amount of mp3s, for the streaming the device needs to have a decent-ish screen and selection method so that selecting a track isn't a ten minute job.

Nothing that I've looked at has appealed so far, so I wondered of anyone has any suggestions?

[JBarbour]

Have you looked at the Logitech Squeezebox range?

We use them at work. We have found these devices have been far superior to others we have tried. They come with different accessories, apps for mobiles and can be linked with spotify, last.fm, facebook etc. Althogh you dont need any of that if you dont want/have them

[eFestivals]

Have you looked at the Logitech Squeezebox range?

We use them at work. We have found these devices have been far superior to others we have tried. They come with different accessories, apps for mobiles and can be linked with spotify, last.fm, facebook etc. Althogh you dont need any of that if you dont want/have them

I've looked at them, and mostly ignored them on the basis that they're logitech. Will take a closer look now tho, so thanks.

[abdoujaparov]

Without doubt the best system for streaming audio is the Sonos. It's more expensive than the Logitech system, but beats it into a cocked hat for sound quality and ease of use. It's a great system, although not dirt cheap.

[t8yman]

Ive got a squeezebox boom. if it broke tomorrow - i would buy another one the same day. its great, the sound is awesome, the network player/internet radio is great, and the software syncs with itunes pretty much perfectly.

I love it.

[eFestivals]

Ive got a squeezebox boom. if it broke tomorrow - i would buy another one the same day. its great, the sound is awesome, the network player/internet radio is great, and the software syncs with itunes pretty much perfectly.

I love it.

does software have to be installed on a PC or mac to access the music on a network drive, or can it access a network drive directly?

[t8yman]

does software have to be installed on a PC or mac to access the music on a network drive, or can it access a network drive directly?

[eFestivals]

I've just found the software install stuff for it - it seems to need propriety software installed (tho there might be a way to work around that), but at least they do a linux version which is more than most manufacturers manage. So I'm leaning in the way of the boom.

How do you find it for accessing music files direct from the unit? Is it over-fiddly to get to the file you want? That's the main problem I've found with others I've looked at.

The other thing which bugs me with these streaming units are the prices - there's naff all to them but they cost near as much as a cheap laptop which could do the same job much better, and other things too.

[t8yman]

Accessing a track is pretty much as simple as finding a track on an iPod, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you are familiar with the interface it's second nature, you can also get apps such as ipeng which basically acts as a jukebox controllable via your mobile for really quick acces. The display is really customisable via the squeezebox software too.

The main difference for track access is where you would click the centre button on an iPod, you find the track and hit the play button. To play an album starting with track 3 for example, you would need to go artist,click,scroll to album,press play, then skip tracks 1 and 2 for it to play from 3 onwards. Selecting the third track would play track 3 then stop. Daft little things like that are frustrating at first, but soon become quite normal. It's nice when we can be sat having Sunday lunch, I can have something easy on like frank Sinatra, but find the volume is a little too high, I can just pull my phone out of my pocket and turn the volume down via ipeng.

It's not that expensive, I'm sure my boom was about £180.

[eFestivals]

Accessing a track is pretty much as simple as finding a track on an iPod, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you are familiar with the interface it's second nature, you can also get apps such as ipeng which basically acts as a jukebox controllable via your mobile for really quick acces. The display is really customisable via the squeezebox software too.

The main difference for track access is where you would click the centre button on an iPod, you find the track and hit the play button. To play an album starting with track 3 for example, you would need to go artist,click,scroll to album,press play, then skip tracks 1 and 2 for it to play from 3 onwards. Selecting the third track would play track 3 then stop. Daft little things like that are frustrating at first, but soon become quite normal. It's nice when we can be sat having Sunday lunch, I can have something easy on like frank Sinatra, but find the volume is a little too high, I can just pull my phone out of my pocket and turn the volume down via ipeng.

my missus would be the main user of it, and her hi-tech phone does just these apps ... messaging, and a built-in torch. .... so how wonderful it might be to use via a phone isn't really of relevance. But if it was, the phone would be likely to be in another room any time we wanted to use the stereo, so I personally think that's a bit of a crap idea anyway as some of us aren't welded to our phones.

Our digital music library has around 1,700 artist-name folders within it (and around 9,000 different artists) .... would they be easy to access via the unit's interface, or would that be a right 'mare?

It's not that expensive, I'm sure my boom was about £180.

It depends how you look it these things. The cost of the technology is almost nothing of that, as shown by comparison with a laptop ... so the cost bugs me hugely.

But that's by-the-by, I realise I'm going to have to spend the best part of £200 as a minimum for a unit that gives sound quality which would be sub-£50 without the whistles and bells.

[Mardy]

Well, I reckon you've answered your own question there, I'd stick a small, cheap laptop in the kitchen with a couple of speakers and stream your music via that.

[eFestivals]

Well, I reckon you've answered your own question there, I'd stick a small, cheap laptop in the kitchen with a couple of speakers and stream your music via that.

It's one of the options I've considered.

But there's a few reasons why I'd prefer to get a dedicated stereo, including the limited and narrow shelf space there is available to site it, as well as the the boot-up speed &/or power overhead of a laptop compared to a stereo.

[t8yman]

my missus would be the main user of it, and her hi-tech phone does just these apps ... messaging, and a built-in torch. .... so how wonderful it might be to use via a phone isn't really of relevance. But if it was, the phone would be likely to be in another room any time we wanted to use the stereo, so I personally think that's a bit of a crap idea anyway as some of us aren't welded to our phones.

Our digital music library has around 1,700 artist-name folders within it (and around 9,000 different artists) .... would they be easy to access via the unit's interface, or would that be a right 'mare?

It depends how you look it these things. The cost of the technology is almost nothing of that, as shown by comparison with a laptop ... so the cost bugs me hugely.

But that's by-the-by, I realise I'm going to have to spend the best part of £200 as a minimum for a unit that gives sound quality which would be sub-£50 without the whistles and bells.

[t8yman]

It's one of the options I've considered.

But there's a few reasons why I'd prefer to get a dedicated stereo, including the limited and narrow shelf space there is available to site it, as well as the the boot-up speed &/or power overhead of a laptop compared to a stereo.

[eFestivals]

you are going to need a laptop or pc powered up anyway to access the media files from. I dont think it does network drives, although I may be wrong.

that side of things is not an issue.

I always have my linux server running anyway (which is why I'd prefer a system with linux support if it needs to use software to access the music), and my work windows pc is almost always running too so could fall back on using that if I really had to.

[eFestivals]

if youve got that many artist name folders, it would be a pain, cos you have to scroll a-z. If you were running the pc software - its a doddle.

sorry to keep asking the questions, but I want to understand whats what....

When you say "If you were running the pc software - its a doddle", are you meaning its a doddle to select music on the squeezebox unit interface?

If so, how is that selected that's not done by still scrolling a-z?

[JBarbour]

if you search squeezebox youtube there are a fair few videos of people unboxing, using and reviewing the product. It maybe easier to see it.

someone mentioned Sonos Digital Music Systems, they are cracking bits of kit but are mighty expensive

[t8yman]

sorry to keep asking the questions, but I want to understand whats what....

When you say "If you were running the pc software - its a doddle", are you meaning its a doddle to select music on the squeezebox unit interface?

If so, how is that selected that's not done by still scrolling a-z?

[windy_miller]

does software have to be installed on a PC or mac to access the music on a network drive, or can it access a network drive directly?

[t8yman]

this is an absolutely awful video "review", but from 5:30 onwards you see a pretty good idea of what the units interface is like

[eFestivals]

if you search squeezebox youtube there are a fair few videos of people unboxing, using and reviewing the product. It maybe easier to see it.

thanks, am checking one out.

someone mentioned Sonos Digital Music Systems, they are cracking bits of kit but are mighty expensive

the price isn't really the issue, functionality is.

[abdoujaparov]

thanks, am checking one out.

the price isn't really the issue, functionality is.

[windy_miller]

as I said, the Sonos system is far better than the Logitech (I know, I've tried both). The onboard DAC is massively better. It uses its own wireless network, so doesnt pinch bandwith if you've got wi fi. It's a doddle to use, you dont need itunes or anything else on your PC. The only limitation I've found so far is that it will only index a maximum of 70,000 tracks (I think it is). I'm perilously close to that....

[abdoujaparov]

Where do you store your music then?

This thread has got me very intersted in a squeezebox. Having recently moved house I have about 8 boxes of CDs and nowhere to put them. A Squeezebox (or something similar) sounds very interesting. The thing I like about the Squeezebox Touch (over the Sonos stuff), is that you plug it into your existing stereo.

Does anyone have Squeezebox Server running on a NAS? I was thinking of getting one of these (£30 is a bargain - even if you have to provide your own disk)

http://www.cclonline...skless/HDD3072/

[eFestivals]

after much consideration I've decided that I'm not going to pursue the streaming stereo idea for the moment, and will wait until the prices come down and the functionality improves (cos they're both currently much worse than they will be a few years from now).

Instead I'm going to work something off the computers I have around the house, and the best way to give the flexibility I want in using those will be to get some wireless speakers.

So does anyone have any experience of wireless speakers, and can tell me anything good or bad about them in general or specific models?