Squeezebox 3 - Network Hard Drive Advice

I'm considering getting a Squeezebox 3 to use as a transport with my Genesis Digital Lens and Modwright Level II Perpetual P3-A Dac and was wondering if any of you experts out there can tell me if I can use it directly with a Western Digital Netcenter external hardrive (or similar) - in other words store all my CD's in lossless format on the netcenter and access it wirelessly with the Squeezebox. Basically I want to be able to use the Squeezebox without having any PC turned on and wondered if this was possible. Haven't got any great expereince with networking etc so any help greatly appreciated.

My main PC is a bit of a beast and is used mainly for playing games so it has plenty of fans and a huge graphics card and so is a bit too noisy (especially as it is in the same room as my hifi). I don't really want to build a second PC and put it in the back bedroom as a server if i can help it.

 

Well according to the blurb:

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html#network

It just needs to connect to an access point. So in effect if you have NAS I don't see any reason why it would not work.

I do not own one though so cannot confirm if this is true.

 

I think the problem is that it has to have the slimserver software running on it as well as having the music files - not sure if this is possible without having a PC running in the background as well.

 

There are NAS devices capable of running Slimserver though.

The Qnap seems popular.

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1039

I personnally think it's a bit pricey for what you get though.

 

Thanks for the link

Thats the sort of thing I had in mind - though like you say it's nearly twice the price of the Western Digital I was looking at. I'd be lookng at nearly £600 with the wireless Squeezebox 3 and a decent wireless adsl/router as well.

 

It really starts to pay off when running multiple Squeezeboxes though.

And yes, spend a bit extra and buy a decent wireless router.

 

Bottom of the page here:
http://www.audiofi.co.uk/reviews/sb3.html

With instructions.

 

Nice link thankyou. The Buffalo's don't look to bad.

 

unclep,
i use a very old p2 400 as my 'media' server - o also have my printers connected to it and shared. you can pick something like this up for pennies in your local rag or from ebay and then spend a few quid on hdds and you have something far more flexible than a nas box.
totally off topic - how do you find the digital lens? i was considering one a while back but the release of the sb2 solved most of my jitter problems i was getting between my sb1 and a/s decade.
cheers


julian

ps.
this'd do fine...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-System-P3-...goryZ179QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I also prefer the PC option myself (well, I would, wouldn't I!)

If you're not in any rush, I'm busy working on getting some ex-corporate 3 year old Dell computers in stock, would be more than powerful enough and at the moment, probably sub £50

 

Also, it's worth remembering that the Squeezebox has a facility to turn on and off a remote server so no need to have it running 24/7 if that's a concern. Have you got a loft where it can go? Run your broadband connection through the server and you can get internet radio (very good)

Also, using a PC based system will allow you to slot in new hard drives in the future without having to discard the original hard drive.

Depends how big your music library is (or will be)

 

Hi Julian

Currently using a Toshiba SD9500E DVD player as a transport (built like a battleship and original rrp was £1900 so a nice bit of kit) with a Modwright LvII Perpetual P-3A DAC and the Digital Lens has improved things considerably. I find the recommended settings (Dither Mode 1 and 20 Bit setting) to be best. The transport speed reads 30ppm which is not too bad. Sound is much smoother and more palpable, the bass in particular is fuller and firmer - while I can't do a side by side comparison I reckon the sound quality is at least as good, and of a similar type, as the Wadia 6i I had at the start of the year.

I'll wait until scan.co.uk have the squeezeboxes on their daily offer list again (they were very cheap on Tuesday this week) and then might take the plunge and try one using my existing PC as the server for the time being (i'll just load a few CD's on and see how it goes) - then if I like it I can look at a dedicated server or NAS device. At the prices Scan were charging I could probably use it and then if I don't get on with it I could sell it on ebay and recover my money (well I could if ebay hadn't suspended my account - 440+ feedback and I must have paid them £2000-3000 in fees and commission over the last 3 years and they suspend me because they say another account has been shill bidding on my items. I'm not even allowed to appeal for 7 days. Total bastards.

I'm also contemplating buying a Wadia 20 transport though so my plans may yet change

My music collection isn't huge and I probably only listen to 20-30 different CD's (mainly female singer songwriters like Aimme Mann, Heather Nova, Alison Moorer etc) - and I only buy about 5-10 new ones a year (depending on whether my favourite artists release anything) - so storage capacity shouldn't become an issue.

 

NAS may be the tidiest option then. I've nearly filled my 250GB drive so will be buying another one to slot into the server soon.

(I see there are 750GB drives appearing now, holy cow)

 

good old seagate

 

Anyone like to guess when 1TB drives will be readily available for under £100. End of 2008 ??