Squeezebox query

Would the box that BT are pushing at present fit the bill?

Edit: Home hub

 

It should do, I'll have a look at the features it has

 

I bought a Squeezebox 3 a couple of weeks ago, so I'm a complete Squeezebox newby, but I am completely besotted by it; I just love it.

Although I work in IT (I run the computers in a company with 60 workstations and four servers) I didn't find the set up at all straightforward. I had to remove and re-install SlimServer because the first time it didn't start and run. I never got the SB to pick up an IP address by DCHP, and in the end installed a fixed address. I think the instructions are a bit minimal. When you are installing they keep telling you to press the right arrow on the remote, and when the SB didn't get an IP address, I was a bit slow to realise that other arrows did things, and that is how I found by chance how to install a fixed IP address. When I first tried to switch the SB on the display said something like 'Connecting to SlimServer....' and then went dark. It didn't say 'SlimServer not found', for example. Then when I looked at the DHCP server's client list I saw that the SB wasn't on it, so of course it couldn't work.

It comes with some Internet radio stations already available, but most of these I hadn't heard of and consequently wasn't intested in, as I was keen to set up certain other foreign radio stations. I ended up going to the SB forums, which are brilliant, and someone told me how to do it. It depends on entering at the SlimServer the URL for the radio feed. The first one I found in the forums didn't work, a second one did.

When I was doing this I thought 'when I get this straight and know how to do it, I'll set myself up as a SB intaller/consultant, there's bound to be demand'.

It's hard for me to imagine how a person with no IT aptitude and no netwoking skills could get through it. I know I did plenty of IPCONFIGing and PINGing, etc, finding out the status of the network, and what was talking to what, etc.

I now have it running on Ethernet, and my next stage is to get it onto wireless (I finally accepted that the wi-fi router I have is rubbish, and have ordered another one). I have ordered two 320 Gb hard discs that I shall put in my server and keep synchronised as a backup system.

Yesterday I ripped a classical vocal CD to FLAC, MP3 320bps and I shall over the next few weeks hear how these two formats through the SB compare to the CD playing on my Shanling CD player. I shall add Ogg to FLAC and MP3, as I prefer to use open source when I can. I note that MP3 320bps is roughly half the file size of FLAC and on first listen sounds good.

I use CDEX to rip, and the Lame/MP3 options in it are a nightmare, and I don't at this stage understand them. Ogg is a bit easier.

I am new to working with music files, and I find there is quite a learning curve learning about Ogg/MP3/FLAC (I ignore iTunes) and tags (tag versions are complicated), etc.

The SB is a very cool piece of equipment. I particularly like the slick way the display works. I have the Spectrum Analyser 'screen saver', and I love the way a banner smoothly slides in from the right every 30 seconds or so to remind you what you are listening to, and then cooly slides off to the right. It is very aesthetically pleasing and well done.

Edit on 15th May 2007: I just came across my post, now quite old. I have now given up on wireless networking in my home, and I still have an Ethernet cable trailing down the stairs from my slim server upstairs to my Squeezebox in my sitting room. I never got my wireless SB3 to connect wirelessly, although my laptop and slim server would talk to each other wirelessly. However, I always found wireless networking to be more trouble and less reliable than Ethernet, and got fed up after coming home in the evening to pay a few bills online, and ending up wasting most of the time getting the network working again; or I would start a biggish download and it would stop in the middle and time out. My experience is that Ethernet just works, like water and electricity, but wireless networking is trouble.

After wireless I tried homeplugs - adaptors that plug into power sockets and provide networking over the mains. I read many encouraging reports of them. I bought three, and put them in and they worked straight away. I left music playing on my SB and went into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, and ten minutes later the music stopped. I went to the slim server and it was no longer connecting to the network. I sold the homeplugs.

All this of course is about networking, not about the Squeezebox. I stilll love my Squeezbox, and wouldn't go back, but I do think that a Squeezebox isn't something you just take home and plug in, like a toaster. I can't imagine how a person with no networking and IT experience or aptitude would get on with it.

 

I think you were just unlucky, I've installed and setup a number of Squeezebox's and all have worked first time without any problems, often firewalls are the main problems, rather than slimserver itself

CDex can be a pain at times, I put together an install program for it which sets everything up for you (either FLAC or MP3) and puts shortcuts on the desktop to rip a CD (http://www.audiofi.co.uk/reviews/ripping.php at the bottom)

[plug] To save the hassle in the future, one of my server comes with slimserver pre-installed and tested on a squeezebox (normally for at least 12 hours) [/plug]

 

I've used Andrew's software and it works a treat.

Just waiting to complete my new snazzy extension and the SB will be going in the new kitchen/diner.

I think the SB is very handy but back-to-back with my main CDP it wasn't as good, and even through a good DAC it still couldn't topple it. It was pretty good mind, just a bit more laid back.

 

Glad the software works well, fortuntately CDex doesn't need installing, just copying across which made the install program a lot easier to make

 

So, does it start off only working with "installed" internet radio stations? Can you add any station, or just "approved" ones? I'd be particualrly keen to listen to stations like France Musique and other French and German stations. Could I do this just via the SB3with my computer off?

 

Yes, it starts with a selection (thousands) of installed stations, to add a new one, you put the address in on the slimserver software.

To access new ones, you will need your computer on, with it switched off, you can only access the supplied ones on Squeezenetwork (basically a server running slimserver at slimdevices HQ)

For BBC or other real audio stations, you will also need the alienBBC plugin (takes 5 mins to install)

 

Ah, good! Thanks, Andrew.

 

As Andrew said, you just put the URL into the SlimServer and click the 'Tune' button, then, when the station is playing you can use then SB's remote to add it to your Favourites. The trick is in getting the URL. My first priority was in getting France Musique. I started a thread about this on the SlimDevices Beginner's forum. The first URL I got hold of didn't work, then someone in the thread gave me a URL that works. If you like France Musique you will probably also want France Vivace as well. I also have set up France Culture.

Here is my thread at Slimdevices.com:-http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30482

I see that there is a more recent poster asking about working with radio station URLs. Good luck, it's worth the effort.

 

Thanks for that. I'm listening to France Musique now as I type this in my classroom at work. The laptop's connected via the minijack out to a hotchpotch of HiFi cast offs (Sony TA-F55 amp and Mordaunt Short 05 loudspeakers) and FM sounds very good. The kids love it!
I'd like to be able to do it at home with the main system, where connecting up the laptop is a bit of a pain. Sounds like the Squeezebox will be the way to go, then. Thanks again for the help and the link.

 

does alienbbc also work with the BBC's listen again feature for listening to programmes up to a week old?

- and any news on whether BT's home hub works with wireless SB?

thanks

 

Yes, it works with listen again and as far as I can see it should work fine with the home hub

 

thankyou

 

I'm the last that would recommend against getting a SB but there might be another way: I discovered after having my laptop (Fujitsu Siemens) for several months that there is a cunningly hidden optical out connection that is in the same socket as the headphone mini-jack socket.

One simply needs to enable optical-out in the sound settings in the operating system. From then on one can see a little red diode lit up in the bottom of the jack socket (even though the standards headphone out still works). One simply obtains an optical lead with mini-jack at one end and ordinary optical connector the other end and plug the end into an optical in on your preamp or DAC, if you are lucky to have one. It works perfectly fine for streaming internet radio and the like. If you look into your laptop's spec you just might be lucky.

 

Hope no-one minds me asking these q's here. Didn't want to start another Squeezbox thread. Been thinking of going down this route for a while now but seem to have gotten myself muddled.

For a complete system is this what I need:

Stripped down pc with big harddrives with a DAC that goes to a squeezebox. Which would then go either wireless or wired to an amp to my speakers? (is that it in simple terms?)

Could I use Active speakers and bypass the need for an amp? (could this be done wirelessly?

Regarding the PC for storage I have a current PC I use and would build a stripped down version. Is it worth including a CD drive or using my main pc to copy my CD's then transfer the files over the server?

sorry for the stupid questions

 

Hi,

Not quite right. You'll need a PC with adequate HD capacity, either wired or wireless (either via router or adhoc PC to Squeezy) to the Squeezebox, which is wired either directly from analogue outputs to the amp (or active 'speakers), or via a separate DAC to the amp.

Plenty of information to be found here http://wiki.slimdevices.com/

Regards,

Stuart.

 

ooh that Wiki is very helpful. Many thanks

 

Talking about storage, Qnap TS-101, a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, is ideal for Sqeezebox.
It runs Slimserver software so can stream even when the PC is switched off. £149 as a box only to fit your own hard drive.
Better still, there is a special offer going at the moment.
Qnap TS-101 fitted with 500GB SATA hard drive for only £219.
http://www.ultimatestorage.com/ts-101.html
Enough to store 1600 CDs in FLAC format!

Job CF
South Coast

 

Oh! and a question.
Heard somewhere that NAS drives must be formatted in FAT and not NTFS. Consequently, parts of the file names get lost when backing up. How far is this true? Does it apply to all NAS drives?
Thanks.