Thinking of ditching squeezebox and computer audio!

Right, I had wrote a long essay about this, but figured nobody would want to read such a long rambling so I'll try and keep this to the point.

The squeezebox I feel is an excellent device, but there are a few conditions that go with that statement:-

1. Its setup properly...
By which, I mean its hard wired to its source via ethernet.

2. You use it exclusively for your own ripped CD collection.

3. You are willing to put some hard work into the intial setup and into its ongoing maintenance.

4. And to justify all of the above, you really do have to be a seriously keen music listener.

However, in my case, I cannot satisfy these conditions, and so for me, the squeezebox has been an interesting, but flawed device that has led to me actually enjoying what music I do listen to less. Lets go through those points as they apply to me.

1. Setup
I said it should be set up properly. For me, its not optimal, but for a while I got away with it. I have my server on my laptop, and the squeezebox both connected wirelessly. This worked fine for a while, but I lack the hard drive space on my laptop to take full advantage of this. I've also been experiencing far more dropouts of late for no apparent reason. I could theoretically connect my squeezebox with ethernet, but I did not spend the extra cash on the wireless version to have to do this. I could try upgrading the router, but its a risk which might not work. Even if I did connect the squeezebox with CAT5, the server is still wireless, so therefore, still prone to dropouts. I could go the NAS box route, but I just cant afford to do this, I'm too broke. Cant justify spending any more either, more on this later...

2. Music Collection
Most users on these forums will use it almost exclusively for their own personal CD collections. For this, I can imagine it being fine. Better than fine in fact, superb. I on the other hand, have acquired music from every corner you can think of. Ripped, internet copies, etc. Not all of it is available to buy. This presents a nightmare with tagging. My collection simply looks a mess. My squeezebox displays duplicates all over the place, and albums that dont exist. And if I put my single MP3's on there, its just unworkable. I could attempt to fix it, but it is a nightmarish proposition and frankly, not my idea of fun.

3. Maintenance
This is a system that requires ongoing maintenance really. You buy a new CD. You then rip it. Then put it in the right folder. The back it up. If the server goes down, you have to restore it before you get your music back. With a traditional CD system, you just pop in the CD and press play. Maintaining a system like this can be quite easy if everythings perfectly set up in the first place, but even that takes much time, but if its not perfect, it can become a chore.

4. Keen music listener
Many people who use this system will be keen music listeners, and will perhaps listen to their hifi many hours a week. I, on the other hand, maybe listen to mine no more than 5 hours a week tops. Sometimes not even that.

So given all of the above, I just cannot justify the time, frustration, and expense of running a system like this. Its convenience factor for me has been outweighed by its flaws in a less than perfect setup, and I am seriously considering getting rid, as I cannot be bothered to effectively start from scratch with my music collection. Nor do I have the money to put in to making it a perfect system with NAS boxes and the like. It is cheaper and more convenient for me to just go to a simple CD replay system.

Is it just me who feels this way?

 

sounds like an external hd would be a good idea.

I've been thinking of going squeeze box .....but not got there yet

 

1. Setup. Have you checked the received signal strength and looked for interfering signals from neighbours. Maybe you could use a different channel.

2. Music Collection. If you have duplicate tracks then delete the duplicates. Get SlimServer to rescan the library from scratch to remove phantom albums. I have 5369 tracks, 218 album artists, thousands of compilation artists, from about 300 CDs and I don't have a problem managing it all. Perhaps because I have limited the genres to just 9. How are your tracks arranged on the disc. Mine are like this:

G:\My Music\Genre\Album\TrackNum_Artist_SongTitle.wav

This layout works well for albums, compilations and singles.

Perhaps you could arrange some of your downloaded tracks into pseudo-albums to make them easier to find. I'm not sure how you edit the tags in MP3 files but I'm sure it can be done.

3. Maintenance. Get external hard disks. I have two 500GB USB hard drives. One has the entire collection. The other is a backup of the entire collection (and is normally switched off).

4. Keen music listener. Yes I am. I listen to it far more now since I can select tracks on the laptop whilst lying on the sofa than I ever did having to get up and study my CD collection and keep changing discs. I couldn't go back to that.

The other thing that has me listening more and more is these Triangles. They really are quite something. Closer to real than any other speaker I've tried. Very dynamic. If this is a taste of what high-efficiency speakers can do (92dB) then I'll be looking further in that direction.

BTW, how is it going to be cheaper to go to a CD system? You'll need to be looking at £300+ for a CD player to outperform the SB. Also the SB can be upgraded in stages and for not much money to begin with. My 500GB Iomega disks were £124 each from Dabs and they are only half full so probably won't fill up in my lifetime.

I recommend perseverance

 

had sb based systems for 2+ years now

had none of the problems you mention on a collection of roughly twice chris' size mine also includes ripped cd's, downloaded music, and mix cd's from club dj's on gold cd's with no track lists.

just be a bit sensible in naming the tracks / cd's and it;s fine.

i think you've got upgradeitis

 

I don't understand that if you are perhaps a bit lzay on tagging why you don't get iTunes.