Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems music servers (squeeze box ect) Vs M???

I decided to try out squeeze box because it was so cheap. Boy am I pleased, and I will never go back to a transport.

Can't vouch for WMA lossless though. FLAC all the way for me.

Mild rant...so apologies in advance

I have to say that the various responses along the lines of "erhh!!!...not for me....I'm not doing all that ripping...I'll listen to my silver discs and have a life instead" to be quite amusing.

OK, so, I've not quoted exactly, but, no-one and nowhere does it say that ripping has to be done all in one go. To imply that folks that have ripped their collections perhaps didn't have a life whilst doing it is also quite ironic on a web forum that many a wife/partner will claim to have robbed a certian amount of 'life' from the family setting (in it's pre-AV generalist heyday at least ).

I viewed it that my collection started in the 1985 and the amount of time I have spent trawling around 100's of 'record' shops is vast compared to what it would (and did) take me to do a one-time rip. I've ripped about 600 CD's so far. All of them whilst I was sat at the p.c. which is something I do most days of the week. That definitely covers all the main CD's I'd use; the also-rans and oddities/wierd stuff is slowly going in a few at a time.

In the time it's taken to read first few threads on today's forum and the news web and check your mail, you'd have ripped 1 or 2 discs. It's not the ripping of discs that means we need to get a life, eh ?

And, for all the standing at the shelves, choosing etc that I do understand and partially agree with, the fact that, as I mentioned in an earlier similar thread (albeit without any response), I can access all my music remotely and listen to it at work or in an airport lounge etc. I definitely can't do this with the silver discs on the shelf. I didn't rip for this purpose at all, but, it is a great fringe benefit. And before anyone shouts iPod at me, don't. You have to rip to use that also.

The reason I tested the water with the SB3 was the sound quality. When users of $10k disc players put a loss-less streaming on par with their prized, cherished players, you really have to wonder why.

Finally, as someone mentioned a few weeks back, use a squeezebox with 5200's in their lobby.....makes you think doesn't it?

Nick, where did that "mild rant" come from? I don't see any denigration of SB or luddite tendency in this thread, nor an aversion to moving away from dedicated transports. SK is interested and sounds as though he'll go for a SB, I'm interested but not yet convinced that SB is the specific solution I want, Markqv shared some experience which happens to be against the SB but is valid user experience, Sanjay reckons it's the best 300 we could spend.

I agree that, once committed to moving from a transport, one can probably work out ways of fitting in the ripping of a library but it seems intolerant to dismiss those who are concerned by it just because you've found a way of doing it conveniently.

For what it's worth, Olive Symphony is of interest because it's meta data management is more thoughtful for Classical music. Olive also offer to rip your music for you for free although of course you have to ship your music to them.

Sorry about Graceland/Gracenote but thanks for the correction.

SK, I don't know which is the best format. Lossless compression makes sense but I'm still reading about FLAC, WMA, etc. and trying to see the wrinkles. I'm going slow on this. I don't feel as confident about the technology as others on the forum appear to do and I definitely don't want to do any part of the job twice.

Steve

Hi Steve,

It was somewhat tongue-in-cheek but inspired by a few posts that seem to point towards ripping being an unworthy occupation.

That view in itself is fine on an individual level, but, ironic given the sometimes extraordinary lengths that we 'audiophiles' tend to go to in the pursuit of our sonic nirvanas anyway.

I realise that Mark is spending the time to experiment with different formats, servers etc so, it's not really a fair rant.

Will get out of bed the other side tomorrow.

What is the best software and settings for ripping CDs. My music library is mostly in iTunes (AIFF 16/44.1k), and in WMP. Does the different format make a diffence? Best settings for ripping? This is all new to me and still feel a bit overwhelmed.

There are those who claim that you have to rip with EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to guarantee perfect lossless ripping. However I rip everything in WMA lossless with Mindows Media Player 9, and I note that on some CDs it does linger over certain tracks, presumably re-reading until it has a perfect rip. In general though it is very quick. I have never found a sound quality issue that I would attribute to the ripping process in WM9.

With a Squeezebox WMA lossless is transcoded to FLAC for delivery from Slimserver (on your PC)to the Squeezebox. This seems to work just fine. One limitation is you cannot fast forward or rewind within an individual track. That might be an advantage of FLAC format (though I have not tried it). The big advantage of WMA lossless in you can use WMP to rip, which I find quick and very easy to use, and the same software will sync to portable devices supporting MP3 or WMA lossy.

Sound quality wise I have never found any difference between WMA lossless and playing the CD on my G91 in careful AB comparison. I suspect this is because when you feed PCM into the G91 on the Aux digital input (I use coax rather than optical) it is FIFO buffered an de-jittered by the G91 before upsampling to 24/192 and the conversion to analog.

I would expect ripping in FLAC to sound exactly the same too. After all what is sent to the Squeezebox from Slimserver is FLAC even if it was ripped in WMA. But again I have not tried this.

Responding to some other comments:

I have so far ripped 300 CDs. It takes a few weeks of ripping ten every day, whilst using the computer for other things anyway. Not really much of a hardship. Decided not to rip about the 15% of the CDs that neither of us like anyway. I'm going to trade those in at the local 2nd hand CD place. Classical takes more time to rip as you generally have to enter the trak information in manually. Pop/rock/jazz is fully automated, takes minutes.

I listen to much much more of my music collection now, and can instantly find what I want, instead of searching through out of order CDs, wondering if the desired CD is in the car, or on the upstairs boombox, or just mysteriously missing. Random genre play is great for background ambience, yet nothing is taken away by that when I want to sit and specifically listen to something carefully. Building a playlist for a party or dinner music with guests is simple.

For our 2 year old, having "Baby Beluga" and "Incy Wincy Spider" accessible in 2 seconds in the favourites list from the remote has saved many a toddler meltdown.

You can browse album art form the web interface to Squeezebox from any laptop on your home network. Some people use a Nokia 770 WiFi tablet as a feature rich remote. I programmed the Meridian remote to learn the Squeezbox remote's commands and avoid having another remote lying around.


Setup, even wireless was a breeze. The only issue I have is that the microwave oven reduces my wireless streaming data rate to the point of stopping the music after 30 seconds.

One thing I have found to be a huge unexpected benefit is Internet radio. You can access 5000+ Internet radio stations played through your audio system. At 160kbps and above they really sound quite acceptable, almost as good as FM in the G91. Although I live in Chicago, as a Brit I get on-demand access to any piece of audio content broadcast by the BBC in the last 7 days on any of its national or regional channels (using the freee AlienBBC open source plug in). I can finally listen to the Andy Kershaw show whenever I want, usually Sunday mornings, Chicago time. Love David Byrne radio and some Baroque classical only station I found. My wife and I have found a way to listen to the NPR CarTalk show on-demand too (took some fiddling).

There are all kinds of plug-ins being developed for free by the open source I have yet to try the Pandora music recommendation engine for example.

All for $300. The price of a mere cable in most Meridian owner systems. I would say we listen to our system 2-3X more than before the Squeezebox. Much better RoI on the $1000s invested in music.

Without doubt the best value technology product I have purchased in the last ten years.

Did I mention, just do it? Buy a Squeezebox

Sanjay

Hi Sanjay

One of my clients had a microwave disturbance issue with his wireless network which was resolved by manually selecting a different chanel within the router set-up.

Tom

Plasmatico. you're not alone in feeling a bit overwhelmed. If it helps, here are some links to sites that I've been reading from:

FLAC: http://flac.sourceforge.net/
Lots of information about FLAC plus advice about and comparison with other compression tools. Also points to devices that use FLAC. (For people interested in MP3 players but not willing to accept the compressed sound of iPod, etc., there are some MP3players which use FLAC.) The Download page will help you a lot, I think.

FLAC format page: http://FLAC.sourceforge.net/format.html
A detailed description of the FLAC format

AUTOFLAC: http://www.legroom.net/modules.php?...index&page=software&app=autoflac
A tool that integrates the use of FLAC with EAC; lots of other material to help "understand why" and alternatives to AutoFlac.

Illustrate: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/
dBpoweramp site. They have a tool for ripping CDs and show a comparison with various other products of speed to copy. Their product is easily the fastest. Not sure about accuracy but still reading...

The links included in these sites should give you loads of food for thought and I hope it helps.

Regards,
Steve

Squeezebox vs Mac Mini (or iMac)

I think the debate over these as sources is over - they are high quality audiophile sources (so long as you rip the CD properly).

However for the extra money the Mac solution is vastly more featured doing everything a PC can do plus provide superb source for Meridian gear.

On the other hand if you want music only the convenience and simplicity of the SB is excellent.

Personally I have chosen the mac route for flexibility.....

I would say that the mac route will give you more options, but you do need a seperate monitor/TV to use it, whilst a Squeezebox is self contained.

GMT

It is possible to control iTunes, see album art and track details via your bluetooth or wifi Mobile Phone using software called Salling Clicker. This way you have a remote control with a colour screen in the palm of your hand. Very cool. No need for turning a screen on to play music....

AFD

afdoughty

That is very cool! Also the squeezebox isn't totally self contained as I described, as you still need a hard drive somewhere in the equation whereas the mac mini could be an allin1 solution. Mind you - you will still need a screen or monitor if you want the other benefits that come with the mac mini.

Tom