I've decided to take the plunge and join the 21st century and get all my CDs onto a hard drive and stream the results. The desired end state is to reduce the box count in the lounge (see my sig for the current setup).

As I see it, I have two options, Sooloos or a home-brew setup.

I only want to stream music and access Internet radio.

Wireless Network

However, before I talk options, I think I need to update my wireless router. Currently it's a 802.11 b/g but I assume I'd need a 'n' to support streaming 2 PCs accessing the Interweb. The problem is, my lappy only has 'g' wifi built in so any time I connected it to an 'n' network, it would roll back to being a 'g'.

  • Do I need to upgrade for audio streaming?
  • Would a dual band router solve allow streaming at 'n' while my PC connects to the other channel at 'g' - are the channels truly independent? (If not I'll run 2 routers on the system)



Options

Please feel free to correct anything wrong in my understanding or if I've missed something.

I did consider other options such as those offered by Naim or Linn but TBH, if I'm spending that sort of money, I'll have a soolos.

Option 1 - Do it yourself.

For this, I'm going to need a NAS hard drive and a streaming device.

NAS is fairly easy to get, install a suitable server application on it, rip CDs and away you go.

The streaming device offers a bit wider choice but the 3 I'm looking at are Squeezebox, Boxee Box or a WiFi enable blu-ray player.

Has anyone here any experience of Squeezebox / Boxee Box? How do they compare in terms of sound quality / ease of use? Have I missed an obvious alternative?

Despite searching the 'web I'm struggling to find any idea of how viable the blu-ray option is as a solution. Anyone here managed it? Can I access Internet radio with one or do I need to set up some kind of proxy receiver on a PC and stream forward?


Option 2 - Sooloos.

I'm totally in the dark here. What component do I need to get going with a Sooloos?

Do I need to keep the 518 or 568 to keep best sound quality?

Can you use headphones with Sooloos? If so, how?


Thanks in advance.

Last edited by Seeker_UK; 2011-10-10 01:48.
500.2, 518, 568.1, DSP5000 (24/96), Manticore Mantra T/T, Rega RB300 Arm, Sumiko Blue Point Special MC Cartridge, Musical Fidelity X-LP Phono Stage, AKAI GX-95 MK-II Reference Master Cassette Deck & Marantz ST-17 Tuner