Squeezebox Duet

lafors

So I decided to get myself a squeezebox duet (plus an extra 2 recievers) for my new house. They're all on the way from the US yesterday so hopefully they'll be here soon. I was looking at a sonos but decided for the squeezebox.

I'm going to have the controller dock in the kitchen with the reciever connected to a bose wave station/radio. The second will be in the living room connected to my bose surround sound system. The third will be for the main bedroom, at the moment we don't have any speakers for there. We have a small 19in samsung tv there, so am interested in getting some small speakers (and I mean small) to use with both the reciever and TV. Anyone have any recommendations?

Anyone here use a slingbox, duet or sb3, do you use squeezecentre or the older software. There seems to be a lot of problems with squeezecentre from what I've been seeing on the net?

Pete67

Hi,

I've been using a Squeezebox for several months, no issues. Using Squeezecentre running on a dedicated linux server via Clarkconnect. My CDs are ripped to .flac using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) which is lossless so sound quality is fantastic. MP3 and lots of other formats are also supported.

Good article here:

http://www.ulverston.myzen.co.uk/mini-itx/index.htm

Hope this helps.

Pete.

lafors

Pete67 wrote: »

Hi,

I've been using a Squeezebox for several months, no issues. Using Squeezecentre running on a dedicated linux server via Clarkconnect. My CDs are ripped to .flac using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) which is lossless so sound quality is fantastic. MP3 and lots of other formats are also supported.

Good article here:

http://www.ulverston.myzen.co.uk/mini-itx/index.htm

Hope this helps.

Pete.

Thanks Pete, I forgot to ask about NAS but that link looks like it could move me away from NAS and onto a dedicated server. I was planning on a QNAP 109 running squeezecentre.

A few questions on the server.....
How long did it take you to get the server together, all installed and up and running?
How much did it cost?

Most of my collection is MP3 but anything I bought within the last couple of months is in flac. I can't see myself going back to convert hundreds of CD's to flac that I have in mp3, it'd take ages.

Pete67

I built the server in an evening, I bought a mini-itx motherboard (Intel D201GLY2) which has a 1.2 GHz celeron soldered on board, more than powerful enough to run Clarkconnect with Squeezecentre. I got it new on eBay for around 90 euro delivered, including 1 GB RAM. This is actually quite a nice board for this purpose, as it has no fans, so it's virtually silent. Low power consumption too, important if you are going to run it 24/7.

I already had an old ATX case with a P4 power supply lying around, so they were used, along with a couple of 350GB SATA drives configured as a raid1 array. That way if a drive fails, I don't lose all my music, important (for me)considering how long it took to rip 200 CDs! The server is up in the attic, and can be remote managed via the ClarkConnect web interface.

You can spend as much as you want on cases etc, especially if you want small and unobtrusive ones. Mine was going to be out of sight so I didn't mind what it looked like. I think I spent about 200 euro including the hard drives.

If you want try building a server without dropping a lot of cash, get your hands on an older PC (Celeron, PIII or PIV) and use that. Then if it works out for you and you think it's a good solution you can spend money to build a small silent one later on.

Pete.

lafors

The duet arrived today , bloody postman woke me at 11am, I'm on nightshift, didn't in bed till 9am!

So until I get a permanent storage solution eg NAS or Server, I'm using my laptop and desktop.

Was very easy to set up. Took down the MAC address of the controller and reciever (the 2 other recievers haven't arrived yet) and added them to the list on my router, which I have set protection to off and limit by MAC address, will change this when we move house.

Powered on the controller and connected the reciever to my bose system using the optical connection.

Followed the very easy setup on the controller and then it auto updated the software on the controller. Once completed I had access to my full music collection

Played a couple of tracks from Moby's new album "Last Night" in mp3, then flac. I was pretty impressed with the sound difference. I guess I will end up converting all my CD's to flac instead of my old mp3s.

Setting up squeezecentre was a breeze. I went for 7.0.1 (I believe this is a beta release but I went for it anyway).
I had spent the last few nights in work sorting my music collection in itunes, album art, artists, track names, etc. Then I just used the itunes library option in squeezecentre and it pulled all the files. The only problem I ran into was that a good few albums didn't have their album cover, I eventually figured out it was the albums that itunes had automatically set the album art for, so I just went into itunes and edited the album art for each (took approx 1hr......dedication or what )

So hopefully the 2 other recievers will arrive on monday and I'll set them up. Switching between source seems very easy Will give them each names so I know which is which.

One question, is there anyway to scroll through the albums/artists faster, as with over 7500 songs it took a while to get to further down the alphabet?

Owenw

Can I ask what site you bought it from?
Oh and do they work directly off 3-pin 220v power sockets?

lafors

Owenw wrote: »

Can I ask what site you bought it from?
Oh and do they work directly off 3-pin 220v power sockets?

Ebay. They work off our power alright.
I just needed to get 3 pin clips that slot into the units plug.

Rew

Will the Squeezebox remote control other Squeezebox devices (other then the reciver)?

I've used Sonos and this sounds just as good but cheaper.

Rew

Rew wrote: »

Will the Squeezebox remote control other Squeezebox devices (other then the reciver)?

I've used Sonos and this sounds just as good but cheaper.

Found they answer it will contol all the Squeezeboxes including the Boom.

Rew

lafors wrote: »

Ebay. They work off our power alright.
I just needed to get 3 pin clips that slot into the units plug.

What seller did you use? Peates are the wholesaler for Squeezebox here. €399 for a Duet on their website (retail) and I reckon 270 off eBay "Buy It Now"

lafors

Rew wrote: »

What seller did you use? Peates are the wholesaler for Squeezebox here. €399 for a Duet on their website (retail) and I reckon 270 off eBay "Buy It Now"

Yep I ebayed it.
Though I contacted the seller and got him to put up a better price as I was buying the duet and 2 extra recievers (the duet pack is 1 controller and 1 receiver)

I think the duet was going for $270 when I was looking for it.

ioxis

I am looking at getting a Squeezebox duo and using a pair of powered speakers.

Does the remote for the Squeezebox have a volume control? I intend to put the speakers on top of kitchen cabinets so remote access to volume is vital.

It the Boom had a decent remote I might go for that instead but it would appear if you want a visual element to the remote then I must get the duo - is that correct?

Thanks!

Homer

Both the classic and the duet have volume on the remote so you simply set the volume level on your amp/powered speakers and use the squeezebox remote to control the volume.

ioxis

Thanks for that!

phantom_lord

sorry, this might be a silly question, but can i just buy one of these put it somewhere in the house and run my squeeze box off it over a wireless network?