Squeezebox 3

Re: Squeezebox 3

The Squeezebox 3 is a fabulous piece of kit. I have one. However, you need to run Slimserver to stream the audio. I have had this running on my QNAP NAS for 6 months and it is amazing. Loads of plug-ins to expand its capabilites. Slimserver will run on virtually any OS.

One thing to bear in mind is MP3 is a lossy format. I ended-up re-ripping all my CDs to FLAC (Lossless) to stream to my SB3. Although I dscovered that something like DBPOwerAmp can multi-encode from a single CD rip.

I will be buying more SB3's for other rooms. You can synchronise them all together or run them all seperately and anything in between

Re: Squeezebox 3

Paul,

Sounds excellent. What I am needing to know though is the ability to access these external drives as the laptop internal is tiny. So, if Iinstall Slimserver on my laptop, the Squeezebox could access these drives as though they were internal to the laptop itself.

Thanks,
n.

Re: Squeezebox 3

I think I understand what you are saying.

Slimserver runs on the laptop but the data (MP3) files are on external storage, either direct attached or mapped from the network?

If I understand your requirements, then yes you can. Only issue is possibly authentication on the external network volume. But I have tried this recently when my QNAP, it only has 64MB internally, was running slow with the latest Slimserver 6.5. I downloaded Slimserver and got it to build the catalogue of my 2000 songs on the network storage. Worked a dream.

You can try this all out without spending a penny. Download Slimserver from www.slimdevices.com and in the install package, access via the web console, is Softsqueeze. This is a software emulation of the Squeezebox, so you can get the idea of how it all works.

Have fun

Paul

Re: Squeezebox 3

Paul,

Thats what I meant, the drives are attached to the laptop which will be running Slimserver. Seems like it is possible then.

Out of interest, if I get the wireless SB3 does it have a wired Ethernet port as well? I have thick walls and previous experiences with wireless routers has not been perfect. I could run CAT5 between the two and link them that way.

Cheers,
n.

Re: Squeezebox 3

Definately go the wired route. The forums on Slimdevices are full of issues about drop-outs because of wireless problems. Streaming data shows up the inadequances of wireless networks

The SB3 comes with an ethernet port, the wireless option is another £20 or so.