Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Squeezebox 3rd Generation (pics)

Another BIG thumbs up for the Squeeze 3!! I have 2 of them in the house and will probably end up with a 3rd when my Theater Room is done. I'm in the middle of ripping all of my CD's. Also using EAC to FLAC. Yes it's a bit quirky but once setup it seems to work fine.

Went with the wired version as I have Cat 6 running to every room in the house. No problems there.

As far as sound quality I have to be honest and say I was a bit skeptical at first but am totally blow away. Every bit as good as my Denon CDP and then some. I've done several blind tests with myself and others and no one was able to tell the difference. This thing is the best thing to come down the musical pike in a long time. Some of my CD's are 20 years old or so and being able to store them in a redundant exact digital format is great. Barring any catastrophic failure, (Raid 5 with a TB of storage, UPS / Surge protection etc, )...I should have a safe storage medium for the rest of my life.

Pandora is cool, though at 128k the sound quality is just OK. I find myself using it more for background music and if I hear something I like then I can buy it. In that regard it is very useful to me seeing as I live in a very remote area with little or no radio coverage and have a hard time discovering new music. Satellite radio is OK but I find it to be the same crap and play lists over and over again just like FM with no commercials.

Robert thanks for the excellent post. Was wonder about your audio hook-ups. Are you using the DAC from the SqueezeBox direct to the audio ins of a receiver? Or are you using another DAC in your receiver? I am assuming you comparing the DAC in your Denon CDP to the SB but was wondering if there is another DAC in the mix.

Larry

Larry, I have an Outlaw 990 with 7700 amp. The 990 allows for "bypassing" any processing so it's an easy side by side test just pure direct through put from either the Denon or Squeezebox. I generally use it just in "stereo" mode which allows me to tweak the bass and treble to where I like it. But side by side, straight through...... coax, optical, or analog ......the SB with FLAC ripped with EAC from a good drive...(Plextor 760A).....there is no difference. In fact I think there is even more detail to be found from the FLAC file off of a well engineered CD. For what ever reason. Maybe it's the error checking, maybe the Denons transport / laser / DAC isn't as good as what I end up with ripped off of my computer....I don't know.

Bottom line, if you like the idea of storing all of your audio in a safe redundant way. You can't do any better than the SB and FLAC. And it's SOOOOOOO much better than having a huge CD rack taking up space in the room. Not to mention the convenience factor. Pick up a remote, push a button or two and your done.

Greetings,

I’ve had an interesting adventure trying to implement Slimserver and Squeezesoft. This is a long post. I wanted to document my trials in case anybody else is pondering this kind of project.

I don’t know diddley about linux. That has been a problem, but I enjoy learning and thanks to kind souls in several open source forums, I’m making progress.

Here is what I want to do:
• Have an NAS-type device that will be accessible for read/write operations from Windows XP machines on my home network (digital photos and music, shared and backed-up document storage).
• Use that same device as a Slimserver, using Squeezesoft as the client at least initially. Again, I’ve got PC’s, Squeezeboxes cost money.
• Have that server machine operate headlessly.
• Implement a backup plan.
• Maybe be able to use it as a print server.
• Not spend the rest of my summer learning Linux from scratch. Have easy management on an ongoing basis.
• Bask in the glory of convergence.
• Have my wife understand and appreciate why I spend time on this stuff (deliver content and an intelligible network environment to her and other household end users).

Here’s what I had to work with:
• An old Dell 733Mhz PIII, 128MB RAM, with the original 30GB IDE Drive and a new WD 250GB IDE Drive (Primary Master and Primary Slave, respectively). IDE CD-ROM as Secondary Master. Machine has a network card connected via Cat5e to Linksys WRT54G (new, nonhackable version) which distributes the DSL connection to four other clients (2 wireless, 2 wired, all XP home SP2). The BIOS boots from CD but not from USB. The machine HAS USB ports, but I can’t seem to make it boot from them.
• I am not deeply concerned about security and privileges, since I do not plan to expose this machine outside my home network. The router is the firewall.
• I’m patient. I’m a good learner. I know when to relax and have a beer. I have more time than money at the moment.

Here’s what I’ve done (like you ask you kids “what did you do?!”). Insert “Read and Learned a LOT” in between each and every point.
• Installed the new drive.
• Installed FreeNAS
• Successfully mapped both the network drives to other client machines. Read, wrote, headlessly managed. Took a deep breath.
• Discovered and became obsessed with what Slimserver could mean to me relative to synchronized, whole-house audio.
• Realized how damn little I know about computer innards and Linux.
• Realized that Slimserver does not run on FreeNAS.
• Discovered SlimCD (which uses Damn Small Linux). Briefly rejoiced.
• Burned SlimCD. Successfully booted machine using SlimCD. DSL seems to see the network card.
• Realized that 128MB of RAM is insufficient to run even DSL.
• Grudgingly bought and installed 256MB of RAM in a ten year old computer.
• Realized that Damn Small Linux needs WAY too much geeking for what I want to do.
• Started to look at other linux distros, especially SME Server (Debian) and ClarkConnect (FC5).
• Decided – for reasons that are shrouded in 7 late-night open Firefox windows – to install ClarkConnect Home 3.2
• Discovered and installed Putty for signing in as console on server from another machine.
• Successfully installed and heedlessly managed server using CC web interface.
• Tried to install Slimserver via rpm. Apparently, CC does not come with Perl.
• Install ActivePerl
• Another unsuccessful Install of Slimserver. Advised to get the most recent NIGHTLY update of the code.
• Another unsuccessful install of Slimserver. Apparently, the basic Perl distribution doesn’t come with perl-archive-SHA1 or XML-parser
• apt-get install perl-XML-Parser, apt-get install perl-Digest-SHA1
• Successful install of Slimserver!
• Tried unsuccessfully to connect client to network share.
• Ascertained that problem is with version and implementation of Samba on the server.
• Reinstalled/updated Samba.
• Successful connection to a Client for the network share!
• Successful installation and use of Java and Softsqueeze on a client!
• Tried unsuccessfully to connect a second client to the server.
• Hacked endlessly on permissions, security, et al. on the server
• Hacked endlessly on permissions, security, et al. on the router
• Still unsuccessful on second client.
• Realized that Norton Internet Security is installed on second client
• Disable Norton
• Successfully connect second client to both network share and to slimserver.
• Resolve to replace Norton IS and to enthusiastically express my profound discontent to Symantec and others.

Here’s what I learned
• There are smart people doing amazing things with technology. Many of those people are gracious and helpful to strangers.
• I know even less than I thought before.
• It Can Be Done If You Keep Trying.
• Norton is evil.

Anyway, it’s been an interesting challenge. I’ve been mostly successful, eventually. I still have some things to do, but the vision is coming together. I need to decide on technology and strategy for ripping. I also need to integrate my daughter's new infatuation with iPod into the schema.

What to you uber-geeks do for system backup?

I hope this helps somebody.

Thanks for the play-by-play, Tom. It was entertaining and educational. Everybody who wants to do anything with Linux for the first time goes through that process, so don't think of yourself any less. Actually, many people START the process but don't finish because they think it's too much work -- and they also tend to start with something simple like just installing one.

So pat yourself on the back and have one more beer than you planned on having.

For backups, I recommend rsync. It's very fast, works over the network and with ssh. Very tweakable, too.

Wait, and you asked me questions about computing? I'm impressed! Especially with the Perl stuff. That's a pain. I always have to go back and read all sorts of tutorials and whatnont whenever I try and set up Perl. Not to mention actually using the thing...

Buddy, I'm not using perl, Slimserver is. I know just enough to be dangerous. You know, there's a fine line between brave and stupid. Fortunately, I wasn't taking much risk on this deal.

Tom, that was great post. After reading thread after thread about the trials the NAS guys are having with getting Slim Server loaded onto their NAS machines I would not even consider it. It appears to be a bit of a black art as you have apparently discovered. PERL??? To play music? I don't get it.

One thing I might consider though is a dedicated little Shuttle Barebones. It would be accessible with your regular PC through the network, could store most of your files on a 300+ GB drive. Could leave it running in some small closet or let it sleep until needed. Seems like a bit more dough but you get an entirely new PC and loading Slim Server would be a walk in the park. Food for thought and the way I will go if it become important for me to have my PC turned off to listen.

Thanks again for the info and would love hear how your adventure ends.

Larry