Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Music Storage

Presently, I have much of my music on an ipod which is connected to my stereo system and plays through my speakers. Is it possible to connect a hard drive to the stereo and store the music on it instead? Given the cost of these now, I could store much more music and in a higher quality than MP3 if this is possible.
Thanks
Ron

Hi Ron,

Some receivers let you do this; I believe the Denon 3808 has this feature. There are various other devices (for a ton of $) that do it as well. One of interest (for a lot less than a ton of $) is the media center box from Western Digital.

How about an AppleTV? You mentioned using an iPod, so you're already used to iTunes. The AppleTV acts like an iPod, but one that responds to remote control and outputs full HD video as well as digital audio. All your music + videos + TV shows sync to your iTunes account (wifi or wired).

I have the 160GB one and it works great. We've actually been surprised at how much we like it. It is my most used source of music and we rent a lot of movies with it. Of course, if your music collection is larger than 160GB, an AppleTV won't solve your problem.

Cheaper than a 3808, and a LOT cheaper than something like a Sonos.

Yes Ken, also the 3808 has a nice decompression feature that helps restore compressed audio to like normal.

i use my ps3 (80g) with a tera external hard drive and it works great

I strongly recommend the Logitech Squeeze Box Duet. I've also just used the two audio outs on my computer. One went to my receiver and the other went to my PC speakers. When I wanted to listen through my Axioms I just used the proper input on the receiver.

I think the coolest toy I've bought in a long time is the Squeeze Box Duet. I love the silly thing. I ripped all my music to FLAC, put it all on a HP media server and the Duet talks to the server. Super-duper cool....

I still have scares from all the work ripping my CD's, but I think it was worth the effort.

I've always been interested in trying a Squeezebox out, but what are the major benefits of the Duet over the Classic? I see the Classic has a higher signal-to-noise ratio and lower THD. Even if it doesn't result in audibly lower performance, paying more for lesser specs always seems wrong.

Apparently, I'm trying to paint a target on myself.

Do you think the Squeezebox is already taken?

If you use the digital out on the Squeeze Box Duet there should be no worries about signal to noise ratio. Also, the Squeeze Box Duet shines when it comes to streaming audio from the web.

I installed the Squeeze Box classic a couple of weeks ago and love it. I choose the classic mainly due to price. All my music is stored in FLAC format on a 1TB USB hard drive connected to an older laptop which runs the Squeeze Center server. Before this I tried Denon's IPOD external connector which also streamed audio, but had constant drop outs using either TWONKY,TVERSITY or MS Media server software. The Squeezebox software runs without a hitch even on a busy laptop.
I use the Squeezebox's built in Burr/Brown DAC and connect to my Denon 1909 AVR using analog in pure direct mode and the sound is fantastic. I tried the digital also, but prefer the Squeezeboox's DAC over the Denon's. If your receiver has better DACs then digital would probably be the way to go (for Audyssey, better bass mgt. etc...).

The main advantage of the Duet is that you can see and navigate through your music library with the screen on the remote. With a classic, you have to be close enough to read the LCD panel on the squeezebox itself. It's lettering is pretty big but I'm obviously getting older (stupid flashing birthday cake icon) and it's now a serious squinting process to see it from the kitchen.

While I throw in another vote for the Squeezebox (my favorite indoor toy) I'll also ask if you might already own a PS3 or an XBox. They will play music from a USB connected hard drive or accept streaming music from a PC. Along with the Squeezebox in the living room, I use the PS3 in the TV room to play flac files stored on my PC using TVersity as a free music server program.

I have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360. I don't really like the Xbox 360 turning everything into Dolby Digital. The PS3 still doesn't play lossless WMA files, which is most of my music collection. Also, it outputs in such a way that I can't apply modes such as Dolby Pro Logic IIx to take advantage of all of my speakers.

It's not for everybody and I'm not sure of the second part as I rarely use PLII modes but TVersity will take non native formats like WMA and automatically convert them on the fly to get them to your PS3, Xbox, receiver, etc. in something it does understand.

Even if it doesn't audibly affect sound quality, I'm trying to avoid transcoding where I can. Still, it could be fun to play around with. I think I tried TVersity once a long time ago. I'm sure it's come a long way.

Have you guys experienced any loss in sound quality as a result of streaming music? That was my main worry and why I went with WDTV, along with the cost factor.

CAM, you do know that your 3808 will stream music from your PC as long as you share the media player. WMA lossless or FLAC, does not have a lower SQ than CD, at least not in my experience.

Jay, I did know that, I was just unsure whether or not there would be any loss in sound quality.

I was just pointing that out as I am now wondering why you bought the WDTV, I trust it wasn't just for music streaming.

As long as you keep the compression to a minimum you won't loose sound quality. As has been stated before, the bare minimum is 128K. I would stay with 256K or higher, preferably a lossless format, which is why I went with FLAC for my streaming and when I want to load up my wife's iPod I just compress the songs at that time, although I have started a second 256K library to mirror the FLAC library of songs, but isn't growing very fast, not a high priority for me.

Unfortunately you can't stream with the WDTV. I bought it not only to play music from my Zune or an external hard drive, but also for the ability you play videos, pictures etc. I also like the portability of it, as I'll end up taking it with me to cottages for entertainment.

Brandon, I also use an 80 GB PS3. Can you comment on how you hooked up your 1 TB external HD to it? I should mention I also stream from my home PC using TVersity. Thanks.

Sorry, new to the forum business. Hopefully the quote I responded to shows above this time.

Hi Laing2,

Question. If you are already streaming from your PC with TVersity (which I do as well) then why do you need an external hard drive. I guess 'not having to turn on your PC' is the most likely answer. Mine is never turned off so it's not a concern for me.

External hard drives work pretty seamlessly with a PS3. However, one thing to note is that unless it has changed recently, a PS3 is limited to reading hard drives that are formatted in FAT32 format. This limits file sizes to proximately 4GB. This isn't a big problem for most music formats but if you intend to store movies on the hard drive, you will have to compress them to fit within the 4 Gigs.

Tversity overcomes this problem by allowing you to use a PC with NTSF formatted drives for bigger file sizes. Because the data streams to the PS3, it won't care that it's not coming from a FAT32 drive.

Here's a preview of the new Zune coming out. It's one slick unit, and I have a feeling I'll be upgrading from my current 80 GB second-generation Zune.

Zune HD

Check out Brando. They've got a bunch of weird HDD docks.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/12/brandos-latest-sata-hdd-multimedia-dock-does-hdmi-the-ancestor/

Indeed about the new Zune! I had the pleasure of using a silver Sansa Fuze 8gb today. These go for about $100, less than that in the US. I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with it. It supports all the normal files such as MP3, WAV etc as well as OGG and Flac. It also play video (which I didn't test), photos, FM radio and as is also equipped witha SD memory expansion slot just to name a few.



It has similar features as my D2+ besides the touchscreen (much more expensive player than the Fuze). The memory is going to be lacking on the Fuze for some folks such as Murph (even with the sd card). However, the Fuze is a slick looking unit with a lot of great non gimmiky features and offers great value in the MP3 world. I am hoping to test the video performance between the Fuze and my Cowon D2 :D. The D2 really excels at video.

Agreed.

I'm really exited about the new Zune but I just don't know if I could live with 32GB, considering I often top out just over 50GB, depending on the number and size of few the podcasts I subscribe to. If they had just added an additional SD slot, I'd already be writing Santa.

I hear you Murph. Although I believe 32 GB would be enough for me. I currently have around 45 GB on my Zune, which are a lot of movies that I don't even watch; I pretty much only use it for music now. The only reason I have movies on it is so I could use my Zune dock and watch them when I'm out and about, but now I have my wdtv.