BruceRPA
Addicted Member
I am an old two-channel analog guy that realizes that I need to step up to today's technology. I don't think that I will give up my old analog gear but it is apparent that I need to integrate today's digital storage and delivery technology with yesterday's equipment.
I want a music server that is independent of the computer(s) on my home network. After doing quite a bit of reading here on AK in the Digital Formats & Music server Forums, I think I need a NAS device with at least two drives so that the primary drive is automatically backed up onto a separate hard drive. It also seems that the Logitech Squeezebox Duet is the way to go for me but I am so new to digital that I am not sure yet. My head is spinning but I think I have narrowed things down somewhat.
Here is what I want to do:
* Rip all of my Cd's to a Hard drive in a lossless format with tags and artwork similar to iTunes (format yet to be determined but will probably become clear after more reading and further explanation).
* Allow the music server to be accessed from several locations with analog (for now at least) systems in my home. A few of these locations will have a PC located with them but others will not. For those that do not a remote control with a small LCD type of display will be necessary. I do have a hybrid wired / wireless network in my home but running additional wires is no problem at all for me.
* I do not necessarily need to access the music server from outside of my home network, at least I don't think I will want to.
* I would like to have the music server integrate easily with iTunes for the purpose of downloading playlists from the server to my iPod touch.
* While I do not presently have any audio gear that has digital inputs I want to make sure that whatever hardware I choose today will be compatible with both analog and digital equipment as it now exists. I can see this as my gateway into the world of digital audio in the not so distant future.
* I like the idea of having the NAS being independent of but fully compatible with the computer(s) and the music delivery hardware like the iPod and the Squeezebox.
Like I said, I am new to digital audio. This is all new to me. I am not an IT person but have a general understanding of basic networks. Keeping this as simple and easy for me as possible is a real plus. If someone made a music server in-a-box much like a home theatre in-a box, I would be a good candidate for that. Realistically, I would be one that would opt for ease of installation and ease of use over having the absolute best performance. I did see that Logitech has partnered with NetGear to integrate their NAS devices with the Squeezebox Duet but I don't know enough about RAID devices to even guess which one would be a good choice. To give you an idea of the potential HD size that will be required, at this time I have 250 ~400 Cd's (and more coming all the time as people seem to be abandoning their collections) and approximately 1,000 LPs, of which I will only want to rip perhaps 200 ~ 300 to a digital format. Oh, the other thing is that I have a 530 Mhz Pentium 4 Media Center PC. The specs on the Squeezebox call for a 733 Mhz PC. If I will be using a current model NAS from Netgear does that matter?
Whew! Thanks for bearing with me through all that! I will appreciate any suggestions and guidance that can be offered as well as points to threads that I may have overlooked or need to re-visit.
Rich, if you do any tutoring I will bring your favorite beer!
I want a music server that is independent of the computer(s) on my home network. After doing quite a bit of reading here on AK in the Digital Formats & Music server Forums, I think I need a NAS device with at least two drives so that the primary drive is automatically backed up onto a separate hard drive. It also seems that the Logitech Squeezebox Duet is the way to go for me but I am so new to digital that I am not sure yet. My head is spinning but I think I have narrowed things down somewhat.
Here is what I want to do:
* Rip all of my Cd's to a Hard drive in a lossless format with tags and artwork similar to iTunes (format yet to be determined but will probably become clear after more reading and further explanation).
* Allow the music server to be accessed from several locations with analog (for now at least) systems in my home. A few of these locations will have a PC located with them but others will not. For those that do not a remote control with a small LCD type of display will be necessary. I do have a hybrid wired / wireless network in my home but running additional wires is no problem at all for me.
* I do not necessarily need to access the music server from outside of my home network, at least I don't think I will want to.
* I would like to have the music server integrate easily with iTunes for the purpose of downloading playlists from the server to my iPod touch.
* While I do not presently have any audio gear that has digital inputs I want to make sure that whatever hardware I choose today will be compatible with both analog and digital equipment as it now exists. I can see this as my gateway into the world of digital audio in the not so distant future.
* I like the idea of having the NAS being independent of but fully compatible with the computer(s) and the music delivery hardware like the iPod and the Squeezebox.
Like I said, I am new to digital audio. This is all new to me. I am not an IT person but have a general understanding of basic networks. Keeping this as simple and easy for me as possible is a real plus. If someone made a music server in-a-box much like a home theatre in-a box, I would be a good candidate for that. Realistically, I would be one that would opt for ease of installation and ease of use over having the absolute best performance. I did see that Logitech has partnered with NetGear to integrate their NAS devices with the Squeezebox Duet but I don't know enough about RAID devices to even guess which one would be a good choice. To give you an idea of the potential HD size that will be required, at this time I have 250 ~400 Cd's (and more coming all the time as people seem to be abandoning their collections) and approximately 1,000 LPs, of which I will only want to rip perhaps 200 ~ 300 to a digital format. Oh, the other thing is that I have a 530 Mhz Pentium 4 Media Center PC. The specs on the Squeezebox call for a 733 Mhz PC. If I will be using a current model NAS from Netgear does that matter?
Whew! Thanks for bearing with me through all that! I will appreciate any suggestions and guidance that can be offered as well as points to threads that I may have overlooked or need to re-visit.
Rich, if you do any tutoring I will bring your favorite beer!