Lumpy Waters
Member
I'm going to start ripping my vinyl collection soon so I can listen to it in my car and I'm thinking of expanding the project to include a simple music server in my home audio system. I have no interest in using streaming services and my vision is primarily of choosing from a handful of play lists. Music files would be stored on a NAS device. My main preference is for spinning vinyl, but there are times when starting up a long playlist would be more convenient and desirable. I don't see myself spending a lot time browsing through digital files, so if I'm not spinning up vinyl or CD, my only use for the music server would be to play one of maybe a half dozen or so playlists.
So, after some poking around, the old Slim Devices Squeezebox seems like a good option. Though discontinued, they seem to be plentiful on Ebay, and fairly inexpensive. I like that they are controlled by a traditional remote and have a display that gives feedback as to what is playing, so the experience of running it would be much like operating my CD player. I would use one of the digital outputs into my integrated amp. I've noticed that, though there are many discussions here relating to the Squeezebox app, there doesn't seem to be much discussion of the hardware. Are there reasons why it would be preferable to look at other alternatives? I do have some reservations about spending $100+ on a ten year old digital device that may have some looming obsolescence attached to it. Other options I've considered are a Rasberry Pi with Digic board and 7" touch screen- essentially a Squeezebox clone-, or the Sonos, or the Intel NUC. I have no interest in using an old PC or laptop.
So, after some poking around, the old Slim Devices Squeezebox seems like a good option. Though discontinued, they seem to be plentiful on Ebay, and fairly inexpensive. I like that they are controlled by a traditional remote and have a display that gives feedback as to what is playing, so the experience of running it would be much like operating my CD player. I would use one of the digital outputs into my integrated amp. I've noticed that, though there are many discussions here relating to the Squeezebox app, there doesn't seem to be much discussion of the hardware. Are there reasons why it would be preferable to look at other alternatives? I do have some reservations about spending $100+ on a ten year old digital device that may have some looming obsolescence attached to it. Other options I've considered are a Rasberry Pi with Digic board and 7" touch screen- essentially a Squeezebox clone-, or the Sonos, or the Intel NUC. I have no interest in using an old PC or laptop.