After many months of hemming and hawing, I finally took the plunge and committed to going digital with my music collection.
I ordered a 500GB external hard drive and a Squeezebox to wirelessly connect my digital music up to my stereo. The drive will run off Molly’s existing desktop computer in the office/guest room. But we’ll be able to command the stereo with the Squeezebox’s little remote control — or by hitting its web interface from our laptops.
That should be pretty cool. I’m sure that hours of enjoyable CD ripping and tagging lie ahead. My next dilemma: FLAC vs VBR MP3. I think it’ll probably be FLAC — I’ve got the gigabytes to spare and I don’t ever want to re-rip my CDs as formats change.
Possibly in the future: a Kloss Model Two micro-stereo system to replace my bulky pile of mostly-low-end components. But that will have to wait for my bank balance to recover.
No iPod for me, though. I’m a loyal NPR listener on the bus.
Very slick. Question – why an external drive hooked up to a computer rather than in a NAS enclosure? Does the Squeezebox require s/w on the PC in order to pull the files and play them – is that what the SlimServer is?
Thomas,
Yes, the SlimServer drives the Squeezebox, and is required.
I already have a PC that is available for duty, and I didn’t want to deal with hacking a NAS to run SlimServer, which lots of folks apparently do.
[...] Just about two months ago I took the plunge, bought a SlimDevices Squeezebox network music player and finally committed to digitizing my music collection. Here’s a two-month report. [...]