garym;571208 Wrote: > I know it took me a while to get my head around all this. As a side > benefit, I knew nothing about my local network before (other than plug > in a router and everything just worked). I now understand IP > addresses, fixed vs provided by DHCP, adding wireless access points in > other parts of house, switches vs routers, SSID, WIFI channels and how > to change (and detect neighbors channels), etc. Plus I've had to > become an expert on tagging. Believe me, all these things are good for > me. I like to know how things work and why. > > Although this sounds good (for me), I suppose this is why folks get so > frustrated with these devices because they did not want to know all > this stuff. They just want to plug it in and play music!
Gary, I'm on the same path. I have some basic understanding of all these things, but obviously much to learn. I agree that the ideal situation is to have a "media server" tucked away somewhere that is connected to all media delivery devices. I listened to a podcast a few days ago that had such a media server that also did HD video streaming via some fancy new four-tuner "cable card" stuck into a Windows media server box....beaucoup bux though. (I won't stray off into "how can you add video to all this....:-)). Here's a recap of my current understanding of all this. I'll submit it as kind of a review and am open to feedback on what I've gotten right and wrong. 1. All the devices need to be attached to the network one way or another. In my case, and probably most, via Wi-Fi as the house is not wired for Ethernet. 2. Broadly speaking, SB devices could be classified as self-contained: Radio and Boom; and those that need to interface to some kind of existing playback system: Transporter, Duet receiver, and the Touch--all of which don't have amplifiers and speakers. (I understand the Duet has a controller also.) 3. All the devices need to pick up the content that they are either going to PLAY (SBR, Boom) or TRANSFER to an external audio system from the SB Server, which can be running on any computer anywhere, or even on the Touch. 4. The hierarchy of the devices for audio quality for devices hooked to external hardware: Transporter (big $$ but a very high-quality DAC and whatever else is needed to transfer bit-perfect audio to whatever it's connected to); Touch--very good quality internals; and the receiver portion of the duet--older technology and lesser quality audio. The SBR and Boom are what they are as far as audio quality goes. Here's an update on my own personal beginner's experiments. I installed Squeezeplay on my main desktop which is also running SBS and holds all the .WMA files in my music library. It operates just as one would expect--a software emulation of an SB device. The audio quality, however, really suffered. There was a noticeable degradation of the audio quality AND there were gaps/glitches in the stream. I'm thinking it just might be asking too much from this machine--a run-of-the mill 3-year-old Dell XPS 410 with no special sound card to be hosting the files, the server and the software emulator and expect it to sound perfect. So running Squeezeplay doesn't gain me anything. I think my next move will be to get a Touch and try it with the two systems I currently have. Short of having a Transporter, that seems to be the best solution. Again, many thanks to all. I'll keep posting questions as long as someone keeps answering them! -- Porschefan ---------------------------- Stephen Porter Albuquerque, NM (new home) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Porschefan's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=39130 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=81377 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
