I have been using Squeezeboxes happily for a long time. I even own one from Slimdevices, the original manufacturer before Logitech acquired it. I'm using Apple TV in parallel for about a year now. Barely switching on the Squeezebox I decided it is time for decluttering and removing Squeezebox stuff from my setup. Here is why. (First paragraph gives some background and other ones my own arguments.)
I started with Slimserver (now: Squeezebox Server) on a Synology NAS. This setup soon turned out to not have enough performance when wanting to use a room correction plugin. Response times were also slow. Therefore I invested in a dedicated low-noise and low-power-consumption server. It was great! Multiple rooms, either synchronized or playing different music. The first problem arose when using the iPod app (now: Music) on my iPhone more and more when on the go. How to best synchronize? Especially ratings were important to me as I use these a lot. Thanks to Erland there are a couple of great plugins. It took time to properly setup, but problem solved. The next problem came when switching my hardware to Macs (after too many years of Win and Linux). I found it to be a pain always syncing to the (Windows) server in addition to syncing to my Mac. Furthermore I wanted to keep my music library on the Mac. Although there were a couple of solutions for sharing or even syncing iTunes libraries between computers (and between Mac and Windows) all had their pitfalls and none was really convenient. My solution was installing Squeezebox Server on the Mac and retiring the Windows server. Fine, but do not expect the translation to be easy. MusicIP, the other service I am using a lot for exploring my vast music library, did not work well. In fact I had to re-analyze my whole library. Additionally, syncing of ratings between iTunes and Sqeezebox Server got messed up. I had to invest time and contributed an AppleScript-based tool for doing the final sync. Things got better again with iPeng and the iPad and I considered myself to be a happy Squeezebox user again. Then I got an Apple TV mainly by request of my girlfriend who wanted to watch movies and stream her music to my HiFi as well. Could you say no to a sweet beloved one? I could not although her taste of music is probing my tolerance level ever since, but that is another story. Over the last year I slowly discovered the power of Apple TVs music streaming capabilities. And today I see too few benefits of using Squeezebox over Apple TV. Here are my arguments in favor of Apple TV: 1. Sound quality: Apple TV sounds better then Squeezebox. I would have never guessed this. I have fairly good HiFi equipment. Most of my music is either in Apple Lossless (ALAC, which is like FLAC) or 320 CBR mp3 format. Apple TV is connected via HDMI. Squeezebox is connected via optical output. Squeezebox Server runs at highest audio settings. Friends confirmed the difference in audible pleasure. Apple TV sounds clearer, livelier, and has a broader stage for presenting the musicians and/ or sounds. 2. It just works: Have you ever hestitated installing a new Squeezebox Server release? Waiting for other users on the forum reporting their experience? I have. I had troubles with some updates e.g. with sleep/wake functionality of the server. I took time to fix these. Not so with Apple TV. No maintenance. Nothing to fix. Nothing to configure. 3. My focus is on listening and enjoying music again: At first sight the possibilities of Apple TV are limited compared to Squeezebox. But do not underestimate the power of iTunes. Smart playlists are wonderful. And even Genius has evolved. However, the most important point is that the lack of endless configuration options is benefitial. You really learn how to use your equipment well. How to use iTunes DJ and the free Remote iOS app. It becomes transparent and what remains is only the music and you. I am primary attracted to music and not to technical configuration and this attraction is satisfied much more by Apple TV. Here are my arguments in favor of Squeezebox: 4. There are more services available: Built-in or via plugins you can connect to multiple services like LastFM or Deezer. However, for most of these, apps exist on iOS as well which let you stream directly to Apple TV via AirPlay. You can even have all of your music in the cloud with iTunes Match removing the necessity of having a computer running while listening to your music. The one service I use a lot is TuneIn Radio. This is available on iOS and it is much more convenient to operate on the iPhone than on Squeezebox. I do not know how Apple does it, but streaming rarely affects battery power. I just streamed a 2h HD movie and it took only 2% of battery power. 5. MusicIP is lightyears better than Genius: Yes, that is true. However, there are drawbacks. You have to analyze your music and we do not know how long this will work given that development of MusicIP has stopped years ago. Spicefly costs money as well as other indespensible plugins. That is okay given all the time and energy the developers have invested. Coping with this restriction I have discovered the power of listening to one album from start to end. 6. I can stream my whole library to my iPhone using iPeng: I can do the same using iTunes Match. I currently have not found enough arguments to keep my Squeezeboxes. They require attention as most devices do. Attention for maintenance. Attention for user interaction. My attention is limited. I want to focus on music and nothing else in this context. Am I missing something? Thanks for your thoughts. (Note that these arguments might hold true for pure Mac environments only.) -- -tm- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -tm-'s Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=37094 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=94223 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
