Thanks a lot for all your valuable feedback and suggestions. First thing to note is that we are not talking about objective truth but about personal preferences. What is best for me now might not be the optimal in the future and it might not be your choice. Secondly, I was not asking which device is better as this strongly depends on the previous note. People always tend to defend their own solution to minimize cognitive dissonance. I had multiple discussions with friends explaining the value of my Squeezeboxes while some argued in favor of Sonos or Apple TV. What I really intended with this thread was finding missing arguments for myself. And I got these. Thanks! This is what I've learned from your comments:
1. Hardware form factor: I currently own three Squeezebox Classics. I rarely if ever use the remote but operate these using iPeng. Therefore, in my case it does not make a difference firing up iPeng for Squeezebox or Apple Remote for Apple TV. However, I once had a Boom and interaction with it was different. I used the knobs and buttons. I sold the Boom later on due to lack of real Stereo. The newest devices, Touch and Radio, are appealing with respect to user interaction. (thanks bluegaspode). I consider the display on the Classic as not really being beneficial. My houses rooms are rather large and I cannot read it from most places. 2. Multi-Room setup: While you can stream to multiple AirPlay enabled devices like Apple TV at once, it is not possible to play different tracks on these devices. Synchronization between devices is also poor compared to Squeezeboxes accurate timing. If I had this requirement now as I had in my previous house, I would most definitly keep the Squeezebox setup. 3. The user community: I was wondering why no one explicitly stated this point. I really cannot think of another online communities this helpful and responsive! I finally decided to give up on Squeezebox to simplify my setup. Should my requirements change again in the future my first stop will be at Squeezebox technology again. Naturally a lot of you have commented on my impression of Apple TVs superior sound quality. I would not have believed this myself taken that audio conversion is said to be done technically more accurate on the Squeezebox. First of all I usually do hear slight differences between lossy and lossless formats. Most often it is either that I can hear more instruments with lossless formats (especially at both ends of the hearable frequency spectrum) or that the spatial configuration of sounds/ instruments is better distinguishable. The difference between Squeezeboxes and Apple TVs sound is on another scale. It is also only a slight difference and it concerns the atmosphere of the sound: its fresher, more vivid and better moving. It reminds me of discussions and experience I had when buying good headphones. I could clearly hear the difference very expensive Sennheisers made. But these were not made for me. I felt disconnected from the music. I'm not an analytical listener as I'm doing enough analytics throughout the day. Music needs to move my soul somehow, it is about evoking different kinds of emotion. My statement was all about this. I would not deny that Squeezeboxes rendering might be more correct. And if you are an analytical listener you might hear the same difference but come to the opposite judgement. And here are some notes to questions: * erland: Apple TV can be operated completly without TV if one wishes to by either using AirPlay from other devices or by using the Apple Remote app. You are also free to use your iOS device while streaming. * pski and andynormancx: It took me some time to get used to but with iTunes DJ (and playlists in general) you can decide what to hear next without interrupting the current song. With iTunes DJ you can even compete with your friends or family members on what to hear next if you wish to provoke some bad mood ;-) * pski: With respect to remote streaming you should not exclude iTunes Match. A fairer comparison would be to also exclude dyndns services as well when excluding iTunes Match. However, I don't have a need for either service as my iPhone holds enough favorites for getting a party going as well as enough albums I like to explore. * pippin, verypsb, services: My oldest is also my main device, a 4 years old iMac. I've never had any trouble with any Apple hardware. I had this with Squeezebox Server and I consider myself technically talented as I've done system maintenance and programming for some time (I'm a scientist). It is exactly stuff like weird filename characters, broken iTunes connection or the server going to sleep while playing I was talking about. I've never encountered any unfixable bugs but it took time to fix. I'd like to spend my time for other things. I guess peoples personal experience shapes their attitude. I hated iTunes as well years ago when using it on a Windows machine. * sc53: Audiophile = An individual who is very interested and enthusiastic about the sound quality of a stereo or home theater system. As stated my library consists of both lossless and lossy formats. The reason of which is mainly that for some musical styles I really do not hear a difference or the difference is insignificant. If you do love listening to music your most important concern besides listening is getting the sound YOU like most. In fact I really do want to hear what the artist intended me to hear. However, there are situations when the sound technicians preference is not mine. In those cases I even use an EQ to adjust sound which no true audiophile would do according to your definition, right ;-) -- -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 discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
