cliveb Wrote: > I'm a very satisfied SB2 user. The device is superbly thought out, and I > sold my high-end CD player a few months ago as a result. But I've > noticed one minor downside to this way of delivering music. It's not an > SB problem specifically - it would apply to any network music player. > > Back in the days when I used a CD player, there was a wall full of CDs > in a rack. When I fancied listening to some music, I'd walk up to the > rack and start browsing, often scanning almost at random. I'd spot a CD > that took my fancy and put it on. > > The network player approach is different. Browsing the entire music > collection just doesn't work the same way. Sure, you can do a "browse > music -> artists" and step through the alphabet, but it just doesn't > feel as convenient. I believe the end result is that you tend to pick > an album you want to play in advance and put it on. (Note that when the > CDs were in a rack, it was also very simple to find a particular album. > So it seems to me that the operational paradigm of network players is > more restrictive). > > Maybe I'm just peculiar and nobody else thinks this. but I'd be > interested in others' thoughts. YES. I couldn't agree more. Browsing just isn't the same and IMO it detracts from the listening experience.
There are some cool things you can do with the software - find and play all versions of "Lush Life", for instance. That's nice, but really more of a novelty than anything. Random play is nice, but only for background music. Saved playlists are powerful, but they're like listening to a taped radio show. Worse, actually - much less interesting. Not being able to efficiently browse a collection, with cover art and fast access to track lists is a major drawback. But this is really a limitation of the software. I've seen one or two good "browsing" implementations on a computer - a digital Internet jukebox I once saw in a bar, for instance, had a much better user interface, with touch-sensitive alpha slider that was -fast-. I can see SlimServer's web interface getting somewhat better, but it's going to take quite a while and will never approach what can be done with native applications. As for the remote UI, you can have it. Totally worthless to me. I use it so little I can never even find the remote. A Squeezebox with no display would only be a fraction less useful to me. -- JJZolx Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20138 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
