Going digital

[david_carnell]

I'm hoping the collective hive-mind of the forum can help.

I'm likely to be moving house shortly and am using the opportunity to ditch all my CDs in favour of storing all the music digitally.

The trouble is, the options to do this seem baffling in number and complexity.

I have a few hundred albums (under a thousand) with some currently on my laptop (via itunes) and iphone. The iphone is now full though.

The CDs are a combination of mine and Mrsd_c but we?d want them all together.

In the new house, we want music available in three rooms ? lounge, kitchen and bedroom.

I?d also want to be able to listen to Spotify (probably via iphone) and internet radio (normally via bbc iplayer).

At the moment, my favoured idea would be to put all the music on NAS drive with itunes installed, buy a streaming amplifier and have that in the lounge. In kitchen and bedroom I?d have a standalone wifi speaker like these:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/wireless-docks,-speakers-and-portables/pioneer/xwsma1/pion-xw-sma1-wht

Does anyone have a better suggestion? I don't need audiophile wanktastic sound quality but don't want tin can sound either.

[El Pibe]

whack on a nas or external drive, install twonky server to your pc, then get a few of these

http://www.pure.com/product/jongo-s340b-vl-61996/

or these http://www.pure.com/product/jongo-t4-vl-62233/ Or T2 or T6 depending on room size, i think richer sounds are doing them ata discount last time i was in store.

[El Pibe]

they can all be controlled independently from pc and iphone/android apps, and in pairs can be linked to go stereo

[Jeremy]

I just read that the Jongo thingy can only play Spotify via Bluetooth... sounds a bit crap, non?

[Ron70]

ITunes Match

Ron70

[El Pibe]

i don't really use spotify, i use it for my library of burnt music and internet radio.

If spotify is important than i guess a different solution, though to be fair it's not the jongo that can't do it, it's the pure software. you can probably roll your own spotify server with a bit of python http://www.mopidy.com/

The pure version of twonky won't stream flac, but the original twonky server (which im using) does.

In fact I've a raspberry on the way, may have to do this!!

Pure do that on purpose because they have a spotify rival, Pure COnnect (which i dont use either).

[El Pibe]

If you're feeling wealthy then you can always go sonos.

[david_carnell]

Not feeling that wealthy.

[StraferJack]

Digitising all those CDs is going to be the fun part , regardless of whichever setup you go for

I use limited phone storage for rare/not on spotify music, and use spotify for everything else

Then I just send iplayer/spotify/music to whichever apple express in the house I want.

[????]

Itunes match seconded - ?20ish a year, all up 'there' (with naked celebs) and upgraded to better quality if you originally loaded them the lower quality, as I did. Then can stream on any apple device (not sure about others). A few small bugs around say obscure versions (ie some live tracks) may get replaced with a more maintsream version.

[El Pibe]

google play just uploads yours directly up 'there', though doesn't upgrade them and is completely free (though the initial upload took about a week)

[????]

pS Can still down load a playlist etc onto a device but in general maens you don't need any music on your devices

[david_carnell]

For itunes match do you have to still have all the hard copies on a PC hard-disk somewhere?

[ruffers]

We have all our music on a Vortexbox - http://www.vortexbox.co.uk/ - wired to the router, then squeezeboxes around the house athough I think the Vortexbox will work with most things through DLNA.

Works great.

[El Pibe]

squeezedbox another great alternative, seconded. bit pricier than Jongo A2, but bioth great for connecting up your existing equipment.

[????]

david_carnell Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> For itunes match do you have to still have all the

> hard copies on a PC hard-disk somewhere?

No.

As long as you pay your annual subscription they'll look after them all.

'just in case' - I do have mine on a storage disk but not on any PC.

[El Pibe]

oh dear, vortexbox looked interesting but i've ruled them out for use of COMIC SANS GGRRRR AAAARRGGHHH!!!!!!

[david_carnell]

ruffers Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We have all our music on a Vortexbox -

> http://www.vortexbox.co.uk/ - wired to the router,

> then squeezeboxes around the house athough I think

> the Vortexbox will work with most things through

> DLNA.

>

> Works great.

Hmm, looks interesting but will I'm looking at ditching existing AV equipment in this move too and that still requires a load of black boxes scattered around the place. It's essentially working like a NAS drive, no? For the price I could buy a 4tb drive and a Cambridge Audio streaming amp.

[Ron70]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> david_carnell Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > For itunes match do you have to still have all

> the

> > hard copies on a PC hard-disk somewhere?

>

>

> No.

>

> As long as you pay your annual subscription

> they'll look after them all.

>

> 'just in case' - I do have mine on a storage disk

> but not on any PC.

- Just to add to that, as ??? said, as long as you pay your annual subscription your music is available on ITunes Match. However, if you decided you didn't want to subscribe anymore and wanted your music back you could download it all to a hard drive prior to your subscription ending...

- Similarly, if you think you'll be going to an area where you can't "stream" your music you can download a playlist / album etc. before going there...

- This means you can free up space on your iPhone and the music is available on all apple devices which are logged onto the same ITunes account.

Ron70

[ruffers]

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> oh dear, vortexbox looked interesting but i've

> ruled them out for use of COMIC SANS GGRRRR

> AAAARRGGHHH!!!!!!

I may have to throw ours out now.

[ed_pete]

If you go down the NAS route there a Netgear one for sale for ?125 - not sure 2TB would be enough though.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?9,1375434,1379904#msg-1379904

[El Pibe]

2tb would be plenty, I've hundreds ripped to lossless and it's about half a tb.

[StraferJack]

Sonos planning changes

http://bit.ly/1uxuQ0G

[njc97]

A QNAP NAS would be cheaper than vortexbox for running squeezboxes off:

https://www.ripcaster.co.uk/node/537

[Loz]

I have a QNAP NAS. It's a nice piece of hardware, but the software is really soddingly annoying. It tries to make you put stuff only in particular folders and its DNLA refuses to recognise track numbers.

And I thought Squeezebox was effectively dead now?