Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Feeling Ignorant Today…..

That's why most people would use losless compression as mentioned in several posts above!

I'm not sure what others are doing, but I'm not ripping mine to MP3s. I'm using a lossless format so the quality (to me) sounds exactly the same as if I were playing the actual CD. When I first got my SB, I switched back and forth between the CD and SB and couldn't tell a difference. FWIW

Thanks to all so far regarding the codec thoughts.

Is ANYbody out there using a TiVo or XBox360 for networking music, or is the Squeezebox superior enough to warrant a purchase even though I own the TiVo and XBox already?

There's discussion of servers and RAIDs, is my thinking faulty to assume that I could just add a Maxtor 500gb drive to my business computer since it's on all day anyway?

I do have an older Compaq that's not being used..... hmmm...

TIA!

I can't comment on the Tivo or Xbox since I have neither. You can definitely add another drive to your PC (assuming it has room) to hold your music. I would also recommend getting an external drive to back your music up to. I'm paranoid, so I keep backups in three different locations, main PC, network server and external drives. It's overkill, I know, but I used to manage a lab full of database servers where you live and die on your backups.

Mark, I've never heard of any one using a Tivo or Xbox for music storage, I suppose it can be done but it's not what they are designed for. Maybe I'm missing the boat? Will they decode FLAC, ACC, or WMA or other lossless formats?

If you are into good quality sound, and since you are on an Axiom board I'm assuming so, then the SB with a lossless format, like FLAC, is the best way to go. If you are just ripping to a lossy format like MP3 and aren't too concerned with quality then any player will do.

I mentioned RAID because you had written about having 100's of CD's and the Jukebox style CD player. If you are only ripping a few dozen CD's then don't worry about it. But if you are ripping hundreds, or thousands eventually then using a RAID solution makes sense. Hard drives a dirt cheap now and a couple of 500 gig drives is peanuts when compared to having to re-rip all of your CD's if you were to lose your data for what ever reason. Maybe I'm a little obsessive but I also periodically dump everything to an external drive…. I like the safety factor. Then I have things in 3 places, server, external, and original.

One other thing, tagging and the free data bases have been mentioned. And yes they can be wrong. You can either correct the information before ripping. Or go back and edit it after. This is the tool that I use. MP3 Tag It works great. Change names, generes, titles, etc etc.

The TiVo and Xbox aren't used as storage, they're used as streaming devices. I've never tried it. In my circumstance, I don't want to leave a computer on in the other room in order to listen to music in the living room. That's what I have the SACD/DVD-A changer and the iPod with a dock for.

I'm anal enough that I go through my music collection and fix the artist names, genres, etc.

I'm using my Xbox 360 to play music off of my computer's hard drive (WMA lossless), and I can't really tell a difference between it and the CDs, but then I've never had an "audiophile" player with Burr-Brown or Wolfson DACs (or whatever else is supposed to be comparable). The Squeezeboxes have Burr-Browns, right? I've always been interested in hearing one to see if I could tell a difference at all.

For me, the Xbox 360 works well enough, but sometimes I wish I could choose my music based on the folder it resides in. I hope they keep refining it with each dashboard update.

I'm not paranoid enough yet to have a backup of my music. I keep it all on one external hard drive. I'll probably end up regretting it.

I'm beginning to wonder if I might do better to rebuild that unused Compaq to add a big internal drive and a nice audio card, and just feed the receiver directly without bothering with networking.

My DLP accepts a VGA input from a computer so I'd have a built-in big-azz monitor to select my music, and I could set it up with a wireless keyboard/mouse.

Crap. Maybe I oughta just go for an HT PC....(!)

I've been down this road before, it is lots of fun.
i typically use open source solutions

I ran the Ampache Streaming software and could play the music at any computer.

I also had a couple rio/dell audio receivers to stream the content straight to AVR's. I think the squeezebox would be better, because I think it has a digital output.

the ampache/rio setup utilized linux, so it isnt the best solution for everyone.

I agree with the posts that advise to rip in a high quality. I am now using flac, but not all devices support flac. i can really hear the limitations of my previously ripped 128kb mp3 on my axioms. that wasnt the case when i was just using computer speakers.

I would recommend having a backup strategy in place. I have had several drive failures, probably because i run the drives 24/7 and have 5 drives in a case, which generates excessive heat. I have my collection backed up onto cd-r, which in itself is a pain to restore. i was just over at another forum where a guy is boohooing cause he lost all the tracks he had ripped. dont think if it will happen, think when it will happen.

If i was going to set something up again, I would shoot for audio and video streaming.

I currently have a networked (wired) computer at the location of my tv/receiver/axioms. i use the digital output from the computer to the denon. works well for me, although I am only using it in one place

hth

have fun