O O Ø O O O O
Tuneless
I’ve been waiting for three years for someone to solve my problem. It’s been so long, and the market’s reaction so anemic, I’m beginning to suspect I’m the only one who has it.
Am I unique?
- I have ripped all of my CDs to digital.
- I keep my music library in the only location that makes sense: on a networked external hard drive, attached to a wireless ethernet hub.
- I drink the Kool-Aid, so the hub is an Airport Extreme, the digital format is Apple Lossless, and the ripping tool is a pretty little MacBook.
- The size of the library is on the order of magnitude of 250GB.
- My stereo is in my front room, housed tidily by itself in a bit of purpose-built custom millwork.
- My Airport Extreme is in my unused third bedroom (nominally referred to as the office)
- My laptop is wherever I am, usually in the side room.
- My TV is also in the side room.
My question is, how am I supposed to enjoy my digital music library on my stereo?
I do not want:
- An extra computer turned on all the time.
- A computer monitor cluttering up the millwork in the side room.
- To have to control my front room stereo via the TV in the side room.
I make my living as a designer. The solution has to be functionally transparent, low key, and beautiful.
My research has yielded all of two possibilities:
- A Sonos ZonePlayer and remote
- Slim Device’s Squeezbox
The problem with the first is price. An un-amped ZonePlayer 80 plus the requisite remote cost approximately US$800. (That’s over ¾-ounce of gold, to give a devaluation-proof valuation.)
The problem with the second is the requisite server, which adds the price of a Mac Mini to the equation, and brings the total to the better part of an ounce of gold as well.
I would be happy to be told by Apple that—like with everything they sell—I should be doing it the Apple way, but all their media solutions involve clicking and dragging files to discreet devices for playing or viewing. To Apple, every device is an iPod, and is treated as such.
Is there no demand for a simple device that can read music from a networked source, and allow simple navigation of same, without having to cohabit televisions, computers and stereos?
Phooey. I’m waiting.
Evan Spence
March 18, 2008
OOØOOOODCCCLXV
March 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am
There is demand for such a device, it exists and they have sold thousands of them.
You already found it though, it’s called Sonos.
Thankfully, I got divorced and having rather large hands I was able to melt down my heavy gold wedding ring to pay for it.
It’s true to say that I love my Sonos more than I ever did my wife.
Why are divorces so expensive? Because they’re worth it :-D
March 19th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
rofl
March 19th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
FSingle room Sonos and a Controller right now is going for $599 (still not cheap, but not $800) on their Website.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hey there, Ev. As you know, I happen to work at said fruit company and have a suggestion.
AirPort Express with AirTunes.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93859
Just plug it into your stereo and it links wirelessly with your AirPort Extreme base-station. Music playback is controlled by your MacBook and plays out of your stereo. All for $100.
You may drink the Kool-Aid, but I manufacture it.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Except iTunes HATES having its library on a NAS.
I get the occasional crazy skippy with the macbook-plus-express-on-NAS setup. Not to mention the annoyance of forgetting to unmount the network share whenever I come and go.
Now the important question:
Why doesn’t the airport extreme have an audio out, too?
March 20th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Hello. I came here via a bit of random clicking, and having read this post the wheels got turning in my head. Here’s what I came up with.
I would have an extra computer on all the time, as I think it’s the cheapest way to achieve this, but it would involve a bit of work. The computer would not have a monitor, keyboard or mouse. Linux runs quite naturally like that, as do the various *BSDs and of course Darwin. (I have next to no experience with Windows or OS X.) The innards of the computer needn’t be new, either.
Physically, the case would either be a micro ATX or if you can find a case in the old ‘desktop’ form factor (horizontal) that matches your stereo then that might look good. I would add a front-panel LCD display for effect, displaying either song info or a spectrum analyzer or some other pattern. To keep it quiet I would underclock the computer and reduce the speed of any fans apart from the PSU fan. I don’t tamper with PSUs, I’d buy one that was very quiet in the first place. (I recently got a Coolermaster that was very quiet and not dreadfully expensive.)
Software-wise, I’d probably use XMMS2 or MPD for the music playback. For control, I believe some sound cards come with an infra-red remote, and I know that software exists in Linux to work with such remotes. I would imagine that the remote wouldn’t be enough for changing playlists, and the laptop would have to be used for that. I think that if the laptop is an Apple that control software for XMMS2 might even run natively, but I’m not sure. (Come to think of it, it’s possible there is a Windows control program for XMMS2. Perhaps more than one.) Anyways, one way or another this would take more setting up than a commercial package, but I’m pretty sure it could work nicely when done.
That’s about the limit of my actual knowlege on the subject. I have my desktop plugged into my stereo almost religiously; I cannot understand how people tolerate the racket that comes out of “computer speakers”, but my flat is so small that it would almost be silly for me to use a remote control so I’ve never bothered setting one up. Likewise with XMMS2, it has a whole bunch of playlist features I don’t need and I’m happy with plain old XMMS of 10 year old design.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:24 am
… And there’s me working from memory instead of searching the internet as usual. I had a quick look at the XMMS2 website, and found that LIRC support is definitely available. I couldn’t see any explicit mention of Windows or OS X, but there are 2 projects for controlling XMMS2 from your mobile phone! There are a couple of web interfaces too, and a Java one.
http://wiki.xmms2.xmms.se/index.php/Main_Page
http://wiki.xmms2.xmms.se/index.php/Client:lxmms2
http://wiki.xmms2.xmms.se/index.php/Clients
March 20th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Me, I’m still a fan of the squeezebox. While it does require a server, that server can be pretty much anything, so long as perl is happy there. I’m using a Koolu (which is a rebranded FIC A603) for the server, which has an external drive to hold the library. It also runs a web server and IRC server, replacing a PC and cutting power consumption by about 2/3.
I’ve had a squeezebox for about three years, and am still happy with it. It functions as a wireless bridge for the 360, can be controlled from a remote or via a web browser (and there are mobile themes for wifi enabled PDAs and the iTouch/iPhone), gives me access to the SqueezeNetwork (for net radio, pandora, rhapsody, etc.), has a bunch of info-pr0n plugins, and is a nice looking little box, to boot.
While still having the computer is not optimal, I find the flexibility of having a file server running a full OS to be useful, and the Koolu is a fanless platform that does the job admirably, and fits pretty much anywhere.
I like the combo, and don’t see me switching from it anytime soon. Some of the newer 2 and 4-disk NAS enclosures also run linux of some flavour, but that would require further capital investment in storage, which I guess you’re trying to stay away from.
Also, Ben’s comment gets +++