Logitech SqueezeBox replacement for under $30

[Tim]

I thought this might be worth posting for Squeezebox fans. I knew it wouldn't be long before something popped up. I am also following a thread elsewhere about the Raspberry Pi, so if anything comes of that in relation to a music streamer I will pass it on here.

Logitech SqueezeBox replacement for under $30 (http://vortexbox.org/content/149-Logitech-SqueezeBox-replacement-for-under-30)

http://vortexbox.org/images/vortexbox/pogop21.jpg

[seoirse2002]

Interesting to hear what people on here have to say when they audition it:)

[Covenant]

I was excited until I got to the bit at the end about how to make it. I bet it's not straightforward.

[Stratmangler]

It's pig ugly, has no S/PDIF, and has no analogue outputs either.
It's ideal ;)

I'm pleased that someone has taken up the challenge of providing a successor to Squeezebox (and I noted that Triode has got a hand in it, which has to be good), but they should be looking for potential new customers, not picking up existing Squeezebox users whose players will work for quite some time to come :)

[morris_minor]

. . . not picking up existing Squeezebox users whose players will work for quite some time to come :)
That's what I'm banking on . . . and I've a spare Touch to cover the first casualty.

But this PogoPlug thing looks interesting - have to see how it develops :rolleyes:.

[Tim]

I don't think it will be very long before a cosmetically pleasing offering of Raspberry Pi, built exclusively for streaming is available. Squeezeplayer seems ideally suited for this platform.

There are already a number of innovative case designs out there;

http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/plypi.jpg

Hook up a DAC, power with a Linear PSU and stream from a Vortexbox running LMS and we could have some really good choices out there soon :)

[MCRU]

It's pig ugly, has no S/PDIF, and has no analogue outputs either.
It's ideal ;)

I'm pleased that someone has taken up the challenge of providing a successor to Squeezebox (and I noted that Triode has got a hand in it, which has to be good), but they should be looking for potential new customers, not picking up existing Squeezebox users whose players will work for quite some time to come :)

Well said dude, I have 3 touches, will last me a lifetime.

[Krisbee]

Apart from saying "buy a SBT while you can", how about a dockstar as MPD server controlled from an Andriod mobile phone?

http://youtu.be/yxttHqXoH6Q


If you think Linux is “pish” then avert your eyes, but the idea of installing Linux on low-end NAS devices, thin clients and plug computers to gain full control over the hardware and use them as (networked) media players is not exactly new. One early example of this was the Linksys NSLU2 NAS device, aka the “slug”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

The software of choice was the Music Player Daemon (MPD). So it's no surprise that users of squeezeserver/squeezeslave software have also turned their attention to hardware other than the SBT as shown on the slimdevices forum:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?18-3rd-Party-Hardware&

The pogoplug that Tim first linked to was available for as little as £20 earlier in the year. Getting Linux and MPD working on it is not exactly “plug and play” but there are detailed instructions on various websites. This vid gives a good idea of the pogoplug basic functionality out of the box:

http://youtu.be/FePnwlXKExc

This thread shows the picking the right pogoplug device is important:

http://vortexbox.org/threads/4536-squeezelite-on-Pogoplug


I too had hoped the raspberry pi would make a decent audio player connecting to a USB DAC , but from the many posts on the raspberry pi forum about USB problems I'm doubtful if this will ever be the case. Here's just one example thread:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=23544

The crux of the problem appears to be the hardware implementation of USB & Ethernet on a shared bus. You might get glitch free 16bit /44KHz audio playback over USB but I've not read of success at higher resolutions. Depending on what USB DAC you are trying to use with the raspberry pi you might run into other problems, e.g:

http://vortexbox.org/threads/4536-squeezelite-on-Pogoplug?p=29332&viewfull=1#post29332

The SBT showed what could be done audio wise with stripped down Linux software and budget hardware. Will another commerical provider pick up the challenge or will it be left to the hackers?

[slate]

For all the details on Squeezelite which shows many promises http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?97046-Announce-Squeezelite-a-small-headless-squeezeplay-emulator-for-linux-(alsa-only)