Streaming Music, Plus A Blogger Vanity Toy
I wanted to stream digital music from my main computer in my home office to my main stereo system in the den. After some research, I chose version 3 of Squeezebox from Slim Devices. They have taken an open architecture approach that I like, and have a proven history of steadily improving their product. Most true audiophiles I sought advice from use this device (this is an audio-only device, no video or jpegs streamed). I am currently converting my entire CD collection to lossless FLAC format audio files using EAC, which seems to be the audiophile favorite for ripping (and it is free). FLAC compression seems to result in albums 250-450 meg, meaning my 400 CD's will need about 140 gig, which I have available. I will ditch most of my mp3 files, saving only a subset for iPod rotation. New mpg files, or whatever rules in the future, can be made directly from the FLAC.
The box itself is small and well-designed. Setup was a breeze, once I fixed a setting on my firewall. Now I can point my remote at this box and scroll easily through my music collection (along with a number of Internet radio stations). No flipping through CD's or yelling at the kids for not alphabetizing them right. You can browse or search by title, artist, or album.
In addition to controlling it with a remote, I can control it with any computer on the network. Right now, I choose songs on a laptop in the kitchen, which sends music from the computer in the office to the amp and speakers in the den. Awesome. Their web site says that you can also browse your music and choose what's playing from a web enabled PDA, but I have not tried it yet.
Here is the blogger vanity part: In addition to an array of other screensavers, you can have the device connect to any online RSS feed and scroll the contents marquee-style across the screen. All day I have had my blog feed scrolling across the device, interspersed with NY Times and ESPN headlines.
