Squeezebox Duet vs Apple Remote App (Pics within)

[g0rf]

...The other advantage to using lossless compression of course are tags. I really wouldn't want to lose that. And as there is zero quality hit, then why not?

I intend to upgrade my portable soon (I sense a forum question), and most players would soon be full with WAVs!

 

 

[Ashley James]

With iTunes and iPods you can either sync or load what you choose, you set it in Preferences.

It seems to me that Audiophiles are reluctant to accept the fact the the 151 million people who've bought iPods have done so for more than just convenience. Some seem to choose all sorts of complicated solutions rather than simply accept that iTunes (and the Apple system) is fantastic and I think it's a mistake. For me music is what matters and jiggering around with equipment to get it is irritating. Not only is iTunes instant, but it's part of the best home media system available at the moment, so my movies, my TV programs, my internet radio stations, my photographs, and everything else I do with my computers is all instantly accessible, even via the wonderful Touch. For me Hi Fi is more exciting now than it has been since I co-founded my first hi fi company in the late nineteen fifties!

 

Ash

 

 

 

[g0rf]

Heh. And I am thinking of replacing a 30GB iPod because of its sheer inconvenience...

Yes I know how to use iTunes, I just don't like it.

The iPod is a beautifully designed, and reasonably good quality player, possibly a little thin sounding, but decent for a portable, but the 'one-way' traffic, and the insistance on the use of iTunes is rubbish.

However, I agree, Hifi is very exciting nowadays. I just wish we could get some more choices in the market, and some decent magazine coverage of such.

Your ADM9.1s for example... What would you consider a competitive product? Is there even one?

One thing I like when buying hifi, is a choice. I can demo a few different boxes, and make a decision based on that...

 

[Ashley James]

Lossless isn't compression, it's Apple's FLAC, but I do use compression if I want a single track off an old LP or 78, or if the recording wasn't great to start with. I also like being able to email bits of music to friends rather than trying to describe, so my music library is in a mixture of Lossless, WAVS, MP3s of different sizes depending on importance attached and some purchased downloads where I'm too stingy to fork out for the whole CD. I play FLACS with VLC via Airfoil if I have to.

 

Anyway these are simply my thoughts.

 

Ashley

 

[g0rf]

"Lossless isn't compression"

 

Ahem. Of course lossless is compression. Its lossless compression, just like a zip file.

 

 

[Ashley James]

This is my last post, I've written far too much!

 

The Touch is a computer in its own right as well as a music player so has to be viewed differently to an ordinary iPod, which I also have.

 

Apple can do no wrong right now, but it'll change, nothing lasts for ever.

 

I don't think there is a competitor for ADM9.1s yet, it's not the kind of thing larger hi fi companies would risk. At the moment we're suspended in a yawning chasm between "computer" music and "traditional separates" , none of the many active studio monitors do it and hi fi equivalents are split into multiple boxes and cost a fortune, however I very much doubt our present run of luck will continue unabated.

 

Apple ought to pay me a retainer for all this!

 

good night!

 

Ash

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I don't consider tags an advantage of lossless compression. AIFF uncompressed filed support tags as well.

 

Tagged formats in general are a huge advantage over non-tagable formats like WAV most certainly.

 

[g0rf]

Yes, well most people dont have 5 TB available, and FLAC gives me a 50% drop in file sizes with zero quality hit...

 

 

[dcbrush]

I am new to this website and have been trying to follow this thread. I have a question for Chris or anyone else who is familiar with the Apple Remote application. I currently have a NetGear Ready/NAS NV+ RAID array (4x500GB) where all my music resides as Apple Lossless files. The NAS has a slimmed down version of the Squeeze Box software, so it runs independently from my iMac (I didn't want the hard drive in my iMac to take the abuse). I select songs using a Squeeze box display and run the coax into a DAC into a receiver. The NAS is hard wired into my network. The NAS also says it supports iTunes, but it is not really iTunes (Firefly?). I recently purchased a 3G iPhone and downloaded the Remote app. I can control iTunes on my iMac with my iPhone and really like the capability. Is there any way for me to get the NAS to recognize the iPhone Remote app over my network and run without the Squeezebox or iMac?

 

By the way, did you guys see the July newsletter from PS Audio where Paul McGowan used an iPod Touch, DAC III and 160 GB Apple TV as a music server? He also created a playlist of radio stations to set up his favorite stations in iTunes.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Unfortunately the iPhone remote app can't control that library because it acts like a shared library. Plus there is no ace to enter the secret code to set it up.

 

The ps audio newsletter was pretty cool. More and more manufacturers are getting onto the game!