What next? Squeezebox?

[toast boy]

I'm considering upgrade options at the minute and wondering whether it's worth investing in a Squeezebox I'm currently running my tunes through a Mac Mini ripped at lossless quality. What would the benefits be of a Squeezebox over the Mac? Or would the money be better spent on other hifi upgrades? The Mac is currently playing through a Cyrus 3 and an XPA and Mission speakers.

[option click]

If it's for a single room, then the Squeezbox offers little over the Mac, except perhaps for a handy remote control.
If you're looking to stream your music from a single source to multiple rooms in your house, then I'd recommend you look at Sonos.

I had a Squeezebox and ended up selling it in favour of a Sonos system. The Squeezebox and associated software required constant attention and tweaking - installing new drivers, plugins etc... and never really worked reliably (some of this may have been down to my less than amazing computer skills).

The Sonos, by contrast was up and running in less than ten minutes and has worked flawlessly ever since.

If it's sound quality you're after, then I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the SB and Sonos, but then again I'm no audiophile.

[toast boy]

It would just be for a single room system, I'm not that bothered about multi-room audio just yet so it's just a case of what will offer me an improvement in sound quality over the Mac. If the Squeezebox is of a similar sound quality then there's not much point in going down that route and the iPhone makes a good enough remote for the Mac if I'm not within reach of the keyboard.

It looks like the options after that would be an external DAC for the Mac (if that is likely to make any difference) or better speakers...

[Globs]

toast boy said:

I'm considering upgrade options at the minute and wondering whether it's worth investing in a Squeezebox I'm currently running my tunes through a Mac Mini ripped at lossless quality.

So buy an Airport Express, an optical cable and a Behringer UltraMatch. Set the UltraMatch for internal clock and 88.2kHz and you are good to go.

You can also use an iPod Touch direct or as a remote to the Mac Mini, to stream from the Express box.

[toast boy]

Globs said:

So buy an Airport Express, an optical cable and a Behringer UltraMatch. Set the UltraMatch for internal clock and 88.2kHz and you are good to go.

You can also use an iPod Touch direct or as a remote to the Mac Mini, to stream from the Express box.

Unfortunately my Mac Mini is one of the first ones and doesn't have optical out. I was thinking of maybe getting a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic?

[Globs]

toast boy said:

Globs said:

So buy an Airport Express, an optical cable and a Behringer UltraMatch. Set the UltraMatch for internal clock and 88.2kHz and you are good to go.

You can also use an iPod Touch direct or as a remote to the Mac Mini, to stream from the Express box.

Unfortunately my Mac Mini is one of the first ones and doesn't have optical out. I was thinking of maybe getting a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic?

The Airport Express has the optical digital output
Sound (data) goes from your mac mini via wi-fi to the Airport Express, then via optical to the DAC (the Ultramatch).

[dan5oclocksmith]

option click said:

I had a Squeezebox and ended up selling it in favour of a Sonos system. The Squeezebox and associated software required constant attention and tweaking - installing new drivers, plugins etc... and never really worked reliably (some of this may have been down to my less than amazing computer skills).

Odd - I've got half a dozen Squeezeboxes and have never had an issue with them.

[DavidY]

As above

Owned, SB1, SB2, Sb3, Duet, Boom and Touch, still have 5 of them, never had any problems (never upgraded to latest Squeezecenter as soon as it is released, just asks for trouble). Great units, very reliable.

[toast boy]

Globs said:

The Airport Express has the optical digital output
Sound (data) goes from your mac mini via wi-fi to the Airport Express, then via optical to the DAC (the Ultramatch).

It seems that the price of an Airport Express and Ultramatch is about the same as a Dacmagic. What are the differences between the two options and is there likely to be anything to choose between them in terms of sound quality?

[BalhamBadger]

Globs said:

The Airport Express has the optical digital output
Sound (data) goes from your mac mini via wi-fi to the Airport Express, then via optical to the DAC (the Ultramatch).

I am very disappointed with my Airport Express and Airplay in general since also trying it through my recently-acquired Apple TV. I don't seem to get a stable signal over either system and sound regularly cuts out, sometimes restarting a couple of seconds later, eventually giving up all together. I'm on my second Airport Express, have used a multitude of streaming methods with Airplay (Mac, iPod, iPhone) and tried different networks but it doesn't make any difference (this is all in a small flat). Do not recommend.

[Globs]

toast boy said:

Globs said:

The Airport Express has the optical digital output
Sound (data) goes from your mac mini via wi-fi to the Airport Express, then via optical to the DAC (the Ultramatch).

It seems that the price of an Airport Express and Ultramatch is about the same as a Dacmagic. What are the differences between the two options and is there likely to be anything to choose between them in terms of sound quality?

The Behringer is about the same as the DacMagic TBH, unless you mod the Behringer.
The Airport express is just the optical digital source - you have to choose one of the DACs to go with it!

If you are having issues with wi-fi you may have interference from somewhere - I'd look at what channel(s) it's on and look into wi-fi interference issues with them on Google.