Banks1
07-16-08, 09:00 PM
I just got a S.B.3 (classic) and wanted to post my first impressions as I thought it may help anyone who is considering buying either the classic or Duet.
I first became aware of digital music streaming last january when I was out of work for a while with knee problems. I could not move around much so I had my wife hook up our son,s X-Box 360 to our H.T.stuff downstairs so I could play around with it.I found that I could connect it to our home network and pull all of my music to my H.T. stuff in our family room.The interface for this left a lot to be desired and I had to have the T.V. on but it was pretty cool.
As time went on the x-box went back upstairs and I upgraded a lot of suff in my H.T.,new speakers,new A.R.V.,new Plasma but I still wanted a way to play playlists and music from my computer to my H.T. I did not want to spend a ton of money to do this.I tried hooking up a rather old laptop and an external H.D. to my receiver and it worked but it still was not what I wanted.
After reading various posts in this fourm I came to the conclusion that a Squeexbox might be the way to go.I was worried about getting it setup on my network, I know that networking can be a pain for a lot of people. If I rember right the X-BOX was a pain in the butt to setup.Of course I really didnt know what I was doing but I got it to work. I had to enter wep keys and that sort of thing.
Before I ordered the S.B. I downloaded the S.B. software and played around with it using a thing called softsqeeze as a player. This helped me get use to the software and gave me a feel for how this thing was going to work. I also checked out the Squeezbox fourms and got a lot of info over there. Sound quailty is very important to me and while I do have a lot of mp3s I started to take my C.D. collection and rip it to my computer using a free program called Exact Audio Copy. I choose to use FLAC as the format because it is not compressed audio it is a lossless format.
Well I connected the S.B.3 to my receiver using a analog hookup to my Onkyo 805 (tape input) plugged the S.B.into my router using a ethernet cable plugged in the power and ran the setup program that popped up on the S.B.display.The player gathered some info. updated itself and in less than 90 sec. I had access to my whole music collection. Sounds very nice I may just do away with my C.D. player.
I know that I have not had it long and have not even tryed to use the internet radio, Pandora, Raposdy stuff yet. But so far so good, not a bad deal for $299.00 I think. With the classic S.B. I can use my Harmony One remote to control it and set it up as a activity so that it will be easy for my wife to use.She wont have to turn on the receiver change inputs ect.
So far I am very impressed I have found out over the years if I get a new toy and it is easy to set up and I get a big smile on my face then its money well spent.:)
Sorry for the long post but it may help someone sitting on the fence.
I first became aware of digital music streaming last january when I was out of work for a while with knee problems. I could not move around much so I had my wife hook up our son,s X-Box 360 to our H.T.stuff downstairs so I could play around with it.I found that I could connect it to our home network and pull all of my music to my H.T. stuff in our family room.The interface for this left a lot to be desired and I had to have the T.V. on but it was pretty cool.
As time went on the x-box went back upstairs and I upgraded a lot of suff in my H.T.,new speakers,new A.R.V.,new Plasma but I still wanted a way to play playlists and music from my computer to my H.T. I did not want to spend a ton of money to do this.I tried hooking up a rather old laptop and an external H.D. to my receiver and it worked but it still was not what I wanted.
After reading various posts in this fourm I came to the conclusion that a Squeexbox might be the way to go.I was worried about getting it setup on my network, I know that networking can be a pain for a lot of people. If I rember right the X-BOX was a pain in the butt to setup.Of course I really didnt know what I was doing but I got it to work. I had to enter wep keys and that sort of thing.
Before I ordered the S.B. I downloaded the S.B. software and played around with it using a thing called softsqeeze as a player. This helped me get use to the software and gave me a feel for how this thing was going to work. I also checked out the Squeezbox fourms and got a lot of info over there. Sound quailty is very important to me and while I do have a lot of mp3s I started to take my C.D. collection and rip it to my computer using a free program called Exact Audio Copy. I choose to use FLAC as the format because it is not compressed audio it is a lossless format.
Well I connected the S.B.3 to my receiver using a analog hookup to my Onkyo 805 (tape input) plugged the S.B.into my router using a ethernet cable plugged in the power and ran the setup program that popped up on the S.B.display.The player gathered some info. updated itself and in less than 90 sec. I had access to my whole music collection. Sounds very nice I may just do away with my C.D. player.
I know that I have not had it long and have not even tryed to use the internet radio, Pandora, Raposdy stuff yet. But so far so good, not a bad deal for $299.00 I think. With the classic S.B. I can use my Harmony One remote to control it and set it up as a activity so that it will be easy for my wife to use.She wont have to turn on the receiver change inputs ect.
So far I am very impressed I have found out over the years if I get a new toy and it is easy to set up and I get a big smile on my face then its money well spent.:)
Sorry for the long post but it may help someone sitting on the fence.