jbc;200215 Wrote: > First a confession - I'm an audiophile, but I'm computer challenged. I > have never 'ripped' a CD, nor have I ever downloaded music. I can, > however, mount a cartridge on a tonearm (so you know where I'm coming > from). > > I'm planning on introducing a squeezebox into my system (wireless) and > using the toslink out to connect to a 'spare' digital input on my Linn > Unidisk SC universal player/preamp. > > I intend to rip my CD's (about 600) to a USB drive in a lossless > format, for top sound quality, and stream that to the Squeezebox. I > have a laptop, which I intend to augment with a desktop soon, so I want > to keep the 'library' in a permanent location - probably on a 500G USB > drive (or two). > > Before I get started with all the ripping and connections, I want to > confirm that I'm on the right track, so if someone with experience > could confirm, it would be very much appreciated. > > 1. It seems that WMA is pretty easy to use for lossless 'rips' - is > that ok, or should I use something else? > > 2. Is there a preferred wireless 'network' for connecting the > squeezebox to the computer? Is a standard "G" router ok, or should I > go for an "N" router?
Hi there, welcome to the SB3 :) A number of matters for guidance: - You will normally get better performance by having the server wired to the router, when you are using the SB3 wireless. However, the issues here are obvious - you get dropouts if the wifi network has problems. This favours a desktop machine. - Remember to get quiet PC stuff if the machine is going to be near the listening environment. USB drives may not be the quietest, and the PC case can mask out some sound. - Rip file format is perhaps less important than rip tool. Don't use Windows Media Player, as it has inadequate error detection. The current favourites are EAC (best quality, but slow and a bit fussy to set up) and dBPowerAmp (a bit easier, but some consider it less accurate than EAC). - Most use FLAC rather than WMA. You can convert between the two; FLAC is free and not owned by M$, which is enough for me. - There's no point getting an N network as the SB3 uses G. The 54 of G is fine - I never get any problems at all. There is a guide to EAC here: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?EACBeginners If you are desperate to tweak, I recommend getting into tagging, especially if you listen to classical. It's not quite VTA, but it's good for OCD :) Have fun! Adam -- adamslim Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ 'Last.fm group: people who don't listen to any of last.fm's top artists' (http://www.last.fm/group/People+who+don%27t+listen+to+any+of+last.fm%27s+top+artists) "To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us ... condemning [young soldiers] to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability" - George Bush Snr, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35076 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
