On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 4:13 PM, Kaizen28 <kaizen28.8e5...@no-mx.forums.slimdevices.com> wrote: > > My hardware it mostly soldiering on but I'm > sure at some point they will start to fail. I've had a SB3 fail and > replaced it with a Touch, courtesy of Ebay. This works fine as an > interim fix but my concern is the long term. > > What are your strategies to keep the music playing?
If you're looking for networked devices to play to from your tried-and-true Squeezebox(/L-word Media) Server - the high-value option is probably a Raspberry Pi with an appropriate HiFiBerry HAT. A few extra bucks for a 5v iFi power wart to power the whole Pi/HAT lashup sounded worth it to my ears. I haven't actually found and tried a software solution for the Pi which acts like a Squeezebox, but I'd be shocked if there isn't one. I have used this class of hardware for Roon zones, and it's worked and sounded fine. If you want an off-the-shelf solution known to sound excellent - a safe bet is a Sonore UltraRendu http://sonore.us/ultraRendu.html When paired with a good-quality DC power supply (think Uptone LPS-1.2 https://uptoneaudio.com/products/ultracap-lps-1-2 or Sbooster BOTW 9-10V), an UltraRendu can be a superb-sounding digital transport. The UltraRendu can be put in SqueezeLite mode to play from your existing server, or a number of other modes (MPD/DLNA, HQPlayer NAA, Roon) for compatibility with different central music library software. The UltraRendu has no analog outputs, though - it's just an extremely high quality network attached transport to drive a USB DAC. If the good ol' Squeeze server starts failing to meet your needs, check out Roon - it's what I migrated to from a Squeeze network. https://roonlabs.com/ Roon can play to Squeezeboxes if you already have a house full of them. Note that Roon works really well if you have a large local library of your own music - they add extra metadata and link the music together in a really useful way, and the user interface is beautiful - but Roon doesn't have all the streaming options (including, say, BBC integration) which Squeeze servers have acquired over time. Definitely different strengths and weaknesses. Worth playing with for a trial period to see if it speaks to you. Either way, it's super flexible to have networked players like the Rendus which can be flipped via a simple web interface to speak different protocols. _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
