Mark Komarinski mkomarin...@wayga.org writes:
On 04/22/2011 09:41 AM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote:
Hm. I've really gotta find a way to start attending these things
I've been considering getting one (or four...) plug computers to deploy
as part of a PulseAudio- and MPD-based whole-home audio system, where
I've currently deployed scavenged full-scale (and full-volume...) PCs
as a proof of concept.
My original plug-computer thought was that I'd buy some USB audio-adapters
to use with them, and then I heard about the DreamPlug coming out
with integrated audio. So, maybe that's an option--the big question
to which I can't find an answer is:
How's the audio quality on the DreamPlug?
I don't want to go too off-topic on this, but I've been a very happy
customer of the Logitech (formerly SlimDevices) Squeezebox series for a
number of years.
Off-topic? Well, you can use them with Linux, right? ;)
It's really interesting that you're raising Squeezebox, because
that was what I'd initially looked at--and then discarded the idea...:
Newer models have integrated speakers and can sync between players
so you have the same music in all rooms.
Wait--sync meaning what, exactly? Play the same song?
Synchronise control (play/pause/seek simultaneously in all rooms)?
Match latency between all rooms? Something else?
Maybe I should expand on what I'm doing...:
I've setup multicast RTP with latency-matching across all nodes
in the network; I have only one `channel' right now (in the radio-tuner
or input-switching sense, not in the `mono vs. stereo' sense), but it's
possible to define multiple channels/sources by giving them separate
multicast addresses, and then switch a given receiver to another channel
just by changing the multicast address on which that receiver listens.
Because of the latency-matching, multiple receiver-nodes, to the
extent that the ear can tell, all have their playback perfectly
*time-synced* such that there's no `echo' or `reverb' effect
when standing between two adjacent rooms with separate receivers.
I actually compared this against how well two (different) FM radios
in adjacent rooms sync to the same radio station, and the RTP system
did better. :)
(multicast RTP over ethernet + dynamic resampling-algorithms
with latency-analysis on pentium-class CPUs with network time-sync...
provides quite a convincing emulation of speaker-wire!)
That it's MPD-based means that I can have a single playback- and
playlist-control server for the entire house, accessible from anywhere
on the network; in other words, I have multiple `single points of control'--
client UIs are available for desktop and laptop computers of all OSes,
Android devices, my friends' Apple iThings, etc. There's even
a central volume-control.
Using MPD *also* means that I can use all of the tools/plugins that exist
for MPD--like last.fm/audioscrobbler support, gmpc, and the `mpdjay'
autojockey that I'm now running on my NanoNote (actually, I originally
wrote that to deploy in the whole-house system, and it didn't even occur
to me that I could run it on the NanoNote until my wife said, `OMG it's
so awesome! Can you make me a portable version‽'). And MPD does gapless
playback, with ReplayGain to automatically adjust for differences
in overall volume between different tracks/albums, etc.
As I understood it, Squeezebox is basically an entirely different animal,
operating (mainly? only?) on a unicast `pull' model; nothing I've been
able to find in their marketing-material says otherwise (at least,
not in any obvious way); so I figured that simultaneous, multi-device
playback on Squeezeboxes would end up being hokey at best..., and
there's no mention of whether they do any of the other stuff
(listed above) that's in my list of requirements.
The server software is open source and there's clients for iOS and
Android along with an open web API for remote control. They're a
bit more expensive than Plug systems, but for me it's worth the
extra cost (and Logitech sometimes has sales on refurb items).
So, my perception was actually that the Squeezeboxen were more expensive
`but' also *worse* than my plug-based solution, in the ways described above
(i.e.: `not a good simulation of speaker-wire'); was I mistaken?
--
Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr.
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