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Squeezebox Radio


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I wake up every morning to news on my Squeezebox Radio alarm, and listen to music while reading in bed before I go to sleep. The Squeezebox won't last forever, so I'm looking for a replacement and I need some suggestions. My criteria are the following:

 

1. No more that two physical boxes, counting the speakers, and I don't want to have a laptop in the bedroom (as opposed to, say, an ipad).

 

2. Play internet radio from the web. Pandora, MOG etc. perhaps nice but not at all necessary.

 

3. Play music from my library, which currently sits on a NAS. The library is served to my main system by (for the moment) iTunes on an old Macbook Pro, and is served to the Squeezebox by Squeezebox Server on the same machine. (At some point I would like to go back to a small, dedicated linux box, but I upgraded my Wyred 4 Sound DAC1 for HR, and the DAC now requires special drivers, and they don't have Linux versions.)

 

4. If the device played white noise or music on a timer, that would be a plus.

 

5. The alarm function must play internet radio off a playlist I provide (as opposed to the urls iTunes provides, which are often out of date and not for the right stations. I currently wake up to an NPR station one timezone behind mine, since the local sometimes has no available connections.

 

I had envisioned, for instance, streaming to my ipad and then playing on a peachtree audio deepblue (overkill), but I can't find alarm clock apps that can play music streamed from an offboard library and/or radio from a url. A box which feeds the deepblue with an ipad controller is three boxes. I really don't need sound as good as deepblue either. Ideas?

larryb

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There's literally 100s of clock radios with iPod docks...

 

How about something from Revo or Tivoli Audio or Ruark Audio as above average audio quality offerings.

 

Eloise

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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Larryb-

 

Not sure why the SB Radio won't last for years and years. There's the new model SB radio also.

 

Your requirements are very specific (not an insult, I do the same type of alarm with my SB Touch), and not many products are going to do all the things you are looking for - "alarm","internet radio", and "Playlist from server" apparently aren't all thought of being in the same product category. This is exactly why the SB was (is) such a useful HW and SW universe.

 

If you really want only 2 boxes counting the controller (ipad?) you may be out of luck. Almost everything in the area you're asking about being made today assumes you have a smartphone or tablet to use as a controller. This makes the devices inexpensive, as the control features and screen, etc are not included in the product. Most people prefer this method, so it dominates the market.

 

The only products I can think of at the moment also run SB software. The Sonore streamers would do the job, but they are audiophile quality and pricey.

 

You could get a very small micro PC like a Raspberry or a Beagle Bone, run SBS on them and output to the speaker(s). I know you don't want a computer in the bedroom, but these things are very small - smaller than an SB Radio, silent (fanless), and cheap. You can control them from an iPad with the apps for SBS and you could even run them with Linux if you want. Wouldn't that count as a "Linux Box"?

 

If none of these fit the bill, since you aren't really in immediate need of something, you might just want to wait. This is an area with a lot of development going on and I'd say in the next year or two something will come out that will fit your needs.

 

You might also write to a company like Tivoli and suggest they add streaming to the alarm as a feature.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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Thanks, Firedog. My nightstand is small, so every now and then the SB get's knocked to the floor, etc. After the last time, groping for glasses in the dark, I realized that the stock of SB's will never grow. The SBR replacement has problems. (I did a firmware upgrade, then reverted.) I don't recall all of them, but two are: a) you need a permanent internet connection even when playing your own music, and b) you can't construct a playlist on the thing (and I can give you a story for why this is important).

 

I have an Alix board and I like mpd with the mpad client more than iTunes with Remote. I had thought of this, but connecting with ssh from my ipad to set the alarm using at or cron seemed excessively geeky. Doable, though. I was just hoping for something more elegant.

larryb

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larryb-

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you can setup one of these micro computers on your nightstand running SB server software (even in Linux). Then use the ipad or other device with one of the SBS apps as the controller. You get the full SB interface (no ssh or cron, etc) in your tablet or other device. In fact, you don't even need an SB app, you can control the SB server software using it's web interface, using any browser on your tablet or smartphone. This is a perfectly elegant solution, IMO.

 

All you need is to download a copy of the SB Server software - the "old" kind - nothing to do with the new firmware, etc. - and install it on the PC. This is still readily available for download from Logitech/SB.

 

Functionally, this is exactly like running any traditional SB device from the SB remote - even better as you have a full SB GUI, and not just buttons on a remote.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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