ipod touch vs squeezebox

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zaphod

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i've been thinking of getting a squeezebox to well, you know, play downloaded music and radio stations. mostly radio actually, i'd leave CDs to the player and downloaded music and on my ipod touch plugged into the Wadia when they finally arrive. feed both into my Meitner bitstream and Lance is a digitally happy kind of guy for the 2 channel system.

and then i upgrade the ipod touch to 2.0 last night. and start downloading apps. like the internet radio player. and the itunes remote control. suddenly the squeezebox became the "squeezed-out box". hmmmm.

the internet radio tuner (there are a couple available) just filled in what i thought was the biggest hole in the ipod touch's media capabilities. combined with the wadia station, this is bound to be one good sounding setup.

for those with a PC hooked into the system, the itunes remote allows your ipod touch to control itunes over wifi. so if you have a HTPC and have itunes running part or all of your media, then you just got yourself a remote control for the HTPC.:rocker:
 
This is exactly the reason I bought an Itouch. I control my PC with itunes via the touch and stream it via Airtunes to my home theater setup. Works great. The flexibility is great--I can control my music from anywhere in the house. Your whole media collection is at your fingertips. I really contemplated the Sqeezebox solution, but it just doesn't have the capability or flexibility that the touch and WiFi give you. I'm gonna have to get 2.0 software. I didn't realize the remote app was finally out. I have been using a 3rd party tool from alloysoft.com called Signal. It works well.

Are you using Airtunes to stream or is your PC directly connected to your DAC.

It sounds like the Meitner is a dedicated DAC. Are you happy with it. How does it compare to Benchmark?
 
i don't have a HTPC set up yet, and i'm not sure i want a PC in the entertainment center. sure the blu-ray player is a linux box, but putting a PC into the middle of things? hmmmm. and i can't find a decent digital out card for a PC that i like/afford/whatever yet.

i think that i'm going to stick with a CD for CDs and the Touch for itune podcasts/downloads and now radio. oh - and the 2.0 upgrade includes some nice upgrades to email and stuff. but the apps - lots (including remote) are free.

i like all of the meitner stuff (ask around :) ), the bitstream is a good DAC - it's no BiDAT (which is his legendary one still selling for 1000's a decade after production) - but it's a still a good DAC
 
you can use this to control your squeezebox too, so don't get rid of it just yet, Zaphod...

I'm gonna upgrade my IPT tonight and start messing with this... from what I read on slimserver forums, it looks like a plugin to the slimserver software and an addon to your IPT and that's it!!

or am I missing something?
 
i don't have a HTPC set up yet, and i'm not sure i want a PC in the entertainment center. sure the blu-ray player is a linux box, but putting a PC into the middle of things? hmmmm. and i can't find a decent digital out card for a PC that i like/afford/whatever yet.

i think that i'm going to stick with a CD for CDs and the Touch for itune podcasts/downloads and now radio. oh - and the 2.0 upgrade includes some nice upgrades to email and stuff. but the apps - lots (including remote) are free.

i like all of the meitner stuff (ask around :) ), the bitstream is a good DAC - it's no BiDAT (which is his legendary one still selling for 1000's a decade after production) - but it's a still a good DAC

The beauty of using Airtunes to stream is that you don't need the PC in your entertainment center--at least for music anyway. It can sit in the office. Granted, I still pull out the CD for serious listening, but it's very convenient for background or entertaining.
 
you can use this to control your squeezebox too, so don't get rid of it just yet, Zaphod...

I'm gonna upgrade my IPT tonight and start messing with this... from what I read on slimserver forums, it looks like a plugin to the slimserver software and an addon to your IPT and that's it!!

or am I missing something?

dunno, i was holding off on the squeezebox until the wadia came out. one big purchase is easier to rationalize than two little ones. and with me getting married in November, i've got to respect the other name on the bank account.

the IPT upgrade is dead easy, but does take some time. based on what i read about interruptions in the middle of the upgrade i chose to download-only the upgrade first, and then i applied it. you might consider that.

it's getting complicated in the configuration choices. do i attach a PC to the system and do everything in itunes - controlling via the touch, or do i attach a squeezer via the DAC and control it with the touch? or do i just plug in the touch via the DAC and do everything there except hard media (reels, vinyl, CDs).

the mind boggles.
 
since I already have a squeezebox, I've upgraded my IPT to 2.0 and will get the iPeng plugin for SqueezeCenter which will then allow me to control my Squeezebox using my IPT . sounds pretty cool.. now I don't have to squint to see the display on the SB... sweet!
 
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I downloaded the iPeng plugin for SqueezeCenter and then fired up my iPod Touch and navigated to the SqueezeCenter and WOW!!

AMAZING! I can control EVERYTHING about my squeezebox from my IPT!!!

You guys who have a SB and an IPT need to get this!!

The only thing is that you have to have the 2.0 version of the IPT software, which is 10 bucks. Everything else is FREE.

Zaphod, download the SqueezeCenter software and SoftSqueeze, which emulates a squeezebox and get this up and running so you can play with it! No money outlay and you can see how it all works. It's really cool!
 
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I spent 29 years in the USAF and still work with the military but you guys lost me on these acronymns. Can you decode the following?

HTPC
IPT
SB = Squeezebox
AirTunes
BiDAT
 
I spent 29 years in the USAF and still work with the military but you guys lost me on these acronymns. Can you decode the following?
HTPC = Home Theatre Personal Computer
IPT = iPod Touch
SB = Squeezebox
AirTunes = I asked the same question........Some Apple streaming protocol I would assume. Some method to take music from an iTunes library to a digital or analogue output perhaps?
BiDAT = A model of Meitner DAC?
 
HTPC = Home Theatre Personal Computer
IPT = iPod Touch
SB = Squeezebox
AirTunes = I asked the same question........Some Apple streaming protocol I would assume. Some method to take music from an iTunes library to a digital or analogue output perhaps?
BiDAT = A model of Meitner DAC?

Let me see if I can help with Airtunes. Yeah it's a streaming protocol by Apple. That being so, you have to buy their hardware of course, which is nothing more than a Wifi capable base station with analog and digital outputs (cost about $100). The Airtunes base station can connect to your local wireless network. Then using Itunes which you have installed on any PC also on your network, you can stream music to the base station. By connecting the base station to your preamp, you magically have your whole Itunes collection available at your command. The Itouch gives you the remote to operate Itunes so you don't have to mess with the PC at all. It's a little bit of a pain to configure the Airtunes wireless settings for PC's (I recommend connecting it to your network via its Ethernet port first).
 
BiDAT = A model of Meitner DAC?

ed meitner put out a couple of DACs, all really good. the bitstream, the iDAT-44 and the smaller "baby" iDAT-44 or "BiDAT". this last one seems to have become the DAC of choice for museatex (ed's old company) fans.

interestingly, the digital control center (DCC) as a pre with all digital inputs (plus tape loop) and when used as a DAC sits in between the bitstream and iDAT, but usually goes for only a few hundred on ebay or other sites.
 
Zaphod, download the SqueezeCenter software and SoftSqueeze, which emulates a squeezebox and get this up and running so you can play with it! No money outlay and you can see how it all works. It's really cool!

definately, i am going to have to do that.

i loaded up some of the radio players last night on the touch and was less than impressed. they sounded, well muffled. sure, the 'phones i happened to be using were horrid, but this sounded worse than youtube over the same 'phones.

as binkley would say - blech.
 
I was considering the new Wadia iPod dock. However, i can access both my iTunes library and FLAC files through my SB3 and control it with my SB3 remote. Therefore, what would I gain by adding an iPod dock that I don't already have?
 
you wouldn't gain anything IMHO. Why dock your iPod when you have ALL your music available on your SB?

If you have the iPod Touch, it's cool being able to use it as a remote for the SB. In my case it's awesome because my SB is so far from where I sit that it's hard to see the text, even when it's on the biggest setting.
 
you wouldn't gain anything IMHO. Why dock your iPod when you have ALL your music available on your SB?

If you have the iPod Touch, it's cool being able to use it as a remote for the SB. In my case it's awesome because my SB is so far from where I sit that it's hard to see the text, even when it's on the biggest setting.

I'd love to try an IPT remote, but I'm not going out and spending $AUD400 (minimum, for the 8GB model) for what would essentially be a remote control. I mean, how many lossless files can you fit on even the top of the range 32GB model.

Now - why don't they release the IPT with a hard disk? Then I'll consider it. It would probably be cheaper too? Especially if they use their old-stock 160GB drives!
 
Now - why don't they release the IPT with a hard disk? Then I'll consider it. It would probably be cheaper too?

It would be thicker and most likely require a significant case redesign. Different case means a different assembly line which would add to the cost not take away. The IPT is just the iPhone without a 3G radio right so it's probably just a switch to remove/disable that feature of the iPhone. The same assembly line could easily manufacture both devices without much re-tooling.

I know from talking to the xbox & zune guys that there's a lot more involved with what goes into a device then simply what's possible. It could be something as simple as the controller card for the drive requires a seperate chip which they don't have space. More likely its the thickness of the drive and its potential impact on battery life...

Let's face it Apple is Apple and their current mahantra is "thin to win". If they can get hard drives down to the thickness of a quarter I'm sure they'll add one to the IPT. :)

-steve
 
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I spent 29 years in the USAF and still work with the military but you guys lost me on these acronymns. Can you decode the following?

HTPC
IPT
SB = Squeezebox
AirTunes
BiDAT

ok, I was not in the USAF and I am also lost here. Just fired my system up and would like to expand it with a squeezebox but the idea of the IPT intrigues me.
is there someone online who is so kind to tell me what I should do and buy to have this type of setup?
Btw, I have a wireless PC system in my house.

thanks
:bowdown:
 
I too have been thinking about adding some sort of ipod dock like the Wadia, but then got to thinking my music is already on my computer my not go with something like a squeeze box. That new Duet squeezebox setup from Logitech is pretty cool, it's around $400 and comes with a remote that functions allot like the iPod touch does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khM1DVTd-MA


But I think since my music and media are already in itunes, and I hope to get an iPod touch to replace my 5th Gen iPod video for Christmas, I think I am going to go with the Apple TV. It basically is an iPod but for your TV, you can sink up your itunes library to the aTV and play back any music, movies, TV show, or rented movies back on your AV system. One draw back to the aTV is you have to have your TV ON to view and select what's in your aTV library. But as mentioned above if you have an iPT you can use the iPT to see and control your aTV. Pretty cool stuff.
 

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