[Closed] sonos vs squeezebox

anybody got any experience of the squeezebox radio

will it provide a listenable sound? its gotta be better than my netbook

(dont own amp or speakers)

got the squeezebox through the post today and have just set it up. first impressions are good. nice chunky sound (far better than laptop 🙂
theres just one initial question you might be able to help me with. the volume seems set very low compared to my other devices. im connected with the 2 red and white connections into squeezebox and aux on amp. i tried the 'side by side with cd' test but i had to really crank the volume up on the amp to match the cd. and yes.....its set to max on the squeeze. ideally id like it set at less, so i can alter with the remote.
its not just the volume of my ripped tracks, as ive just got it playing 6 music radio station, which is set about the same as my music.

cant believe its the aux connection either, as my ipod sounded louder, and so did my laptop on same connection.

any suggestions as to how i can crank it up from the amp side?

cheers

Bump?

anybody got any experience of the squeezebox radio
will it provide a listenable sound?

Katie's got a Boom (stereo Squeezebox Radio/older display). Sound is really impressive and full for the size. Suspect the radio is similar.

the volume seems set very low compared to my other devices. im connected with the 2 red and white connections into squeezebox and aux on amp. i tried the 'side by side with cd' test but i had to really crank the volume up on the amp to match the cd

Odd - not a problem I've had anywhere I've used them but mine are teh older versions rather than the touch.

the volume seems set very low compared to my other devices. im connected with the 2 red and white connections into squeezebox and aux on amp

I'd second that. I have to turn up the volume dial on my amp to about 3/10 when it's taking its input from the Squeezebox (duet) set at 50% volume, to give equivalent volume to other sources at 1/10.

An bit of an anachronism though. Squeezebox coupled to a Mission Cyrus 2 amp!!!

Id settle for that mate! My amps up to 7 out of 10 with squeeze on full 🙁

Just spoken to logitech, they say it must be faulty so I got to return it to amazon. Thats a shame :-/

You [i]did[/i] turn up the volume on the Squeezebox, didn't you? 😉

Yep, on max 🙂

I found the same with my Touch last night when I connected it up to my Linn Classik/Linn Kans - I had to increase the volume on the Classik to 70% of max whereas with a CD I wouldn't have it past around 35-40%. The touch was set to ~50%.

My amp is able to vary the gain for each source - can you do that on yours?

Congrats on getting the Squeezebox, commiserations on having to send it back...

My SB Duet does need a bit more volume from the amp to get it to the same level as CDs, but it's only a few notches; I just have the SB at full volume. The volume changes between BBC radio and my music though, which isn't the end of the world.

As for ripping, I'm a cheapskate, and hence a bit surprised at all the paid-for suggestions above. MediaMonkey does everything I need: it's free, will identify CDs, and will happily rip to most formats you might need. For MP3, there's a 2 minute trick to ensuring it always rips even on the free version, but it's great for sorting tags, adding album artwork etc.

sorry to hear about the sound issues on your squeezebox.

Thought i'd just mention that new models of my sony blu ray player have a function i wasnt aware off. Its called party streaming.. and works like this. worth considering for an alternative

I have a squeezebox radio and can very happy with the sound quality, annoyingly it needs the pc on to play radio.

Seen some cheap too recently.

hmm thats slightly annoying, is it really so difficult to pop a DAB, FM, AM tuner in the same box

will it work nicely from my netbook, or am i going to have to leave the PC on upstairs.... full time?

My SB Touch doesn't need the PC on, just a wi-fi connection. No idea about other SB devices though, you just need the SB server software installed to stream music files.

My SB Touch doesn't need the PC on, just a wi-fi connection. No idea about other SB devices though, you just need the SB server software installed to stream music files.

This is the same for my SB receiver that I have plugged into my AV Receiver.

My touch doesn't need pc on for radio...odd...is it a set up option?

It should just pick up the radio signal wirelessly/via ethernet on your router, no ?

Is it connected to your PC in some way ?

Nope, just wifi.

Quick update. Had a play this morning before work, and plugged the rca leads from cd connection on amp to the squeeze. And it was LOUDER!! So, maybe more of an amp issue than squeezebox. Am I ok to use different connections other than aux? Any implications? Or reasons why this should be happening?

Ta

Am I ok to use different connections other than aux?

The only one you don't want to use is a 'Phono' input if you have one. The other line inputs should all be the same. Try plugging your CD player into the Aux. Odd that you laptop sounded Ok on the Aux input but not the Touch though?

Sounds like the auxiliary input is guff.

Oddly my squeezebox radio is working without pc on now!

bingo

if someone could just find me one in white for under a ton, that'd be lovely

Google it...saw them for £90 somewhere.

HOTUKDEALS good, I'll look

£111 plus quidco on the deal on this page

http://m.hotukdeals.com/search?action=search&keywords=logitech&action=search

The only one you don't want to use is a 'Phono' input if you have one. The other line inputs should all be the same. Try plugging your CD player into the Aux.

Just a thought but you used the word 'selector'. Is it a rotary one rather than a set of switches? If so it might be that the contacts are dirty and its not selecting the channel properly everytime and it was just a fluke that it decided not to work when you plugged the Touch in. Perhaps try it again with the Touch and move the selector backwards and forwards through the channels to see if it's an intermittant problem.

I vaguely remember having a similar problem where the music was really faint and i had to crank up the volume and it turned out to be the wrong channel and there must have been some sort of crossover in the amp that i was picking up.

Yes you're right, its rotary. And thinking about it, its got history for this 🙂 a while ago the speakers kept swapping from one side to the other, and when I tweaked the knob around it'd alter the sound and crackle. Mebbes time for a new amp. It's decent quality tho, so I'm loathe to get rid. Like I say, ill play with the different channels, but if I can get away with using the tuner socket that'll do me for now.

Thanks a lot

It might just be a case of soldering a new switch onto the main board, it's worth a Google.

just had another play at switching stuff around. as i was sort of expecting, cd and squeezebox both play decent volume in either of the cd and tuner sockets, but both are quiet in the aux. so..... as i dont have a tuner now, ive reconnected cd to cd, and squeeze to tuner and sounds fine. i remember looking into what may have been the problem with the selector a good couple of years ago now, and thinking it was too complicated to fix myself.

so i think ill carry on like this until a decent amp comes along for sale maybe 🙂

now im going to concentrate on ripping some flacs and seeing if i can suss the tagging. nicko74 above suggests he uses media monkey which rips AND identifies cds, so ill look at that. im interested to hear if anyone has a reason why it may be worth pressing on with EAC compared to mediamonkey tho.

thanks a lot

Yup, MM does everything I need - I used to use dbpoweramp for ripping, with the Godfather for tagging, but I upgraded to Windows 7 and dbpoweramp stopped working so I went for an all-in-one solution.

I think MM does most things itunes can, and takes a shedload less in the way of resources, too; it's good for managing tags, and (I had a quick look last night) can rip to ogg, FLAC and wmv beyond the usual range of mp3 options.

great stuff thanks mate, worked a treat. no more ripping to wav, converting to flac just to get an unnamed album. mediamonkey done the lot in a oner 🙂

just one niggle im having at the mo. just listening to 6 music on it, and thought id save a few radio stations to favourites for future. yet when i put radio 1 or radio 2 into 'search' then 'internet radio', im getting a server connection error on screen. yet the control panel says server is working, plus im actually listening to the radio anyway!

any ideas on that one?

cheers

My radio does that for some odd reason, on/off seems to sort it

FFS my touch is now telling me it's laying music but giving no output

on off and it works 🙄

oh dear. Mine has occasional server dropouts, but is otherwise reliable.
Just bought a NAS so over the next few weeks i'll be ripping my music collection also & dragging myself into 2012!

FFS now my remote app is seeing only 1 of my 3 players.. 😡

FFS now my remote app is seeing only 1 of my 3 players..

any ideas on how i overcome this?

thanks

[url= http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/special-offers/blemished-box/devices/7609 ]Bargain-tastic PSA type thingy[/url] for a dedicated remote control for Squeezeboxen - I've ordered one and got a free pair of headphones and free delivery.

🙂

Just a quick read of that link and it doesn't mention compatible with the touch. Do you know if it is or not? Good find btw 🙂

I've only just set mine up, but I called the support line and they told me it worked with all devices (as should the app).

5% quidco too.

hmmm just looked into it. seems a good piece of kit then, but not sure its needed. for me anyway. i know RRP is £200, but amazon selling at 70 or 80 i think, and 50 still seems steep for what it is. i just looked into installing the logitech squeezebox app on my phone instead 🙂

got it working sort of, but again, theres a niggle to sort out. (should i have bought sonos?? 🙂
ive got the app talking to the touch, and itll browse, select 6 music from my favourites etc, but..... it wont play my music files. when i select a song (any song) the touch comes up with the error 'problem: cant open file for' and nowt happens. just once it displayed the song title, but still didnt play it. when i browsed back to radio, it played that ok. so theres a niggle there that i need to sort.

any ideas?

ta

switch off then on:D no...seriously.

Aye maybe £50 not needing to be spent...but I got mine as there may be others that use it and I don't want to be handing my phone out!