Cross between an Ipod and Squeezebox???

rromeo923

I am looking for something that has portability like an ipod with battery life but also has good sound and storage w/wifi.

Basically something that I can use at my house as an alternative to my laptop for music (DAC) and also use it in my car.

I have about 1 Terrabyte of music I would like to have access to. Flac and mp3.

Any ideas??

EndersShadow

I know of no such item. Most folks for car use deal with compressed music (so they can fit lots of songs) since in a car the difference between FLAC and mp3 isnt as noticeable as at home.

This is something I ran into as well when trying to use FLAC in my car. My only option I could think of was to use my laptop via a USB to RCA DAC (HRT MediaStreamer) straight to my car amps, and then take that same setup into my house.

I gave up that fight for now and will just deal with a smaller library of somewhat compressed files on my iPhone for my car (or CD's) and continue to use my laptop via HDMI to my AVR for home listening

VR3

Just get ya a Wadia dock for the car! LOL

PSOVLSK

Just take the SB with you:)

http://www.bing.com/shopping/whistler-pro-1200w-dc-to-ac-power-inverter-1200-watt/p/6686118ED5CFB87A0001?q=power+inverters&lpq=power%20inverters&FORM=HURE

rromeo923

I was thinking about that. May be the way to go.

BeefJerky

PSOVLSK wrote: »

Just take the SB with you:)

http://www.bing.com/shopping/whistler-pro-1200w-dc-to-ac-power-inverter-1200-watt/p/6686118ED5CFB87A0001?q=power+inverters&lpq=power%20inverters&FORM=HURE

rromeo923 wrote: »

I was thinking about that. May be the way to go.

You would have to have a solid wi-fi connection to either Logitech's server or your own server for that to work. A squeezebox will not work without being connected to a server.

EndersShadow

At minimum your looking at building a mini-itx computer and either use a dedicated soundcard or USB to RCA DAC direct to your headunit or amps.

You then would need a small display to be able to control what music is playing as well.

I figured it would be about 300+ min just to build that type of a system using bare bones parts.

That's why I personally gave up. I figure if I get the KDC-998 HU that bypasses the iPhone's DAC and has time-alignment and a buch of EQ features it will help me get the "best" compressed sounding music I can.

I plan to take what music I want from my Lossless iTunes library and convert it to something smaller to fit on my 16 gig iPhone 4. I also dont plan on loading ALL my music on my iPhone as I too have more music than storage on mine.

BeefJerky

EndersShadow wrote: »

At minimum your looking at building a mini-itx computer and either use a dedicated soundcard or USB to RCA DAC direct to your headunit or amps.

You then would need a small display to be able to control what music is playing as well.

I figured it would be about 300+ min just to build that type of a system using bare bones parts.

That's why I personally gave up. I figure if I get the KDC-998 HU that bypasses the iPhone's DAC and has time-alignment and a buch of EQ features it will help me get the "best" compressed sounding music I can.

I plan to take what music I want from my Lossless iTunes library and convert it to something smaller to fit on my 16 gig iPhone 4. I also dont plan on loading ALL my music on my iPhone as I too have more music than storage on mine.

If you want more storage to go with your HU, then get a 160GB iPod Classic. That should allow you to put your whole library on there, possibly even all in lossless.

Don't fear using a HDD based player in the car. I've been using HDD based iPod's in the car for around 8 years and haven't had a single issue. I currently have a 160GB iPod Classic dedicated to car use that I keep connected in the glove box and controlled by my Kenwood DNX8120 head unit; it works great. I even have a second 160GB iPod to keep with a speaker dock for on the go; I also use it in the bathroom for some tunes while I shower and get ready.

EndersShadow

BeefJerky wrote: »

If you want more storage to go with your HU, then get a 160GB iPod Classic. That should allow you to put your whole library on there, possibly even all in lossless.

Don't fear using a HDD based player in the car. I've been using HDD based iPod's in the car for around 8 years and haven't had a single issue. I currently have a 160GB iPod Classic dedicated to car use that I keep connected in the glove box and controlled by my Kenwood DNX8120 head unit; it works great. I even have a second 160GB iPod to keep with a speaker dock for on the go; I also use it in the bathroom for some tunes while I shower and get ready.

For me at this point, car audio is about portability and having as few items as possible in my car/pockets. I haven't yet loaded anything on my iPhone, or even into iTunes as I used to have a 32 gig Zune HD and it had all my stuff on it, categorized and labled and everything. I havent taken the time to do the same for my iTunes library yet.

For the OP though, his problem is he wants to play FLAC and MP3 files and has over 1TB of music. For my situation your option may work, but in his it wont, especially with FLAC.

rromeo923

Well I could have the squeezebox hooked to an 1TB external usb hard drive and then plugged into inverter. Will the Squeezebox operate on a modified sine wave inverter?

BeefJerky

EndersShadow wrote: »

For me at this point, car audio is about portability and having as few items as possible in my car/pockets. I haven't yet loaded anything on my iPhone, or even into iTunes as I used to have a 32 gig Zune HD and it had all my stuff on it, categorized and labled and everything. I havent taken the time to do the same for my iTunes library yet.

It sounds like you want simplicity, so I think my suggestion would work well for you. Once you install the head unit and iPod, you never have think about it again. You could keep the iPod hidden wherever you want, and simply control everything from the head unit. It's certainly a lot simpler than trying to piece together a mini computer system and interface with a control panel.

For the OP though, his problem is he wants to play FLAC and MP3 files and has over 1TB of music. For my situation your option may work, but in his it wont, especially with FLAC.

This is true. I don't think there really is a simple and elegant solution for what he wants to do, unless he is willing to compromise and use lossy compression in the car. In my car, I really can't tell the difference between lossy and lossless, but my car isn't exactly a quiet luxury vehicle either. Maybe the OP's situation is different though, or maybe he has much better hears than I do. He could certainly go the mini computer route that you suggested, but it won't be simple.

BeefJerky

rromeo923 wrote: »

Well I could have the squeezebox hooked to an 1TB external usb hard drive and then plugged into inverter. Will the Squeezebox operate on a modified sine wave inverter?

Squeezeboxes won't operate directly from a USB hard drive. There are some NAS's that support the Squeezebox server, but that would probably be your only option for car use.

I think it's more the power supply that matters when dealing with modified sine wave inverters. You could replace the normal wall wart with a switching power supply of the same voltage. Or simply get a proper DC to DC converter.

maximillian

rromeo923 wrote: »

I am looking for something that has portability like an ipod with battery life but also has good sound and storage w/wifi.

Basically something that I can use at my house as an alternative to my laptop for music (DAC) and also use it in my car.

I have about 1 Terrabyte of music I would like to have access to. Flac and mp3.

Any ideas??

How about a tablet computer with an external drive? Do you really need 1TB with you and accessible all the time? You could buy a few 32GB microSD cards and divide your music up.

An alternate to this is to use something like a WD TV Live Plus WIFI. Again, accesses external drives. There is a 1TB version with the drive built in. I use mine (no hard drive) in the car with an inverter all the time for kids movies on long trips. The issues I have:
- when you turn off the car the thing powers down.
- user interface is a little poor.

A portable movie player is also nice. And the Plus version also has a Netflix client (Pandora too, not sure if Pandora is on the more basic model).

rromeo923

I have a 160gb Ipod that has the red ring of death. So now looking for alternatives. I dont like using Itunes and was also at the same time looking to find a DAC for my home system (just using laptop w/ creative external sound card). Trying to get two birds stoned at the same time.

Syndil

I hear ya on the iTunes. Unfortunately I think what you are looking for would involve too many compromises, either in the car or at home. Since a car isn't exactly a hi-fi environment, I'd see if you could maybe resurrect your iPod by putting Rockbox on it and using that in the car. Rockbox does support FLAC. You could sync it with your PC (or whatever you're using at home to store your music) using pretty much whatever media player software you prefer.