Network attached media player for hifi

sir-les-mp

sir-les-mp

sir-les-mp

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So as the title suggests im looking at a network media player i can plug directly into my Seperates system hifi.
I do have a Nas Drive attached to my router and on there there is a few thousand mp3 tracks, not to save me from burning these to cd to play on my stereo system im looking at getting hold of a network media player.
Now im only interested in those i can plug directly into my hifi and DO NOT NEED A VIDEO OUTPUT to use it.

However in saying that my bank balance at present is very very low so for the time being i would only be looking at an entry level one till funds allowed me to invest in a much better one.

So thinking caps on ladies and gents and give me a few suggestions.
 
N.B. for a squeezebox you need a server which is on. Some NAS drives can do this with custom firmware.

The other contender is sonos.
 
Disco Boy said:
N.B. for a squeezebox you need a server which is on. Some NAS drives can do this with custom firmware.

...
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Not true. An SBT can read an external (mains powered) HDD and has no need for a server as it can run it's own "mini" server. No it's not as responsive as having a dedicated music server, but it does work as I've been doing that for 2 years now and with pretty much zero issues.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Not true. An SBT can read an external (mains powered) HDD and has no need for a server
Click to expand...
But a HDD is hardly the same as a NAS drive, is it. To be fair the OP does say a NAS drive. So the USB hard drive doesn't really solve the problem.

Another vote here for Sonos.

Apple would be a good budget alternative as long as you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod touch to control it
 
The OP also stated that funds were low. An SBT is hardly cheap. Plus an APX can be also be controlled from a notebook / laptop / macbook running itunes (its how my wife likes to use our APX's), I tend to use my iphone or ipad.
 
I have been looking at the three main suggestions given so far.

The Logitech Sqeezebox Touch looks like a nice piece of kit with it having a small screen and the ability to access my nas drive wirelessly. Price wise i have seen a few at around the £170 which is not too bad but what worries me is the fact the internal server on the SBT has a habit of crashing,turning its self off and this could cause a few problems with my current NAS ( which does need upgrading but funds dont permit )

The Sonos Connect now looking at this one i do really really like, it looks good and seems to have all the funcionallity im looking for. The only drawback i really find on this is its current price point of £280 New and even looking on the Bay of E it wasnt much cheaper. As for controlling it thats not too much of a problem as i do own an Iphone 4

Last but not least is the Apple Airport Express looking at his device the only good thing i could say would be its price as i did find a retailer with them at the £40 mark, but this relies on my pc being on and running itunes with full access to my nas drive libairy, which defeats the purpose of it bypassing my pc and just accessing my nas drive. There would also looking at be a risk of it interferring with my current wifi access point downstairs.

So to summerize if it looked and functioned like the Sonos possibly with a small screen attached like the sbt and between the prices of the apple airport express and the sbt (£40 - £170) we would have a winner

Priced between there will give me time to save up for one of these QNAP Turbo NAS TS-419P II 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure and 4 2Tb drive to begin with .

Note:

I am a Scotsman with very deep pockets and short arms, the reason they are so deep is they are usually empty :D
 
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Which NAS are you currently running? The sbt own internal hardware wouldn't be doing the hard work if your current NAS supports a squeezebox server install.
 
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gitbags said:
Which NAS are you currently running? The sbt own internal hardware wouldn't be doing the hard work if your current NAS supports a squeezebox server install.
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a Storlink 35HD-DUAL-NAS- E giga-nas

Note:

Its old and decrepit but it works most of the time. The main thing that bugs me is i cant access all the shared folders properly even though i have all the correct user details (as i set them up)
 
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Ah. Can't find anything to suggest that your current nas supports running sbs. Which would mean you'd have to run it from your pc till funds allow for a new supported nas or a usb hdd on the sbt itself.

As you've said running it from your pc is a no no, so that leaves the hdd. Not the most desirable way of running one but doable. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to recognize my usb hdd :confused:, so I can't really say what the general performance is like.

Hopefully some one else can be a bit more helpful.
 
gitbags said:
Ah. Can't find anything to suggest that your current nas supports running sbs. Which would mean you'd have to run it from your pc till funds allow for a new supported nas or a usb hdd on the sbt itself.

As you've said running it from your pc is a no no, so that leaves the hdd. Not the most desirable way of running one but doable. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to recognize my usb hdd :confused:, so I can't really say what the general performance is like.

Hopefully some one else can be a bit more helpful.
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This is the problem i have with it being such an old NAS drive. However in saying that i can access the media files on it from my LG 47" tv and it will play most of them.

However as you suggest i may have to look into upgrading the NAS drive first i may just have to set my sights a little lower on the NAS and go for this instead QNAP Turbo NAS TS-410 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure. Obviously it is not as powerfull as the NAS i was looking at but i do see form the info it does support SBT Server.
 
If your after a nas with a bit of poke have you thought about building an itx server and using that for media duties. Power usage on them can be quite low and with software like vortex box you can run a squeeze box or sonos server. If you've already got a couple of hard drives kicking around you could put one together for less than £200.
 
gitbags said:
If your after a nas with a bit of poke have you thought about building an itx server and using that for media duties. Power usage on them can be quite low and with software like vortex box you can run a squeeze box or sonos server. If you've already got a couple of hard drives kicking around you could put one together for less than £200.
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im looking for the easy switch on and forget soloution, as well as very small and hide away.
My present Nas sits on top of my pc case underneath my desk and is unseen, so keeping me in good stead with (She who must be obeyed).
 
I've being using a Squeezebox Touch for the last two years with mixed success. Using the SBT's built in server is a bit of a nightmare if you do not have your mp3s/flac's well organised (unlike me) as the built-in server is woefully underpowered. I've suffered dropped connections so often that the system becomes pretty much unusable. Don't even think about using the search function. Even with all media of an attached USB HDD the system is so unresponsive as to be unusable.

This problem pretty much disappears if you use a sepereate server (Logitech Media Server) but is not ideal as it requires either a snazzy NAS being hacked to run the software, or a computer being left on all the time.

I've now setup a Raspberry Pi with SqueezePlug on it to run as the server and it performs flawlessly. Highly recommended.
 
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