Audio streaming - Boxee,Roku or other?

LowOdour

Im setting up my home audio system at the moment. Ive purchased my speakers, i have decided on my amp & i was going to get a squeezebox receiver for streaming (as i already have an SB controller).

Problem is, the SB receiver are discontinued and are a) hard enough to get hold of; b) expensive to purchase when i can find them and c) no guarantee to be able to get them in the future.

Ive been looking at alternatives like boxee and roku. both have good and bad points.
So, my requirements are

1. must have ethernet and wireless
2. can be hooked up to an amp
3. should have an andriod app if controller is basic and without any screen.

I know Apple TV box probably covers all this criteria, but I dont have any apple products, and buying an ipod/iphone/ipad would just be an extra cost i would prefer to avoid. But if it was the best option, I would fork out the extra.

For the momen streaming audio from my PC, and have internet radio are my main priorites....anything else is a bonus (access to film/tv etc).

Please help!!
LO

andy1249

For a straight quality music setup the squeezbox touch is the way to go. I have this setup myself and its excellent.

The touch is capable of playing anything , I have all my stuff in lossless flac , the touch handles these superbly , including high res material.

The likes of Boxee and Roku , along with the likes of WDTV etc. are mainly media players with more focus on video rather than music. Libraries for music on such devices can be incredibly slow. They are no match for the Touch and Squeezbox server running on a capable system.

There are decent controller apps for both iphone and android. Im using ipeng on iphone and it is excellent.

Regarding this ....

1. must have ethernet and wireless
2. can be hooked up to an amp
3. should have an andriod app if controller is basic and without any screen.

I know Apple TV box probably covers all this criteria,

The Apple TV is not suitable for what you want , not by a long shot. With the new Apple TV there is no jailbreak and and there is no access to anything other than itunes bought content over its network connection. It cannot access any kind of nas server or computer that is not running itunes.

An Apple TV2 that is jailbroken and running XBMC is pretty useful , but a lot of work on the part of the buyer.

LowOdour

I guess my main issue with the squeezebox is price and availabilty.

I have my eye on sb receiver, but they are few and far between. so if i want to add more zones to my home, it will have to be probably with the SB radio, but they arent great for hooking up to amp->recivers.

But, from day one the SB setup was my number one option, and think i will have to bite the bullet and pay up!

MediaTank

Have you looked at Sonos?

andy1249

Sonos is a great system , however it tops out at 16bit 44Khz or CD quality audio , which is fine , but there is a lot of high res material available today which the squeezbox can do at a lower price.

LowOdour

MediaTank wrote: »

Have you looked at Sonos?

Sonos is beyond my budget, so not an option.
I sourced a squeezebox receiver in the UK, but they wont ship so trying to get it delivered to the family in the UK, and hopefully they will post it over.

seklly

LowOdour wrote: »

Sonos is beyond my budget, so not an option.
I sourced a squeezebox receiver in the UK, but they wont ship so trying to get it delivered to the family in the UK, and hopefully they will post it over.

deliverme.ie will help you out for a fee!

LowOdour

seklly wrote: »

deliverme.ie will help you out for a fee!

cheers for that, hadn't heard of them before but have ordered squeezebox receviver (and a/v multiroom receiver) as I orignally wanted, and to be delivered to them. Happy days, hopefully there wont be any issues with getting the items to the north