Home Media

Ever since I can remember, I've always been interested in home audio.  When I was a kid (way before the internet), I used to run cabling through the heating vents and wire up speakers I had ripped out of various other toys or projects to a central tape player, record player, etc.  Tapes were often made by waiting feverishly in front of the radio with my trigger finger on the red record button to capture the latest and greatest hits of the day.

Sound quality was obviously hideous, and the first and last couple of seconds of every song were always muffled or part of the DJ's fade-in and fade-out. 

It was a lot of work, for not a lot of quality, but it was fun!

Things have definitely changed a lot in a very short time.  With the advent of digital audio formats like MP3's, AAC's, or lesser known lossless formats like FLAC, grabbing music is a lot simpler, faster, more accessible and of far better quality.  And even by yesteryear's standards, music is a lot more affordable to obtain.  I still remember buying my first CD back in 1986 (Crowded House's self-titled debut) for around $25, while full CD's worth of music now are well under that mark.

Playing that music has also become a lot more convenient, reliable, and cheaper.  Digital media format players like the iPod have made portable digital audio a skipless (portable CD players were awful at skipping) and "wowless" (tape players would change tone based on movement or head alignment) experience.  This is something I had completely forgotten until I had started writing this article!  Digital is just so much better for portability than anything else simply because the of the lack of any moving parts.  Mechanical devices were so much more susceptible to audio problems that simply don't exist today.

Anyway, as digital media became more popular, and my CD collection had grown to a respectable size, I decided to convert all my CD's to the lossless FLAC format.  This gave the benefit of digital media, without any loss of fidelity from the original CD, as FLAC is bit-for-bit perfect when compared with the original CD.   With a FLAC version of all my CD's, I could simply store my CD's and never have to worry about needing them ever again.  FLAC (and it's lossless competitors) has been a boon for audiophiles and digital media freaks alike.

Ok, so now I have all my CD's converted, and a portable media player to play them (a RockBox-converted iPod Nano), and I can play them on my PC, but how about playing them through a decent pair of speakers through a decent amp in my living room?

That's where the "Home Media" project comes in.  I've been exploring various options of playback for several years.  Everything from DVD-players that are able to play MP3-loaded disks (but not FLAC), to portable players attached via line-input jacks.  Nothing was generally convenient, nor of the same quality as the original CD, until fairly recently.

I took the opportunity to purchase a device sold by Roku as the "SoundBridge M1001".  It was a small aluminum cylinder with a nice bright display, line output jacks, digital audio output jacks, a remote control, and an ethernet jack and was capable of playing various audio formats (including FLAC) through a piece of software loaded on your PC or a server, through any room in the house where you had amplified speakers.  The device was affordable ($150 at the time), easy to use, and also was able to play streaming internet radio stations at far better quality than local FM stations!  It was the first device I had bought and actually caught myself saying "it just plain works".  I've often purchased various gadgets, and ended up feeling as if they simply wouldn't work as advertised.  The SoundBridge device did!

To expand my system, I could simply add more SoundBridge devices, and ended up snagging another M1001 as well as two of the SoundBridge radios (a standalone device with built-in speakers and subwoofer).  One of the SoundBridge radios acted as a very capable clock radio, so I was able to wake up to my entire music collection or a streaming internet radio station.  Talk about convergence of technologies!  Everything worked as advertised.

However, slightly over a year later, power supplies started to fail, and Roku had abandoned their SoundBridge line products in favour of a NetFlix video streaming device.  Even though the devices had worked as expected, and very well at that for over a year, they simply couldn't hold up to extended play due to poorly designed power supplies.  I was disappointed, out of warranty, and off looking for an alternative.

Slimdevices' SqueezeBox products had always been on my radar, even before they were bought by Logitech, but they were more expensive and didn't seem as widely available as the Roku products at the time.  After Logitech purchased Slim Devices, the SqueezeBox products started appearing at some of our technology vendors, as well as local big-box stores, so I took the opportunity to try their newly-released "SqueezeBox Boom" to replace a dead SoundBridge Radio.  The SqueezeBox Boom was a direct replacement, and although it lacked a built-in subwoofer it still competed respectably in sound quality.

I was back in business, and happy with the SqueezeBox Boom, only to discover a few months later that it stopped responding.  However, Logitech was VERY quick to respond and kindly sent me a replacement unit with an extra power supply and remote (thanks Logitech!) that have proved very handy!  It's been close to 2 years now without an issue.

Now that the SoundBridge Radio was replaced, it was time to find a replacement for the SoundBridge M1001 and the SqueezeBox Duet easily filled that roll.  It was a combination of a standalone audio/network unit, along with a fully functioned remote with a built-in screen.  The audio quality was excellent, and seemed better than the M1001.  The remote, however, had it share of problems including very poor battery life, and slow response times.  Software updates further improved response times, but battery life was still not great.

So now I had not only CD-quality in the bedroom and main speakers, but both able to access my ENTIRE CD collection independently, play internet streaming radio stations, and the ability to control the audio wirelessly through the SqueezeBox Duet Remote.  I was in heaven, and instantly realized this was what I had tried to do way back with speakers and a single tape player, but obviously had stumbled on the nirvana version of this setup.

The SqueezeBox Duet Remote was still a little problematic, but a quick app search on my original iPod Touch 1G found "iPeng".  I still use iPeng today, and quickly retired the Duet Remote.

Logitech has subsequently released the SqueezeBox Radio, which is a standalone, single-speaker version of the SqueezeBox Boom, but with the nice addition of a full colour screen that functions exactly as the Duet Remote's screen.  The SqueezeBox Radio has proven handy to have in the kitchen, or even out on the deck, again with full access to my CD collection and internet radio.

Adding built-in ceiling speakers (thanks Nick for the help!), a retired JVC Amp, and a SqueezeBox Touch in the main bathroom has made for an incredible experience that I use each and every morning!

So, now that the audio side is done, I've started experimenting with Video options.  I'll save that for another article...