SB vs. Apple TV

[JoeLR]

I am an Apple user (Macbook Pro, 2.16GHz; play all my digital music
ripped to ALAC via iTunes)... I've been researching the SB for a
couple weeks now, and I'm wondering whether I shoud instead go the
route of using Apple TV to stream my music to my primary AV setup. I
know I'll get a biased view here (so I've posted the same question a
couple other sites), but why should I go w/ S B instead of Apple TV? I
can use both in the same way, right? There shouldn't be sound quality
differences as I'd connect both to my AVR via optical, so wouldn't be
using the DAC of either the SB or Apple TV....

[mvalera]

One major advantage, at least for me, is that you don't have to have
your TV on to listen to music with the Squeezebox.

Add extra Squeezebox Classics or Receivers and you have a multi-room
system. Add the Squeezebox Controller and you have a wireless
whole-house controller for that system.

Mike
--
mvalera

Michael Valera
Online Communities Manager
Logitech Streaming Media Business Unit
slimdevices.com
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[radish]

There shouldn't be sound quality differences as I'd connect both to my
AVR via optical

Well that depends, but I'll leave that discussion to the audiophile
forum :)

SQ aside, I'd consider these points:

* As mvalera said, multi-room. I have more players than TVs scattered
around the house.
* Customisation - being an (almost) entirely open system leads to all
kinds of cool capabilities that stuff from other manufacturers (not
just Apple) can't match. Think RSS feeds, weather displays, caller ID,
or even X10 control for home automation, etc.
* The Controller - awesome.
* No need for a TV to be on (big deal for me, it's what made me give up
on the HTPC concept).
* Subscription services like Rhapsody, Sirius, Slacker, Pandora etc -
not available (AFAIK) on AppleTV.
* Integration with various other systems - MusicIP for example.
* Ability to act as a wireless bridge - very useful in an A/V stack as
more and more devices need a network connection (Xbox, Tivo, etc). Add
a switch and you've got a neat little wired subnet.

Personally for me, not being tied to iTunes is a big plus (as is
multi-format support) but I understand in your case that's not a
concern.

[JoeLR]

Post by radish
Well that depends, but I'll leave that discussion to the audiophile
forum :)
* As mvalera said, multi-room. I have more players than TVs scattered
around the house.
* Customisation - being an (almost) entirely open system leads to all
kinds of cool capabilities that stuff from other manufacturers (not
just Apple) can't match. Think RSS feeds, weather displays, caller ID,
or even X10 control for home automation, etc.
* The Controller - awesome.
* No need for a TV to be on (big deal for me, it's what made me give up
on the HTPC concept).
* Subscription services like Rhapsody, Sirius, Slacker, Pandora etc -
not available (AFAIK) on AppleTV.
* Integration with various other systems - MusicIP for example.
* Ability to act as a wireless bridge - very useful in an A/V stack as
more and more devices need a network connection (Xbox, Tivo, etc). Add
a switch and you've got a neat little wired subnet.
Personally for me, not being tied to iTunes is a big plus (as is
multi-format support) but I understand in your case that's not a
concern.

Thanks... Heh, I'm afraid to post in the audiophile forum, but thanks
for pointing me in that direction anyway!:)

[iPhone]

Post by JoeLR
I am an Apple user (Macbook Pro, 2.16GHz; play all my digital music
ripped to ALAC via iTunes)... I've been researching the SB for a
couple weeks now, and I'm wondering whether I shoud instead go the
route of using Apple TV to stream my music to my primary AV setup. I
know I'll get a biased view here (so I've posted the same question a
couple other sites), but why should I go w/ S B instead of Apple TV? I
can use both in the same way, right? There shouldn't be sound quality
differences as I'd connect both to my AVR via optical, so wouldn't be
using the DAC of either the SB or Apple TV....

You can use both in almost the same way. Pro for the Apple TV is it
will play Apple DRM downloads and the SB will not. Other then that the
SB does just about everything the Apple TV does minus requiring TV. Now
for the SB, it will do plenty of things the Apple will not do and you
need no TV.

Sound wise the way you plan to set the main area up there should be no
difference since it would be using the digital out on both. Now for
adding more listening locations, the Squeezebox has it all over Apple
TV. BTW, I only use iTune because I have an iPhone. For the
Squeezeboxes I have it is a large collect of FLAC files.
--
iPhone

iPhone
Last.FM /user/mePhone
Media Room:
Transporter, VTL TL-6.5 Signature Pre-Amp, Ayre MX-R Mono Blocks,
Vandersteen Quatro, VeraStarr 6.4SE 6-channel Amp, VCC-5 Reference
Center, four VSM-1 Signatures, Runco RS 900 CineWide AutoScope 2.35:1


Living Room:
Duet, ADCOM GTP-870HD, Cinepro 3K6SE III Gold, Vandersteen Model 3A
Signature, Two 2Wq subs, VCC-2, Two VSM-1

Bedroom: SB3, NAD C370, Thiel 2.3
Home Office: SB3, Parasound Vamp v.3, VSM-1 Sigs
Mobile: SB3, Audioengine A5
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[JoeLR]

You can use both in almost the same way. Pro for the Apple TV is it will
play Apple DRM downloads and the SB will not. Other then that the SB
does just about everything the Apple TV does minus requiring TV. Now
for the SB, it will do plenty of things the Apple will not do and you
need no TV.
Sound wise the way you plan to set the main area up there should be no
difference since it would be using the digital out on both. Now for
adding more listening locations, the Squeezebox has it all over Apple
TV. BTW, I only use iTune because I have an iPhone. For the
Squeezeboxes I have it is a large collect of FLAC files.

Thanks for providing your POV as well. Right now, I live in a small
condo. My computer desktop is in a small room right next to the room
housing my AV setup. For now, I have a 15 foot long RCA cable running
between my Apogee Duet (firewire Mac-only digital music interface that
I'm using solely as a DAC)& my 540R; hardly an elegant solution!! For
the foreseeable future, additional listening positions will not be a
part of the equation, that's why I started to even consider Apple TV.
I just want something simple to stream music (w/ good quality audio
reproduction); I don't even care about whether it'll play Apple
content, tbh--I don't buy things from iTunes store anymore; I buy CD's
& rip them, and I seldom watch movies much less rent them from iTunes.
I'll have to think through whether needing to have my LCD TV turned on
to run Apple TV would be a huge minus... As long as the sound quality
is the same, I might just go w/ Apple TV as presumably it'll mate very
seamlessly w/ my Macbook pro & Airport Extreme Base Station. I'm not
much of a tech guy, so fiddling around w/ software installs (updates,
betas, etc.) is not very appealing...

[jsprag]

If all your music is already in iTunes and you are content to control
the playback from your computer then another option may be the Apple
Airport Express.

In conjunction with iTunes it will wirelessly stream music to your A/V
system. Has both digital and analog audio outputs.

With regard to the SB3/Duet comparison-
Pros:
1. Costs less (~$85)
2. Supports any DRM that is supported by iTunes
3. Very easy to setup and use (SB wasn't hard for me, but the Airport
Express was extraordinarily easy)

Cons:
1. Requires that you view information and control playback from
computer
2. Doesn't play formats not supported by iTunes
3. Doesn't support music services like Pandora or Rhapsody
4. If you ever move out of the iTunes world then the hardware won't
(reliably) work with other software.
5. Requires computer to be on and running iTunes in order to operate.
SB requires computer on and running Squeezecenter to access local
music, but can access all sorts of music from the internet without
having a computer running.

I started with an Airport Express but using the computer to control
things wasn't what I was looking for. Ended up switching to an SB3 and
then eventually added the Controller. For me, in a big house, it is a
much better solution. In a small apartment where I was never more than
a few feet away from my laptop then the Airport Express might work just
fine.

[jo-wie]

Post by jsprag
I started with an Airport Express but using the computer to control
things wasn't what I was looking for. Ended up switching to an SB3
.....

Interesting - exact same story for me and now I'm happy with my SB3.
Only missing a NAS - planned to build a fanless VIA C7 system.
Currently I use MP3tunes (free 1 year 50GB account from Squeezebox
promo) for my ripped music.

Regards,

jo-wie