High Availability

In the process of getting my system ready for the introduction of the Squeezebox and the installation of the SlimServer I consolidated my digital music collection on to one of my older PowerBooks. Doing this has allowed me to also share all of my music around my house. I rip my CDs to the Apple Lossless format, which is supported by both my Squeezebox and all of my computers running iTunes. Now my collection is available wherever I am in my house. I don't have to look all over my house for a CD anymore, it is all right at my fingertips, and since it is all lossless, I am not missing anything. I have even been able to stream it to my laptop when I am away from home using a VPN technology. The future is now.

New World Order

I have read/heard a lot from some audiophiles about how digital is the death of good audio. While I think that digital done poorly is definitely atrocious, digital audio done well is a dream. I have recently acquired a component that has made my digital experience even better: the Squeezebox from Slim Devices. This allows me to play my entire digital library in my main system extremely easily. I can stream all of my networked music, right to my stereo. The Squeezebox has a built in Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC, as well as digital outputs that can be connected to any external DAC I choose. At that point it becomes a digital transport with no moving parts, and as long as I rip my CDs carefully the first time, I do not need to worry about it after that. After that, it is all just bits.