Hey Everyone,
Recently, I made changes to my system to switch from a Mac Mini/Squeezebox transport to a Mac Mini/Apogee Duet. Primarily, I did this because I was tired of the Squeezebox/SqueezeCenter interface for controlling the music library and its klugey album art management. Using the Mini/Duet combo allows me to use iTunes as the interface but the switch also provided a huge sonic improvement. To say I was shocked at how much of an improvement gained is a huge understatement as the difference was not subtle, at all. The soundstage opened up, the lows gained muscle, the mids were more defined and refined and the highs much smoother. A musician friend who listened to a comparison between the two said the music through the Apogee sounded more natural. At $500, the Apogee might be the best purchase I've made in my system.
Anyway, this post is to ask for feedback from others who may be using the iPod Touch as a remote in an Apple-based system. I am a little disappointed with it, at the moment, and hope someone may have some advice on how to workaround these issues. The biggest problem is the album artwork from iTunes is not displaying in the Remote application consistently. For instance, in the Album list view, only the first 10 albums or so will display. One time, the artwork did display completely in the Album list but would not display in Now Playing. Sometimes, if I exit Remote then relaunch it, the album artwork will show in Now Playing. I don't think I've ever seen the Album list have complete artwork at the same time as being able to view it in Now Playing. Additionally, the Now Playing doesn't always update with the current song playing. I can switch songs using the iPod but the Now Playing window may not update with the new song info. Sometimes it does update so the behavior is very inconsistent.
The connection to the library is frequently dropped, as well. In the Settings, I have "Stay Connected" set to On.
The Search function doesn't work. I can type in the query but when I click on "Search" I never get any results.
Has anyone else seen these issues? I suspect it might be (but hope it isn't) network issues. My router is an older 802.11b Netgear. The Mini, my MacBook and the iPod are connected wirelessly. I never had any issues with drop outs feeding the Squeezebox and all other devices on the network work flawlessly. Even when the iPod exhibits its symptoms, I can connect to the Mini remotely from my MacBook using Chicken of the VNC and control it and iTunes, flawlessly.
Thanks!
