[jsalk]

For quite some time now, I have been using my laptop to run SlimCenter and feed a couple of Sqeezeboxes.  The problems were, 1) in order to have music available on a moment's notice, I had to leave my laptop on 24/7; and, 2) as I added CD's, I was quickly using up all the disc space on my laptop.

I thought about getting an NOS or building a small server based on an ITX board.  But those generally required more power than I really wanted to use on 24/7 basis.

Then I read a post by JoshK talking about vortexbox.org.  I looked into it and the vortexbox ($359) looked like a good compromise.  It featured all the sofware needed, already installed.  It included a DVD drive for ripping CD's (or whatever else you want to rip) and it used only 24 watts of power.  So I ordered one.

As soon as it arrived, I plugged it in and it came up on my network, no problem.  It runs a small installation of RedHat linux, along with SlimCenter, ripit and a few other small apps.  The sofware (which is also available as an ISO file for those wishing to build a small computer or use an old computer) was ready to go when I plugged the unit in. 

I modified the ripit configuration file to set up the ripping process to my tastes.  I slipped in a series of CD's and it ripped them into the SlimCenter database and the system downloaded the album artwork if it was available.

In other words, you simply plug it in and start ripping CD's.  You can probably store a minimum of 3000 CD's on the 1 TB internal drive.

Then I configured an iPod Touch with the iPeng application and it immediatetly recognized the SlimCenter server and all of my Sqeezebox units. 

The result is a remote control that works wirelessly and can control both SlimCenter and all Sqeezebox units in the house. 

I am not necessarily recommending this system.  I am merely reporting my experiences should anyone else be looking for a simple, rather elegant solution.  A little linux experience is helpful, although not required.

While neither the vortexbox or IPeng is perfect (who doesn't wish for just one more feature?), both do what they promise and actually do it quite well.

As I have more experience with this combination, I'll post additional comments for those who might be interested.  But so far, so good.

- Jim

[JoshK]

Glad to be of help.  I like mine so far.  No issues to report, works as advertised.

[MikeDC]

I have used the Vortexbox Appliance to serve to both a Squeezebox Duet and a Sonos system.  I think the device is great and simple.  The other thing that makes the device a great option is the support you will find on the Vortexbox forum.  Most technical questions are answered by the developer.  In fact, he even tweaked the software because of a problem I found when using it with SONOS. 

[floresjc]

Is there a way to get songs from your existing FLAC or MP3 library on to the VortexBox without re-ripping everything? Also, what connection are you running to your receiver/DAC/etc?

[Big Red Machine]

Does it come with instructions to load your files and feed the SB?

[JoshK]

Is there a way to get songs from your existing FLAC or MP3 library on to the VortexBox without re-ripping everything? Also, what connection are you running to your receiver/DAC/etc?

Yes, I did exactly that myself.   I had 750gigs already ripped on my HD and I wanted to put it on the VB.  I simply dragged and dropped from the file explorer on my Vista box to the VB seen on the network and voila!  There are about a dozen other ways to do the same thing, but this was easy for me as a windows user.

The developer though did one step further cleverness with the write-to-VB.   He has a folder that you can write to and a protected folder.  You drop the files into the write folder and then it copies over into the protected folder for you.  This is so you don't botch something up.

[JoshK]

Does it come with instructions to load your files and feed the SB?

Most of the instructions are on the vortexbox site.  He has some FAQs that are helpful including some simple follow these step instructions.  Others are in the forum. 

[rahimlee54]

I wonder how this would work on a NAS instead of putting something like freenas on it, throw this software on it.

[jsalk]

I wonder how this would work on a NAS instead of putting something like freenas on it, throw this software on it.

My guess is that it would work just fine.  But I'm sure you can ask that question on the vortexbox.org site and talk to someone who has done it.  If you can install an OS on the NOS, you should be able to download the .iso file, burn it to a CD and power up with the CD.  But not having done it, I would certainly want to check with someone who has.

- Jim

[jsalk]

Is there a way to get songs from your existing FLAC or MP3 library on to the VortexBox without re-ripping everything?

Question answered above.  Basically, the vortexbox will look just like another computaer on your network.  So you can copy files to the directory of your choice.  If they are flac files, for example, you would save them to the /music/flac directory.  (The flac directory itself is protected to prevent accidental deletions.  But if you save to the /music/flac directory, all will work just as if the driver were on your computer.)

 Also, what connection are you running to your receiver/DAC/etc?
[/quote]

I am running my squeezebox units from the digital out into an outboard DAC and then on to my system.  Works very well.

- Jim

[jsalk]

Update:

A friend came over last night to listen to the HT4's.  So I had a chance to give the vortexbox/iPeng combination a workout.

One thing I noticed is that the vortexbox softare (ripit in this case) actually went out and got album cover art for the files I copied over from another system without any cover art files.  Very neat.

The iPeng software, running on an iTouch, was quite nice for surfing through all the CD's I had loaded/copied over so far.  But there were a few things that were slight problems.

First, you can scroll through a list of CD's, for example, and sometimes when you started scrolling, the system thought you were selecting a CD to play.  The result is that while you were looking for something to play next, all of a sudden the system switched to a different song thinking that you selected it.

There are also dedicated buttons on the bottom of the screen for "Artist," "Albums," "Genre," etc.  Sometimes if you were selecting something on the bottom of a list, it thought you were hitting one of those buttons instead.  This is not a big deal since you can easily get back to where you were, but it is a minor inconveneience.

The other thing I noticed is that while you can control the squeezebox you are using from virtually any screen, sometimes it took a while to respond (if you were trying to pause the playback, for example).  This always had me wondering if the app froze since there was no feedback.  A short time later, I repeated what I was trying to do and it worked fine.  It could be that the system was busy indexing the SlimCenter contents and was too busy at the time.  I'll report more on these later as I gain additional experience.

One nice thing I think I noticed (I would have to verify that this is actually the case and wasn't an anomoly), is that you can scroll to a different position in a song.  If you were wanting to play the last minute, for example, you could drag and scroll to a new position in a song.  This is something that I have always found lacking with a regular Squeezebox remote (at least I didn't know how to do it if it was capable).

More later...

- Jim

[zybar]

One nice thing I think I noticed (I would have to verify that this is actually the case and wasn't an anomoly), is that you can scroll to a different position in a song.  If you were wanting to play the last minute, for example, you could drag and scroll to a new position in a song.  This is something that I have always found lacking with a regular Squeezebox remote (at least I didn't know how to do it if it was capable).

More later...

- Jim

Jim,

You can indeed scroll to whatever part of the song you like in iPeng.

However, you can do the same thing in SqueezeCenter via the webpage or via the remote.  On your remote, you simply need to hold the next button down and it will fast forward or rewind, not just skip a song.

George

[jsalk]

However, you can do the same thing in SqueezeCenter via the webpage or via the remote.  On your remote, you simply need to hold the next button down and it will fast forward or rewind, not just skip a song.

George

zybar-

Thanks for the tip!  You'd have thought that I would have noticed that by now.  But, alas, I didn't and it always drove me a little nuts.  Thanks for pointing that out.

- Jim