The future for a current Squeezebox user


I've been contemplating this question for the past year and a half or so since Logitech has essentially discontinued its Squeezebox line (at least, the Squeezeboxes as I once knew them).

I've been using Squeezeboxes since the pre-Logitech Slim Devices era, about the past decade or so. I have a sophisticated home system using them. I have the Logitech Media Server running on a Linux box running an enterprise-grade Linux distribution, and this houses nearly a terabyte of FLAC files. I have a Transporter connected to my big rig. Four rooms are connected to a Squeezebox Classic, and the guest bedroom and garage have a Squeezebox Radio. All are connected via wired ethernet. And I control them through either a web browser (served by the LMS on the Linux machine) or the Squeezepad iPad application. It's a slick system and works great.

The question is, where do I go from here? I don't feel the need to move on to anything else in the immediate future, but I'm concerned that this may eventually leave me stuck with a dead product line. What other options are presently being developed that might provide a migration strategy? I want to continue using the Linux machine as the music repository, and continue using FLAC as my primary music file format.

Thanks in advance,

Michael
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@audioengr -- I run LMS on my server and have several Raspberry Pi based players configured as Squeezeboxes. All of them connect wirelessly to the server and have no problem playing 192K/24 music, whether from Qobuz or my local collection.  

Also, LMS is continuing to be updated regularly. I'm running an October 2, 2020 release of version 8 and have a notice that a more recent version is now available. LMS continues to a very good, very flexible music server with tons of features.  Even though Logitech no longer sells the hardware players, there are many current alternatives available that work perfectly with LMS.
I really don’t see the issue here. There are many 3rd party software/hardware that support LMS, just run a quick Google search.
Not sure if this was mentioned, but Roon fully supports squeezeboxes as endpoints :) I haven't touched LMS in 2 years and very happy about that. :)

Hello Michael, I do not have a solution for your question, but a question myself. May I ask for your expertise and guidance?  ow can I connect my music collection on a FLAC USB to my pre-amp listed here?  My sound system is an early 80s ‘stack’ system. 

None of the components are digital: Bryston 2B solid state amp, Conrad-Johnson PV-11 pre-amp, MIT 330 interconnects, MusicWave phase-equalized speaker cables, California Audio Labs CD Alpha and Delta drive, Dual 1129 turntable. B&W 803 speakers. 

I would appreciate your suggestions and guidance on the matter.Thank you. 

Mark Saracino



Hi Mark,
I've had the CAL Alpha/Delta combination (actually, I think I still have them in a box somewhere).  That's a classic transport/DAC combination that is still well-regarded.
What you'll need is a way of getting the data from the FLAC files to the Alpha DAC.  With a CD, your Delta transport sends PCM data from the transport to the DAC over one of a few different cable options (optical, coaxial, AES/EBU, etc).  Now you need a device that basically does the same thing as the Delta but rather than reading from CD's it reads from your computer's FLAC files.
So you'll effectively need two things:
1)  A repository for FLAC files.  This is usually a computer that you have some software running as essentially a media server.  You can use Logitech Media Server (LMS), as detailed on this thread, or other software such as Roon.  Either way, you point the software to the directory on your computer that contains all of your music files in FLAC format.
2)  An "endpoint", or "player" that can interact with the server, receive and decode the FLAC data and then send the digital music data to the DAC.  I don't think the Alpha has a USB port, as it's from the 1990's, so you'll need a device that can connect to a network like ethernet to communicate with the server, and also have a coaxial or Toslink data connection that can then go to the Alpha.  
Just to provide one example, you could get a Raspberry Pi-based unit like a DigiOne from allo.com.  (https://www.allo.com/sparky-eu/digione.html

Having a digital media repository has dramatically enhanced my ability to appreciate and find music in my collection, so be persistent and don't get discouraged if it doesn't work the first time.
Michael