I noticed it’s been almost 2 months since my last post. Though I doubt any of my fellow Outlaws have been looking for me on the back of a milk carton, I thought I would share a couple of things going on in my own personal corner of the HT / stereo world that may be of interest to you. Before I begin, let it be known I have no affiliation with any of the products or retailers described below.

Building a Music Server: I’m not sure how many of you have heard about or use a product called a “Squeezebox,” but I’ve got to tell you, this is one of the slickest devices I’ve ever owned and I think is going to really revolutionize my system. Basically, this little device (about the size of a table top digital alarm clock) wirelessly streams Internet radio and/or music you’ve ripped to your PC right to your sound system. What’s great about the SB for us audio nuts, is that you can use a lossless compression format (I’m using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)) and stream pure CD quality music over your WiFi. You can go with MP3 too, if you like; but the FLAC format sounds amazing and the software is open source, so it won’t cost you a penny. Right now, I’m beginning the long, arduous process of ripping my CDs to the PC. At this point, I’m already seeing the need for some sort of outboard, high speed CD/DVD drive and an external USB hard drive for storage. When it’s all said and done, I’ll have a music server that I can stream to my main system, or if I add other SB’s, to other systems in the house. I’m obviously a neophyte at this, so if there’s anyone out there who has built a music sever that can share their own personal experiences that may spare me some pain and suffering (and $), please chime in.

Outboard DAC: I think I mentioned in a previous post that there is a burgeoning market of bang-for-the-buck Chinese audiophile DACs. Wel,l after some lengthy research on the web, I finally decided upon the Musiland MD-10 and subsequently ordered one from Pacific Valve & Electric. It’s only been in my system less than a week, so I’m still evaluating it, but so far I am pretty darned impressed. It’s definitely an improvement over my Cambridge Audio Azur 640C. And with 4 digital inputs (Toslink, USB, RCA and BNC), I can run both the digital out of the Squeezebox and the Cambridge to it, so I can stack two digital sources on the CD input of my 970. One further thing that’s really slick about this DAC is that it has selectable bit depth: 16, 20 and 24 bit. Sixteen bit is great for strident recordings or when you want a more vinyl-like sound; 24 bit really ekes out every bit (pun intended) of detail and renders tremendous pinpoint imaging from good recordings.

I’m not sure the Musiland DAC would be of much interest to many Outlaws, especially those who own the 990 or have a really great CD player. But seeing as how the unit is tied to the Squeezebox in my system, I threw it out there for public consumption. That aside, I definitely think most of you would really, really dig the Squeezebox.

(Cross posted in 970 forum)