by Peter Daley,
The playback of music in the home is being revolutionized. Forget about using disk based media CDs or LPs for music playback, network music players are the future. These devices let you listen to streamed music from the Internet, or to play back copies of your music CDs or LPs, stored on your personal computer, into your HiFi system. There devices plug into your broadband Internet connection and will stream the music of your taste directly from the Internet, into your home and business.
If you use a network music player for Internet streaming music playback, you don't need to have a computer turned on. These devices will stream the music straight from your Internet connected broadband modem into your home or business sound system. The music will stream down the Internet at about 40 to 60 meg per hour on fast broadband connections, so you need a good download limit on your Internet service.
There are lots of companies starting to produce network music players, http://www.logitech.com, http://www.netgear.com or http://www.linksys.com, are a few. The Logitech transporter seems to have very good reviews at present. Logitech make two models of network music players, Sqeezebox and Transporter, and they work on all operating systems, Linux, Windows & Apple Mac!
The squeeze box sells for US$249, while the Transporter, is the Audiophile version, and is a no holds barred assault on producing the best sound possible, it costs US$1999.
Other companies have network music players models under US$100. As with all technology, they will become more feature rich and powerful, and prices will drop with more competition as manufactures vie for market share.
Plug a network music players into your broadband Internet connection, and directly connect it to your computer speakers or home stereo. Being able to play back the music through a good home stereo system makes a tremendous difference to the musical enjoyment.
You can also program the network music players to stream music directly from your favourite Internet radio station, or sites like,
or
If you join Pandora or Rhapsody you can customize your network music playback so it will stream your style, and taste in music through your home or business stereo system.
No more waiting for the song you like to play on the radio. Not only that, they can send it wirelessly, into different rooms! With these network music players, you can also copy your CD or LP music collection onto your personal computer, and send them directly through your network music player, into you stereo system.
No more changing CDs!
Plus there is now technology that can be used to create better sounding music from your original CDs, or SACDs. Yes you heard me correctly. Incorporate this with a network music player and you will get unprecedented sound quality!
© Peter Daley 2010
Disclaimer: This is an amateur volunteer run service. Human error can provide incorrect information, and equipment malfunction can produce false readings. Do not rely on, or take action upon information presented on this web site or at SCCC activities, without further research. Views expressed in the pages, images, or tutorials on the SCCC Inc., web site or presented at venues, maybe the personal opinions of the relevant writers or presenters, and are not necessarily representative of those of SCCC Inc.
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