I have a system comprising Naim DAC, HiCapDR, Nait XS2, driving Fidelity Acoustic RFM2 speakers. I connect two digital sources to the DAC, a Myriad MCD200 CD player and a Logitech Squeezebox Duet. The Logitech Media Server accesses the iTunes digital music library on my iMac. My digital library is mainly Apple lossless files ripped from CD, and AAC audio files purchased through iTunes. I love the convenient access that the LMS gives me to my iTunes playlists, and rarely use my CD player these days.
When Logitech discontinued support for the Squeezebox platform, I knew that its days were numbered.With the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, iTunes has been discontinued, removing support for XML files needed by the LMS. This finally sounds the death knell for my Squeezebox Duet!
I have delayed upgrading my iMac until I can find an alternative digital music source to feed my DAC. I looked at the Sonos option a couple of years ago, but this also depends on the iTunes XML library and doesn’t currently work under macOS 10.15. I am confused by the plethora of different options: Network Audio Servers, Hard Disk Players, Streamers, Network Music Players. What I would ideally like is a single box that either wirelessly accesses my music library under macOS 10.15, or replicates and stores the music library on its own drive, and delivers high quality digital sound to my Naim DAC (optical Toslink or coaxial) and controlled via a user friendly interface on my iPad or iPhone.
My house is not wired for ethernet, so wireless connectivity would be required between a remote music library and the Duet replacement connected to the DAC. I am hoping that someone can suggest a suitable solution for me.
Hi Mike, the iMac is in the office, the DAC is 30ft away in the living room. Not really practical to try and run a cable or wire between them I’m afraid. Andy.
Why not give Roon a try from your mac, you can still use your duet with Roon as it has squeezebox support. You can then look if your interested into also adding streaming services such as Tidal or Qobuz. You might find it’s interface refreshing. It will import your current.itunes library and playlists to.
You could always buy a NAS to put your music on or just an offboard hard drive and plug that into your Squeezebox and keep your existing setup. Cheapest option but what you won’t get is the really nice ipad browsing experience you get with Roon or a newer streamer like the Naim range.
I use an Allo DigiOne Signature (runnig ‘upmpdcli’ under a minimal Raspbian installation) connected via DC1 to the Naim DAC. It sounds very good to my ears and streaming over the wireless (from an RPi wired to the router and running MinimServer) works flawlessly. Control points are Bubble UPnP (Android), Linn Kazoo (IOS, Android), etc.
I am interested in the Roon option if it keeps my 2 Squeezebox Duets running for a few more years. The user interface looks impressive, as does the functionality. I saw some warnings about incompatibility with macOS 10.15 Catalina advising Mac users not to upgrade yet. Do you know if these issues have been resolved, and have they got a work around that retains Playlists now that xml format is discontinued?
Not yet. Catalina has broke a few things not just in Roon. I doubt they will take long to sort it. Although they are due a full update soon so who knows.
Hi Jonathon, I don’t think there is a way to connect a NAS to my Squeezebox Duet unless they are plugged into an ethernet network. If I ran a network, I am still not clear what format my library and playlists would have to be for compatibility with the old legacy LMS. Have you got a Squeezebox to talk to a NAS?
Thanks Ade for digging this valuable information out of the forums. It is encouraging that there are still some IT geeks around trying to keep legacy systems like the Logitech running. I might not have to invest in Roon or Sonos after all.
I use an Allo DigiOne Signature (mounted on a RPi3) running upmpdcli to feed a Naim DAC via a BNC-BNC Naim DC1 S/PDIF cable . The sound quality is excellent and upmpdcli can integrate Qobuz, Tidal and other internet streaming services if you like that approach.
The RPi3 that hosts the DigiOne Signature is connected wirelessly to my router. I can stream either from a 1TB SSD connected to the RPi that hosts the DigiOne Signature (via MinimServer runnign on that RPi) via USB or from any LAN server.
In the latter case, I typecally shut down the USB bus (and the HDMI output and bluetooth) on the RPi that hosts the DigiOne Signature. This brings the energy consumption of the RPi + DigiOne Signature combination down to less than 300mA .
The biggest reduction in power consumption when powering my Rpi/DigiOne with a battery pack was to turn on wifi and disable the USB bus (which also turns off wired ethernet). I also turn off most running services, bluetooth, and hdmi. It’s an excellent sounding transport via BNC cable to my NDX.
It’s just another way to keep up to date with streaming services or issues the older Naim streamers may have as time goes on. Currently the NDX streaming section still works fine for me, but I also have options with the Rpi.
I have 3 Macs and upgraded one to Catalina.
It is the worst so called upgrade I have ever had from Apple.
It changes things for the sake of it and if there are improvements, they are lost on me.
I have used Apple kit since the 80s and remember the days of resolving application conflicts before OSX, but this so called upgrade takes the biscuit. It is a bit like when they dropped HyperCard.
I have a Duet with LMS. I have never used it with iTunes as such but rather with an iTunes directory on my NAS with all the music saved as ALAC format. You then just set LMS (on the iMac in my case - not the NAS) up to look at the NAS for the Library. There is software you can get that will allow you to transfer music out of the iTunes library and into a normal file structure - as MP3 or ALAC. You do however need an iPod as a middle man.
That for me has worked for many years. I have had some issues with losing the library but eventually a rescan has picked it all up again. UNTIL Catalina !!! Something more fundamental happened when I installed - it showed up as an inability to log in using my Apple ID and Password but I think it was deeper. In fairness to Apple they have - with many hours on the phone - sorted it. However no matter how much rescanning I now do, my music library (as reported by LMS), remains completely empty. LMS still works as I can stream Deezer, Radio Paradise (FLAC - very good), etc. but I think I may have lost the ability to stream my own library permanently. I think the issue is Catalina so I cannot recommend you trying a NAS with a standard file structure as things stand as my experience is that it will not work.
On the subject of new sources I had anyway been looking at a new solution and am thinking of a Roon enabled server into my router - then a wi-fi bridge and separate DAC for the streaming. Looking at Pro-ject as a lowish cost solution for the latter two bits to see how it all hangs together. Roon can emulate LMS so I can also see if the server will talk to the Duet set up. As far as my own ripped music I will see if my current NAS will work if plugged into the server or perhaps put an SSD into the server.
The server bit is till up in the air. The Roon device would see the obvious way to go - however I want something that can run other software (Plex, Asset, etc.) just in case Roon cease to exist in the future. The world of streaming still looks pretty fluid (pardon the pun) so I want to keep my options open going forward.
It’s annoying - I was always very happy with LMS and the Duet. Obviously HiRes is beyond it but that is only of academic interest to me as there is so little product I would actually want to pay for.