![]() ![]() It is miles above both the BluOS and Sonos UIs in my opinion. I have high hopes for BluOS but must encourage them to have a look at the iPeng user interface. The current method does what I need and is very usable for my wife and guests. Honestly I don't see the need to add the complexity. I know of Roon and others, but really have no direct experience. I'm not pleased that BluOS doesn't support Pandora, but it does handle SiriusXM. I like the BluOS but it still doesn't reach the level of my old Squeezeboxes and iPeng. Then I found Bluesound and decided to give it a try. ![]() So when it was time to outfit our newly purchased second home I started investigating, even as I was somewhat resigned that I would have to go with a Sonos based system. Pretty much everything else I care about my Squeezeboxes do better. But I can still handle that via the Russound. The only thing my Squeezeboxes can't do that Sonos can is stream SiriusXM (it used to but that support ended when Logitech abandoned the product). I've played with Sonos but never went very far with them since my Squeezeboxes, even in its long since abandoned state today, outperformed Sonos. I can, and am very used to, intermix tracks from Spotify, Tidal, and my local audio library at will within playlists and the live queue. We use XLiveX and Pandora streams as well as Spotify, Tidal, and a relatively large library of local RIP music. We use a third party app called iPeng to control all of the Squeezeboxes. It requires two apps to control, the Russound app to manage the zones, and handle Airplay devices, which we use to stream SiruisXM. I've currently got several Squeezeboxes sending audio throughout our house via a Russound multizone distribution amp. Started with some concoctions of my own making connected to individual amps, to the revolutionary Slim Devices Squeezebox with their open source SlimServer, which became the LMS Logitech Media Server. ![]() Install this, go into plugins > and the settings next to the installed plugin and enter your spotify credentials, then it will work well. I've been streaming music throughout my house for longer than I can remember. Then make sure you tick the 'show all 3rd party plugins' then look for the '3rd Party Spotify Plugin' (at top of list because under 3rd vs 'spotify' alphabetically). Paul, have you considered Roon? Bare with me-my q may be out of scope for this forum. I don’t have it and am no expert on it, but I believe it can integrate with many other systems incl the Squeezebox as a Roon endpoint. I’m intrigued by Roon though-an advanced system that’s gaining ground. But if one believes what’s written about it on community forums like AVSForum there are problems with it. An ambitious product, that includes Dirac room acoustic correction software. Particularly I’m thinking of the NAD C658 BluOS Streaming Pre-amp. The two worlds are converging and that’s a challenge for both. Then there are the consumer-friendly systems that grew from a more traditional audio hardware platform like Bluesound/NAD and Sonos. If one looks at such systems that grew from a computer-based platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux) there are some crazy complex solutions out there like Roon, HQPlayer, REW, et al.
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