Reply to: Moon on a Stick music player

[vetran]

I have squeezeplayer to amp.

and looking at this

hab-tunes.com - Home

[amanwhoisquiet]

I have Linux scripts in place to do all the organizational stuff required for that. A central archive in lossless FLAC, and the above copies of it in 256 Mb/s VBR MP3.

that's some bitrate....

[pjclarke]

So for now I am using Microsoft Groove, mainly because I like the OneDrive integration. Not the most fully featured player in the world but it does most things reasonably well, (and one thing very, very badly).

Music Player - Groove
CD Rip - WMP or Exact Audio Copy
Tag/Organise - mp3Tag

I am trialling CloudPlayer on my phone.

Two issues with Groove: it fails to find the artist/album tags a lot of the time, and dumps maybe half my ripped (FLAC) tracks into Unknown Album/Unknown Artist (with length 00:00). This wouldn't be so much of a problem if you could tell Groove the correct artist and album. But you can't! There is no facility to edit metadata within the app. Once it's Unknowned, that seems to be it, which is a pain in the proverbial seeing as how the files themselves are meticulously (some might say OCD) tagged and organised. The 'legacy' Windows Media Player respects the tags, and to really frustrate me, Groove on my laptop recognises more tracks than the exact same app on my desktop.

Ho hum.

[pjclarke]

Even better than Bluetooth pairing, in our opinion, is the inclusion of a standard 3.5mm stereo jack on the back of the Echo Dot.

You might not have a premium Bluetooth speaker laying around, but there’s a good chance you’ve got a stereo system of some sort. Now, using the included stereo cable, you can plug your Echo Dot right into any speaker or home stereo system.

How-To Geek

https://www.howtogeek.com/248590/wha...-and-echo-dot/

BTW, discovered that the android app for Groove Music enables downloading to device for offline listening ....

[unixman]

Hmm. Says it is for connecting straight to external speaker, so it is the echo amp output/speaker out rather than signal out (AUX), and it won't be suitable for connecting to your own amp. Still, interesting info.

[WTFH]

Eh? Just checked again, and my Alexa (Amazon Echo) does not have a socket. Just a power input jack.

Echo Dot, Echo Plus and Echo (2nd Generation) all have a 3.5mm socket.

[unixman]

Well, the Alexa devices all have a 3.5mm aux socket, which you can (and I do) use to connect to your audio setup.

Not audiophile quality but ok for blasting out your party playlists

Eh? Just checked again, and my Alexa (Amazon Echo) does not have a socket. Just a power input jack.

[BR14]

Thanks, Picard seems exactly what I need, once you get used to the UI.

The fun comes when you start to adjust the settings. Go into options, then Fingerprinting and make sure you have download fpcalc as the fingerprint calculator. Also change the file naming so it saves the files by artist/album

Looks cool, - i think i'll investigate that too

[WTFH]

Thanks, Picard seems exactly what I need, once you get used to the UI.

The fun comes when you start to adjust the settings. Go into options, then Fingerprinting and make sure you have download fpcalc as the fingerprint calculator. Also change the file naming so it saves the files by artist/album

[pjclarke]

For tagging and organising, I use MusicBrainz Picard (available for Mac and Windows).

I used to use MediaMonkey on PC, and am thinking of trying XLD ( X Lossless Decoder: Lossless audio decoder for Mac OS X )

Thanks, Picard seems exactly what I need, once you get used to the UI.

[pjclarke]

Well, the Alexa devices all have a 3.5mm aux socket, which you can (and I do) use to connect to your audio setup.

Not audiophile quality but ok for blasting out your party playlists

[unixman]

Alexa would be nice if it:

- could play tunes from a USB stick

- could connect your amplifier.

But it can't.

[SimonMac]

Moon on a Stick music player

iTunes does maybe 90%, no FLAC support, no android app (AFAIK).

This is the frustrating thing, needing a portfolio of different apps....

You never specified Android

And there are quite a few apps out there which will let you sync iTunes to Android, I think I used iSyncr last time I went none fruit based

[pjclarke]

iTunes does everything you ask....

iTunes does maybe 90%, no FLAC support, no android app (AFAIK).

This is the frustrating thing, needing a portfolio of different apps....

[unixman]

My general strategy is to have copy of my whole collection in several places (car, 2 music players, main hifi, PC and others).

I have Linux scripts in place to do all the organizational stuff required for that. A central archive in lossless FLAC, and the above copies of it in 256 Mb/s VBR MP3.

I use Linux tools for ripping and tagging.

Spotify et al don't appeal, as I still have the "ownership/collection" view of music, and I hate regular payments.

My ideal player would be just a large, mains powered MP3 player, with a large screen. Something like the Brenan but bigger, nicer, and with no CD ripping stuff. Just a thing that plays digital music. They aren't made though. For some reason, the industry doesn't want you to have a full sized MP3/FLAC/whatever player.