Streaming music over wireless to a portable device

cid_2

I've had this godawful Logitech setup for a couple of years: all my music on a Netgear readyNAS Duo (that bit's fine), the hideous Logitech Media Server on my PC and a Logitech Squeezebox Radio (from about 2011) to play the thing while I fiddle about around the flat. It was a nightmare to set up and it's been a disaster ever since and I'm finally done with it.

The NAS connects to the network (I think via the PC rather than wirelessly), and the Squeezebox Radio connects to the same network wirelessly. The problems are all with the software, I think. So I have two questions for anyone who knows about this type of thing...

1. Is it possible to use a NAS/Squeezebox Radio combination to play music using some alternative to Logitech's despicable software? I don't care about upgrades etc (e.g. whatever UE Smart Radio is), I've had enough of Logitech's programmers. As I say, I'm happy to continue using the hardware I have, if I'm able.

2. If no above: can anyone recommend a portable player (standard transistor radio sort of size, that can be carried about, with at least a couple of hours battery life) that will simply connect to the NAS, find the music stored there and allow me to play it? Ideally by being able to use the mp3 ID tags so I can play by artist, and with random function. The whole Squeezebox setup was something like £300 if I remember rightly, and ideally it wouldn't be a lot more than that, but I'm flexible-ish.

It seems like it should be easy thing to be able to do in 2014 but I thought that about the cursed Logitech and it turned out, well, badly. I don't think my poor brain can take being stitched up like that again.

Thanks to anyone who can help a bloke at his wits'.

diable

I use Sonos

cid_2

Sonos won't work for me I've discovered, because of its 65,000 track limit.

hop3y

diable wrote: »

I use Sonos

I use Sonos too...

There's talks on their forum of removing the 65k track limit.

cid_2

From what I was reading at the weekend there's been talk of it for about two years, and they keep releasing new hardware with the same limit to an increasingly annoyed customer base.

rash161

Get a cheap linux box and a hard drive (raspberry pi will probably be enough), use XBMC or Subsonic if you want something that does more than just music, gives you a nice interface etc or just use MPD for something really lightweight. Then use a cheap Android phone or tablet to stream to.

For streaming music I use MPD on Arch Linux and MPDroid as the client on Android, I can either stream the music to the phone or use the phone as a remote control for the laptop.

cid wrote: »

From what I was reading at the weekend there's been talk of it for about two years, and they keep releasing new hardware with the same limit to an increasingly annoyed customer base.

This is why it's bad to buy proprietary stuff, you're constantly at the mercy of a corporation.

I've never seen a proprietary media solution that actually works properly or doesn't have some stupid restrictions.

cid_2

I know what you mean. I've never bought an Apple product in my life, due (if I remember rightly) to them having a different-sized headphone jack from the standard 3.5" on the original ipods. That wound me right up, if I'm remembering it rightly.

I've bought apples, obviously. I like apples.