+1000 for Lyrion. Easily the best experience I've ever had with streaming music
150,000 track collection owner here.
CDs are king, but the cost adds up. A lot of artists I follow are on Bandcamp, which I use to purchase my music. I assume everything I buy there will eventually be removed, so I don't rely on them for archiving it.
But then, there's the piracy route, which I do for a good portion of my library. Rutracker is absolutely fantastic for lossless. Soulseek is solid, but you gotta use it in a smart way for some releases. Some keywords don't turn up any results for some reason. So, to find certain albums/artists, try searching for a particular song, then browse by folder on those results to find full albums, if that makes sense.
Why not use Qobuz or Deezer to rip music? Qobuz-dl and Deemix let you rip FLAC from those services if you have a streaming acct. I use Deemix with my Deezer acct to download a TON of music I cant find anywhere else.
Its a lot of work, I agree. But it's doable. At this point, as services get shittier, pirate. They need to learn that as their services get shittier, people will leave. Give them a financial reason to get better ;)
I honestly just pay for deezer. Any song I want to DL with Deemix for 12$ a month? Absolutely yes. Plus, my wife uses that account to stream on her phone, so it's a win win
Deezer can have better quality than Soulseek, but I've had a lot of success on Soulseek though. If you doubt a DL, you can always spectrum analyze it to check for obvious fake files
These rips, even in FLAC, never contain logs or cues. If you're downloading FLAC for archival purposes, these files are essential. Private trackers and SS are the only way I download music. Scene rips are a waste of my time
Sonos users, come on over to Lyrion. The water's open source, self hosted, and fine 😎
Hope you enjoy the descent into the LMS rabbit hole! Come see us over at the forums if you need any help ;)
LMS would fit the bill perfectly. LMS, or Lyrion Music Server, formerly known as Logitech Media Server, is open source software that's been given to the community by Logitech themselves. It used to be used to stream music from your computer to Squeezebox devices, but now you can stream it to nearly any computer, including...
Raspberry pis! By using piCorePlayer, you can turn your pi into a server for LMS, a player, or both at the same time!
I've been using LMS for years and can't praise it enough. I've got whole house audio. My server runs on a Pi 4 and streams music from my NAS, but you can even stream it from a connected drive, Spotify, Deezer, or Qobuz!
Also, don't fret about LMS's...dated...UI. There's robust themes out there, including the legendary Material Skin https://github.com/CDrummond/lms-material
Since you can use a Pi, you can connect any amp and speakers to it. Hifiberry makes great DACs that you could use for a cleaner sound, but any modern USB DAC would do well IMO.
You can still get Squeezeboxes cheaply on eBay, BTW. The Squeezebox Boom and Radio both are all-in-one WiFi enabled devices that can connect to your LMS server and stream music. Their sound quality is excellent, even for 10+ year old hardware.
If you have any questions, hit me up or check out the forums: https://forums.slimdevices.com/
Deemix has a container that has a WEB UI
This is exciting! Can't wait to kill my install by trying to upgrade!
If Chuck Billy does guest spots in it, it's metal mate
"You know what they should copy? They should copy how to get good games"
-Chad Warden
TELL YOUR WIFE I'M COMING BY-----
I'm a huge fan of LMS (Lyrion Music Server, formerly Logitech Media Server, formerly Slimserver, formerly...)
Fantastic piece of software. The server can run on a first gen Raspberry Pi and handle 100k+ tracks like it's nobody's business
It's fantastic. Can't recommend it enough. The best part for me is that it's on Fdroid
New laptop time. Thinkpad recommendations?
My lappy has bitten the dust, and I'm in the market for a laptop. I'm thinking about going Thinkpad.
I only plan on this being for web browsing, text editing, coding, etc. Any gaming is done on my desktop.
What would be a good Thinkpad model? I do t mind getting an older/refurbished one. Haven't been on the laptop market in nearly 8 years, so I don't know what to look for anymore