During the summer, I got into gardening. Naturally I wanted to combine this with my growing interest in music and mp3s. Around June bought the creative Sound Blaster Wireless music station to play music outside our house with powered speakers. We have moved it to the front and back of the house as need be. I already have my computer hooked up to my home entertainment centre, so I didn't need the video streaming capabilities. I debated getting an iPod to plug into the speakers as Norm did, or using wireless speakers. But in the end, it was keeping all my music on 1 machine and the remote control that got me..
It was a bit of a hassle as it was only available in USA, so I had to buy it at compUSA (thanks again for the lift Mark!). It is now available in Canada via Future Shop web ordering.
This product is simply awesome. The music is stored on your pc, and then streamed over the wireless network to the music station, and thence into whatever speakers you bought. I had some hassle as I had to update all the firmware ( wireless router, music station, and remote), but soon it was working like a charm.
The best part is the remote. Ya, "control issues" you say.. But it is sooo cool being able to pick from playlists, albums, artists and adjust volume from the remote while chillin' with friends and family outside. The remote has an lcd in it, so you don't have to be looking (squinting) at some other box. It has buttons for going to the library, current playlist, system config, and more. Typically I scroll through the album or artist list, then select an album or 2 to play.
The creative software is pretty good as well. I typically use Media Player for my home system, as it brings in the album info (like the art and reviews), and the creative software did a perfectly fine job of scanning the mp3s and the playlists. You really have to make sure that your MP3s are tagged properly. I haven't yet explored any of the streaming radio/shoutcast kind of capabilities
The squeezebox looks interesting, but I think the remote looks pretty useless. I'd probably want to use a PDA to control the station.
Next up: Checking out MoodLogic's mixmaster...
