Stand alone streaming music player.

June 4, 2008 11:34 AM

Looking for stand alone inexpensive media player for streaming Internet music.

I am looking for a device that will connect to home wi-fi and let me listen to streaming music from web radio stations. The requirements are:

- Budget is $100-$300 depending on features
- ability to pick my own URLs with streaming content, i.e. not tied to a particular aggregation of radio stations like ShoutCast
- support for MP3 and WMA formats
- stand alone, i.e not tied to a running home PC

Nice to have:
- support for web sites with Flash players i.e. Pandora
- ability to sign up and listen to podcasts

The options I am considering in the order of preference:
- used PDA with Windows Mobile
- IPod Touch
- Archos media player

Are there any other devices that will fit the bill here?

Sorry if it was already discussed. Searched the posts, but could not find any similar posts.

posted by olegchet to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Have you thought about a Squeezebox? Not sure if it can handle your flash streams.
posted by Z303 at 12:27 PM on June 4, 2008

(If Pandora is the only Flash stream you care about, you should be fine)
posted by null terminated at 12:35 PM on June 4, 2008

Love my Squeezebox. Recommend it without reservation, however it's right at the top end of your budget. There are less expensive solutions (Roku Soundbridge, is a popular alternative, I think).

Pandora is supported (though I've never used it).

The SB Duet, with its fancy remote, looks even cooler than my plain Jane SB (controlled remotely via a Nokia N800).
posted by notyou at 12:38 PM on June 4, 2008

Oh wait. Standalone?

The Squeezebox needs to be connected to something with speakers (a stereo, a boombox, whatever.)

However, the software that drives the Squeezebox -- Squeezecenter -- should run on those devices you list. It's free.
posted by notyou at 12:56 PM on June 4, 2008

Response by poster: Just wanted to clarify the "stand alone" term. The device would be connected to speakers through a headphone or audio jack, but should not rely on a running PC to stream the music.
posted by olegchet at 1:38 PM on June 4, 2008

I use an AT&T Tilt on my home network to stream music from the internet/Sirius.
posted by andryeevna at 3:05 PM on June 4, 2008

Also suggesting the Squeezebox. It can connect directly to Pandora and internet radio without a computer.
posted by wongcorgi at 3:12 PM on June 4, 2008

The PSP Playstation Portable has several applications for internet music.
Connect wirelessly to your router, stream some music.
posted by PowerCat at 3:57 PM on June 4, 2008

Response by poster: Well, I found the solution, if anybody has similar requirements. Got a used Fujitsu Stylistic tablet from eBay. There are few models available from $140 to $190, but any of them will work. It has Win 2000, I installed winamp, so playing streaming or local music works just fine. Flash players supported. The sound is decent, but I may get an external sound card like Extigy to up the quality. There are reports of successful installation of Ubuntu on this machine, I'll give it a try.
posted by olegchet at 10:16 AM on June 10, 2008