Vortexbox

[Steve]

 Having had too much time on my hands lately I've been taking a look at Vortexbox which is a customised version of Fedora 11 In its simplest form it will automatically rip CD's to Flac, AAC, MP3 etc. Tag and also the download the album art work as well.  The default server is Squeezebox for Logitech network players i.e Squeezebox boom but also Twonkymedia can be added which will serve audio and video to such devices as PS3 and Xbox . There is also an iTunes music server component as well.

It can be installed on a relatively old basic spec PC or one of the newer low power ITX intel atom Nettops. The operating system can be modified if you wish by adding GNOME (the desktop gui) or if operating a headless machine add webmin,neither of these additions appear to effect the basic functionality of the Vortexbox auto ripper and music server.

I've tested the addition of the GUI and webmin on a virtualbox (vm) install of Vortexbox on the Mac and it seems to work ok. I may take this further as I miss the automatic DJ (MusicIp and Sugarcube)on the Sheevaplug version which has insufficient processing power to perform those functions.


If you've not got a networked player you can apparently get audiophile quality sound by taking the digital output from the PC sound card  whether by usb or optical out and inputting into an external DAC.

[Steve]

A positive review of the Vortexbox Appliance in this months HiFi choice and a summary of the review here here

I'm still a fan it works very well, just feed it the occasional CD. I've not tested the DLNA server but this can be used on some Samsung TVs and such devices as the Linn DS.

I tend to use flac directly out to a usb DAC for a quality of reproduction that's difficult to surpass in digital music. The MP3 mirrors serve iTunes on the home computers.

As a by product I've learnt a bit of Linux, the software if you want to trial it is available at www.vortexbox.org

[Steve]

Just an update to say that the OS on which Vortexbox runs has been upgraded to Fedora 14.