Please Help Me Set up a Sonos/iTunes/Vortexbox Rig

[Zonker92]

I'm doing this for my buddy's system, and using email and phone to help him. He has an Apple laptop and desktop computer using iTunes and mainly ALAC (Apple Lossless) music files, plus a bunch more CDs he plans to import.

He just bought a four-port wireless router and the Sonos ZP90 (or whatever it's called now -- Play?) and a Small Green 1Tb Vortexbox ($450). And he has an iPhone. He has most of the ripped music on his work computer, and he needs to bring it home. I've never played with a Vortexbox before so a lot of this is guesswork.

Here is what I sent him, but he hasn't tried it yet:

• Drag and drop the music files you have at your work onto a USB or Firewire portable hard drive.

• At home, use an Ethernet cable to plug your Vortexbox into a port on your router.

• On your home computer, also plugged into the router, look at the “network” window where it shows all the devices on your network. The Vortexbox will probably appear there, sort of like an external hard drive.

• Rip some CDs on the Vortexbox (drop them into the drawer), and the files should appear in a folder on the Vortexbox. Find that folder (if there are separate low-res and high-res folders, pick the high-res ones, which should be FLAC files) and write down or copy or bookmark that location.

• Go into iTunes and in the Preferences > Advanced, set the music library folder location to be the Vortexbox folder above: type or paste the whole address in.

• Check the boxes in that window to “copy files to iTunes media folder” and “keep iTunes media folder organized.” Hit OK and iTunes will spend a long time, maybe an hour, copying and organizing all your existing music files onto the VBox folder, and it will thereafter add all new music to that folder.

• If you want your iTunes playlists imported to Sonos, copy the iTunes library files over to the Vortexbox and tell iTunes to use the Vortexbox files instead of the computer. To do this, locate both the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' and 'iTunes Music Library.itl' files on the Macbook and copy them over to the share on the Vortexbox. Then start iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key. A dialog box should show up, asking you to choose a new library. Browse to the location on the Vortexbox where you copied the files and select. From then on, all changes to playlists will go to the files on the Vortexbox, and will be imported into Sonos upon the next reindex.

• Drag and drop any additional music files, like from the hard drive you brought home, into the “music” bar on iTunes. iTunes will then copy them into the VBox folder and see them there.

• Plug the Sonos into the back of your router with an Ethernet cable and connect its power cable.

• Plug the Sonos RCA cables into your preamp.

• Install the Sonos software on your computer.

• Go on your iPhone’s App store and download the Sonos Controller app, and follow the procedure it walks you through to link it to the Sonos.

• When the app wants to find your music, manually show it where that folder is on the Vortexbox if it doesn’t find it already. (Music > Settings > Manage Music Library > Music Library Setup > Add New Share: Insert complete folder location.)

• Go into the Sonos desktop application and let it find and set up your Sonos. (This step is probably not necessary if you just want to use your iPod app.)

• Select the correct preamp input for the Sonos, and use the iPhone app to select an album to play.

Does this approach make sense? I know he can open up a console and tweak the Vortexbox settings for different ripping options, etc., but I'm just trying to get him started right now. Thanks.

[jgatie]

Two things:

• Finally, go into the Sonos desktop app or the iPhone app and tell it to “update music index,” so it will find all your music files and have them ready. This may take ten minutes or less.

The initial index will take place when you point Sonos at the share. The only time you need to index after that is when you add new music.

Also, if they want their iTunes playlists imported to Sonos, they also have to copy the iTunes library files over to the Vortexbox and tell iTunes to use the Vortexbox files instead of the computer. To do this, locate both the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' and 'iTunes Music Library.itl' files on the Macbook and copy them over to the share on the Vortexbox. Then start iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key. A dialog box should show up, asking you to choose a new library. Browse to the location on the Vortexbox where you copied the files and select. From then on, all changes to playlists will go to the files on the Vortexbox, and will be imported into Sonos upon the next reindex.

[Zonker92]

Thanks so much! So everything else I advised sounds kosher? I'll revise my list above, accordingly.

I doubt he has much in the way of playlists, but I added that to the steps. Thanks again.

[jgatie]

Originally Posted by Zonker92

Thanks so much! So everything else I advised sounds kosher?

I doubt he has much in the way of playlists, but I'll tell him. Thanks again.

I'm not that familiar with Vortexbox, but it looks good as far as Sonos/iTunes/generic NAS go. That's not to say there won't be problems, but it's a great outline, more than most people have when setting up.

[Zonker92]

Cool! I did my NAS more or less that way, but the Vortexbox is new to me. I revised the list. Much appreciated.

[agillis]

That all sound great. A few more things you might add. Sonos requires "top level shares" if you enable "Sonos shares" on the VortexBox it will create a top level share for the flac folder.

Also take a look a MediaRover. It will handle syncing the iTues library and playlists to the VortexBox and keeping them synced. That will cut out quite a few steps.

Also add the Sonosweb package in the VortexBox upgrade manager. That will auto-reindex your Sonos after you rip a CD.

[jgatie]

As of 3.8, Sonos no longer requires top level shares.

[Zonker92]

Very timely replies; I now have my buddy's Vortexbox here to dink around with (then return to him), so I'll try these ideas out. Much appreciated.