The XLi is surprisingly heavy, even with a sizable external power supply, feeling more like an amplifier than a music server. The front panel is plain, with a power button and a hard-drive activity light — and that’s it. Located behind a spring-loaded, drop-down door is an 8X DVD+/– RW drive, two USB connections, a Firewire IEEE1394, and a variety of flash memory slots.
If the flash memory slots didn’t already clue you in, the XLi’s back panel will reveal it is really a purpose-built Windows machine dedicated as a music server. (It runs Windows 7 Premium.) The back has six minijack analog audio outputs that connect to amplifier(s) to feed each wired zone, along with additional USB connections, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, and Firewire. While 1 TB will likely be enough to store most music collections, the Firewire or USB ports can be used if more storage is needed.
You also get a minijack analog audio input that can be used to connect any legacy source. (If the analog input is used, the XLi provides only four streams instead of five.) There are several other connections that go unused or are used only by a dealer during initial setup. These include VGA, DVI, and HDMI outputs; mouse and keyboard ports; a mike input; and some other audio connections. The rear panel does have a Toslink digital connection, but it’s not currently active. CasaTunes stated, “We are hard at work on a big upgrade that will not only allow use of the Optical Digital, but other HD features. Should be by end of year.” Most setup is done using a Web browser. Here you can configure room and source names, adjust audio settings per room, enable AirPlay features, create room groups (more on this in a bit), and enable a variety of music services. CasaTunes supports Grooveshark, last.fm, SHOUTcast, Spotify, and TuneIn. It also supports MP3tunes, which allows the server to upload content to an Internet storage locker where it then becomes available for playback anywhere. Quite cool.
CasaTunes interfaces with BitWise Controls (bitwisecontrol.com) for some advanced automation features. For instance, the XLi can control external sources (like a cable box or satellite tuner) using Bitwise hardware and protocols. Also, the XLi can control various receivers/preamps and audio systems via IP or RS-232, enabling it to turn the device on and flip it to the correct input and then control its volume.
Once the XLi was powered up and connected to my network, it auto-discovered all of my AirPlay-enabled devices (two when connected at my home and three when I moved it to my installation showroom). Oddly, the default setting hides these speakers, so you have to manually make them visible and thus usable. Fortunately, this was as easy as un- clicking a check box in the Web GUI, and they then appeared in my CasaTunes Room and AirPlay lists.
For control, CasaTunes also sent me a couple of its keypads ($199 each). The pads are single-gang with a small LCD display window. Up to six pads connect via Cat-5 wiring to a USB keypad hub ($229) that then connects to any USB port on the XLi. I also installed the free CasaTunes2 app on my iPad (iPhone/ touch and Android versions are also available).
Finally, I connected the XLi’s audio outputs to a Lexicon DD-8 eight-channel power amplifier, which drove speakers in four areas of my home.
I purchased the CasaTunes XLi card and software in 2012 and built a PC specifically for it, and have been using it daily since. There are some real usability issues that Mr Sciacca didn't mention.
If you have a large library, browsing by list is not an efficient way to reach your music, and the CasaTunes (CT) Search function is deeply flawed.
Searching on ‘de la soul’ finds any artist/song/album with the letters 'd-e' OR ‘l-a’ OR ‘s-o-u-l’ in them. Quotation marks, brackets, and boolean operators (AND, NOT, -) have no effect.
Adding tracks on CT requires the user to trigger a full rescan, which slows the software, takes about 45 minutes (for my +/-90k tracks), and requires Windows Media Player or iTunes to be running on the server to provide the database.
Rebooting the hardware also requires a full rescan before any functions are available and you’ll know when it’s done scanning, because even if all rooms were off before the reboot, some may come back on.
The output from the XLi card controls volume in the various zones, which can be a problem with auto sensing amplifiers like the Niles SI-1230, because you’ll need to turn the volume up past 50% just to signal the amp, then down, which might shut off again.
The iOS and Android apps are notably different, which means I can adjust the room volume with the rocker on my Android while my wife needs to swipe the screen on her iPhone. She gets a slide show, but I can set the sleep timer, initial volume, balance, and tone.
Follow up on my comment:
On 3/11/13 CasaTunes updated the core software and addressed the search and library refresh issues, Giving both much faster and more user-friendly functionality.
The other annoyances remain, but there is hope for improvement in the near future.