Audio streaming to my hifi

[kirsn]

Hello all,
I currently have a hifi setup consisting of Mordaunt Short's Avant 906i floorstanding speakers, and CA Azur 640A amplifier. Currently using a regular DVD/CD player to play my CDs.

I listen to a lot of music online - and mostly 128kbps streams. I want to play these audio streams on my Hifi system.

I understand that at a minimum I need a DAC to interface with my music system. Thinking of checking out the CA dacMagic product.

More importantly, these are the options am exploring:
- Best option: I require a mechanism by which I can stream the music directly to the DAC, via some other device, other than my laptop. This device should connect to the audio stream wirelessly. Basically yet another internet device connected to my wireless router.
- Ok option: I connect my laptop to my wireless router, as always. I then route the speaker outputs to an attached device (USB?), which wirelessly transmits the signals to a receiver device that then interfaces to the DAC.

Any suggestions on the options available in this space? Or is this a DIY project that I need to embark on?
Thank you,
Kiran

 

[ashishkesarwani]

All your needs could be solved with Apple Airport express which can stream music files wirelessly between your PC and your setup. Google it and read its specifications and it also has output for Mini Toshilink to connect directly through your Hifi or your external DAC

 

[teky]

Ashish,

I suppose you could help me with this - Apple's website states about Internet Sharing & File sharing etc. Have you tested or used these functionality?

 

[kirsn]

ashishkesarwani,
That is a useful tip. Thanks. Will go check out the airport express device at the apple store. So this will address the "ok option" that I listed in my initial email.
Guess the "best option" I spoke about requires something like Apple TV (primarily because I would need a display of sorts to skim through the music options)?
Kiran

 

[teky]

^^
Not the exact option you're looking for but you could pretty much control the music on iTunes from your PC or even from an Ipod Touch or an Iphone.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Ashish,

I suppose you could help me with this - Apple's website states about Internet Sharing & File sharing etc. Have you tested or used these functionality?

Yes I am using it at present and its a solution to all my problems. I am using it as a wireless bridge which is connected vide the 5GHz Wireless band of my Linksys router and I have connected it through a 8 port switch in my entertainment rack through which I have connected every ethernet device. I am also running a Optical cable from the Airport Express to my DAC which is connected with my Hifi through analogue ICs. Airport Express also has a USB port in it to connect a printer through it.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Guess the "best option" I spoke about requires something like Apple TV (primarily because I would need a display of sorts to skim through the music options)?

When I was researching on this then at that time I also thought of Apple TV which was costing 11K for 60GB model, but that also required an Itunes to be running on a computer and airport express also needs it. Since I already have an Iphone so all I needed was to install free Remote software onto it and now I don't need a display anymore to play and browse all my music through my Itunes library which is stored onto my NAS.

 

[teky]

Thanks Ashish for a quick response. I'm borrowing one of my friends and testing it tommorow will post my opinions here.

Currently my home has got Tata Indicom Broadband and they supply only a Modem which is hardwired to my computer, Do you know if Airport Express can dial a connection on your behalf. The modem supplied with TI needs a person to manually run the dialer from a PC.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Currently my home has got Tata Indicom Broadband and they supply only a Modem which is hardwired to my computer, Do you know if Airport Express can dial a connection on your behalf. The modem supplied with TI needs a person to manually run the dialer from a PC.

No it doesn't have the capability of dialing but if you setup the dialer in your computer as such that whenever any device on your network needs an Internet connection then your computer starts your dialup connection automatically. I know this because I use to do the same in my Network with the Airtel USB modem connected through my Server at my Office.

 

[NetFreak]

You can achieve that at just 10k with one of the Network Media players (Like WD TV Live, Xtreamer etc).

These players have WiFi and lan connectivity so these can play music stored on PC or you can directly plug hard disk to the player via USB.

Player has HDMI / AV output for TV.

You can sort / create playlist on TV with remote that comes with media player.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

You can achieve that at just 10k with one of the Network Media players (Like WD TV Live, Xtreamer etc).

These players have WiFi and lan connectivity so these can play music stored on PC or you can directly plug hard disk to the player via USB.

Player has HDMI / AV output for TV.

You can sort / create playlist on TV with remote that comes with media player.

What if somebody has all his music stored in Apple lossless format for the sheer convienience and none of these media players supports that format. There is also one major drawback to all these media players route and i.e that you have to keep your display running all the time to browse through your music and all these media players also have pathetic DAC in them which sound like crap when conneted to a good hifi system.

 

[NetFreak]

If you have most of Media in FLAC and want High Fidelity,

1. Use Iomega Screeplay Director. It supports FLAC
2. Don't use DAC in the player. Pass audio in digital format to Hifi (via Digital audio out)

List of supported formats : https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_eu_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=22152

 

[teky]

No it doesn't have the capability of dialing but if you setup the dialer in your computer as such that whenever any device on your network needs an Internet connection then your computer starts your dialup connection automatically. I know this because I use to do the same in my Network with the Airtel USB modem connected through my Server at my Office.

So in my case where I've a desktop connected to the Wired Modem, How do we connect the Airport Express - Probably I can create a Wireless N/W but I can't think of an Option of connecting a machine wirelessly to that which connects to the Internet.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

You need to have a wifi network at your place to take full use of the network capabity of the airport express, or in your case you can use a wifi card in your pc and create an ad-hoc network between your pc and airport express and then connect it to whatever thing you want to connect wirelessly and then share your internet connection with the other device. Another option is to run a proxy server on your main machine which connects to the internet and then share the same through wifi to your other device.

 

[teky]

You need to have a wifi network at your place to take full use of the network capabity of the airport express, or in your case you can use a wifi card in your pc and create an ad-hoc network between your pc and airport express and then connect it to whatever thing you want to connect wirelessly and then share your internet connection with the other device. Another option is to run a proxy server on your main machine which connects to the internet and then share the same through wifi to your other device.

Cheers Ashish - I think I'll change the Service Provider like Airtel which Auto-Dial from modem. . I wanted actually Airport Express to be my Wireless Router instead of appending it to the existing Wi-Fi set-up

 

[GeorgeO]

The Squeezebox meets all these needs. Check it out.

George