Wireless Audio

[turbokitty]

I'd like to take my existing audio system and allow it to accept a wireless feed from my PC.
I'd also like to get some wireless adapters for my rear surround speakers.
This might be two different products..

I'm willing to replace my system completely if I can make it entirely wireless, with low latency and additional wireless inputs from mulitple PC's.

Possible?

[Dusty Chalk]

To the first one: sure -- Soundlink, Squeezebox by Slim Devices, and there's another one -- starts with an 'R'?

I'm not sure what you mean for your rear surround speakers. What is it you're trying to accomplish there? O'Heocha has wireless speakers that include a rechargeable amp -- is that what you mean?

[Hyfi]

I'd like to take my existing audio system and allow it to accept a wireless feed from my PC.
I'd also like to get some wireless adapters for my rear surround speakers.
This might be two different products..

I'm willing to replace my system completely if I can make it entirely wireless, with low latency and additional wireless inputs from mulitple PC's.

Possible?

Maybe not the way you want to go, but I installed a PC behind my system and used the audio out from the sound card to Pre-Amp using a mini-to-RCAs adaptor. I am using a wireless connection to my office upstairs. I can listen to Internet radio/video, play anything that resides on my other three PCs as well as the 150 gigs of MP3s on the hard drive. Instead of buying a new Audio system, you can just insert an inexpensive PC to do that part.

Radio Shack as well as others should have something for the wireles speaker setup.

Lots of luck,

Brian

[dmb_fan]

You want the squeezebox. This will give you better audio out than the average PC soundcard and it can be controlled by a remote. I've had one for over a year and I love it. 1,000 CD's ripped to Apple Lossless and collecting dust in our storage unit. I never listen to anything but the squeezebox anymore.

I brought home the Roku unit but had trouble with it. It can't play Apple Lossless files and has some usability issues that made the Squeezebox the obvious choice.

Best,
Adam

[Dusty Chalk]

Roku! That's the 'R' one I was trying to remember.

[audio_dude]

ooo, the Roku Soundbridge, i've read many rave reviews about it, i think its a little better than the squeezebox...

[Slosh]

I brought home the Roku unit but had trouble with it. It can't play Apple Lossless files and has some usability issues that made the Squeezebox the obvious choice.

It can play Apple Lossless but you need to use Firefly or Slimserver (both free). You'll also get FLAC and Ogg with those servers. It can use iTunes as a server and play every format except ALAC because Apple won't license ALAC for non-Apple products (Firefly and Slimserver convert ALAC to WAV before going out to the ethernet/wi-fi).

Since all of my music is WMA Lossless (or FLAC converted to WMAL) I just use Windows Media Connect 2, which was already on my computer. Nice thing about the Rokus is you can use several different servers, even at once. With the Squeezebox you're tied to Slimserver, which many people don't like (but I've never used so can't say anything about it one way or the other). I have an M500 and an M1001 and never had any trouble streaming Lossless over 802.11B.

The Squeezebox uses 802.11G and has native FLAC decoding, and has true 44.1 and 48kHz pass-through, but then again costs at least $100 more than the Roku with the wi-fi card. It is also supposed to have a better DAC but I use the digital outputs so that didn't matter to me.

[bubbagump]

What's your budget? What equipment do you already have? A few thoughts: There are many wireless solutions to move music/data wirelessly. It's a fast growing market segment with new products showing up almost daily. My only problem with many of them is that a host pc or mac is needed which means additional power consumption and reliability/transparency issues. At the high end of this market segment and also able to operate independently due to internal hdd storage is the Olive line of products: http://www.olive.us/p_bin/ The reviews have been excellent but this is clearly a line of products aimed at people willing to pay a premium for a pre-engineered solution in beautiful packaging. The same results can be had by carefully building your own. At lower cost and with a dedicated and tech savvy user community is the Squeezebox. It will need a host pc/mac and doesn't have internal storage. Compared to Olive product, it's a little spare but is well supported and easy to use. If you go this route, you might consider using a dedicated low power host pc such as a Mac Mini, Shuttle X100 or Asus P3 series. I use a G4 based Mac Mini which has been incredibly stable, is virtually silent and consumes barely 20 watts at idle. DIY solutions abound but put together a system with an emphasis on silent and low power consumption. The sound card of choice right now is the CreativeX-fi. If you don't have a wireless router, you might consider using a power line networking solution. I wouldn't have recommended one of these until recently but it looks like Netgear finally came up with one that actually works well – HDX-B101. Maximum PC reviewed it in the most recent issue and gave it a 9/10 rating. It's even robust enough to stream HD video. I'm barely scratching the surface but if cost isn't a problem, I'd go with an Olive product. Mostly because it can be used without a host pc. While not future proof (what is?), it should give you years of high quality service. Lastly, skip the wireless speakers. It's not difficult to run wires. Doing so will provide better sound quality.