[gerG]

Wireless networks are the closest thing to malevolent artificial intelligence that I have yet to encounter. Nevertheless, clueless determination prevailed, and my new network is up and running.

It seemed simple, really. A central router, with multiple airport express nodes to feed digital audio streams to different locations around the house/garage. Unfortunately Linksys and Apple do not get along too well in WDS. I could have done the custom firmware trick, but I was tired of losing the bitwrestling match. I switched to a Buffalo router (with external antenna) and had the whole thing running in a couple of hours.

I added a Linksys NSLU2 drive server with one external 300 gig drive (so far). I use Filesync to keep it synchronized with my main computer's music folder (ALAC files).

I can now fire up my laptop, start itunes, point to an AE, and have a digital feed from the network library, without ever turning on the main PC. The wireless path is server through AE to laptop, then back to AE and optical out. FUN! Just to complicate things I have one of the AE feeding toslink to a Yamaha DP-u50 supplying analog to a system, with the Yamaha toslink output going downstairs and through 2 walls to another DP-u50 in my garage. You can daisy-chain the digital signal in these things forever!

Meanwhile my stack of CD players pouts and gathers dust in the storage room. They are no doubt worried about what will be possible 2 years from now.


gerG

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, but how's the sound?

 

[agile_one]

Nice work, gerG. One thing, though. Now I have this very disturbing picture in my mind of you looking very Gene Wilder-like running around the desert screaming the title of this thread ("It's Alive!")

Having fought the wireless war with Linksys myself, I congratulate you on beating the bits and bytes into submission.

 

[gerG]

Gene, you pretty much have the picture right. That is just about how I felt when my creation showed signs of life

Dusty, it sounds perfect, sort of. I believe that I am getting bit perfect troughput (if and only if I use ALAC files). That means that what comes out of the optical port of the AE is the same thing that would come from a CD transport. Limitations at that point are due to whichever dac I connect to (usually a Grace 901). Going by ear it sounds amazing.

I forgot to mention an important trick. In order to get the system to behave the way that I wanted I had to give each AE a separate network name. This is not true WDS, but it is the only way I could keep the laptop from connecting through the main router on occasion. When that happens, my digital path would go router > laptop > router > AE > toslink. Problem was that these are usually long jumps, and the laptop output is relatively weak. That made it very prone to dropouts. By setting the AE as individual routers, but still operating in WDS, I can force the stream to go router>AE>laptop>AE>toslink. This works great because the main router has a very strong signal, while the AE and laptop are usually within 3 feet of each other. Strong signals in all paths.

My other option would be to add a second wireless card to the laptop and go router>laptop>AE. I may have to try it just to see what can go wrong

gerG

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Dusty, it sounds perfect, sort of.

Nice! [size=xx-small]And no, I did not stop reading there.[/size] Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG My other option would be to add a second wireless card to the laptop and go router>laptop>AE. I may have to try it just to see what can go wrong

I always enjoy your stories. Because they always have a twist. You think you know how it ends, and then WHAMMO!...right out from left field.

 

[D-EJ915]

Haha, I guess I'm kinda in the same boat as you. Even though it sounds like crap I use the outputs from my computers. I think that has to do with my stereo being downstairs and all...and me not having a "dedicated" cd player. Although I do have my MD deck...hmm...I just haven't recorded stuff.

 

[Svperstar]

I wonder what the RIAA will think when in 20 years you can have a disk that contains a bit perfect copy of every song ever released on it.

By then hard drives will probably be illegal.

 

[Sinbios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Wireless networks are the closest thing to malevolent artificial intelligence that I have yet to encounter.

...and then you try to do it in Linux...

 

[Edwood]

I have my music collection on my server in the closet. That way I can access my music from any computer.

A bit more convenient than long coax runs to your ole Grace 901, eh?

-Ed

 

[gerG]

Hi Edwood. Sounds like you have your setup nicely under control. I was going to build a server PC, but I stumbled across the network appliance. It has been working great so far. It does format the drive in it's own language (even though it shows up as NTFS) so I had to start with a clean drive and re-load all of the music. It took a while, since the copy speed was only about 30Mbps. The device runs at 100, but there must be another bottleneck. The mac sees it as well.

lol, yes it is nice to put away the 50 ft AES cable. I still use long AES cables between the digital processor and the Grace. The problem now is that I keep running out of toslink cables. I haven't figured out how to solder optical fibers yet.

btw, MCM has some 13 ft plastic toslinks on sale right now for $7. They have metal end shells that say Belkin (Gateway brand). They seem to work great. MCM also has a nifty optical switcher that goes on sale for $40 periodically.

Sinbios, good luck with the Linux quest. I only recently tried that language, and found that I could get by on pidgin-unix. Cool, but I am not brave enough to try anything elaborate yet.

Svperstar, rest assured that they are pondering imbedded copy protection, or worse. It would be easy to ... uh, nevermind. I am not going to load the gun for them.

D-EJ915, I don't think that I have used a "CD player" for better than a year now. The PC route is just too damned convenient. Plus I don't have CDs to pick up all over the place anymore! I am holding out hope for a wireless enabled portable amp. I am betting that a wireless ipod will show up first, though.

Thanks Dusty, I am glad that my stories provide some amusement. I always intend them that way, but the subtleties get lost on the internet. I haven't tried the dual card trick yet (lame pun, sorry). It would also be cool to run a PC based crossover and stream to multiple AE for the purpose of biamping with no signal cables and minimal speaker cables. Way beyond my skills right now, but I am inpatient for a wireless world!


gerG

 

[Sinbios]

Oh, I managed it, but it was very, very painful. 2.6 improved, though, and it does automatic detection fine.