Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge - Initial Impressions

[elrod-tom]

Well, this arrived in the mail the other day, and I'm thus far pretty pleased.

I've been using it mostly from my laptop, with Yahoo! Music Engine. The sound quality is somewhat variable from Yahoo! Music, so it depends on how well they ripped their source files as to whether it really sounds good.

I've also listened to some CD's, and it REALLY sounds great. I'm thinking that it would work very well with lossless files, or higher bit-rate (e.g. 320k) files.

BTW - I'm using it via coax to my main DAC - MSB Gold Link III. Upsampled to 24/192...and even the lossy files from Yahoo! Music sound pretty damn good through that. There's a very big difference when listening to a CD, however.

More impressions later, but this seems like a less costly player in the wireless arena.

 

[Jahn]

now that i'm finally squaring away my computer rig, i might be in the hunt for one of these to replace my modded 0404. jury's still out tho, i want to wait for my external DAC to come back before i jump to a new source to output a digital signal.

 

[lan]

Wow somebody else bought one

I've had thing thing for a while. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ghlight=wmb54g I really like it. It has unusually good sound for something so cheap. Very unexpected.

Mine is modded now and runs off battery power. I prefer it over any internal computer soundcard.

 

[mjb]

It sounds like it "grabs" any windows application's sound and sends it off over wireless. Is it doing this prior to the kmixer? I guess what I'm asking is, do you guys know if it's bit-perfect 44.1/16? I'm considering replacing the apx with this thing since it'll do coax out to my dac and I can go back to using foobar w/flac (don't care much for itunes/alac).

edit: suppose I should have read that link before asking my question

Thanks,
mjb

 

[Icehawk]

Cool, this was pretty much all I was looking for (although a remote/lcd would be sweet) and I like the pricing vs the competitors, plus it uses G mode so it shouldn't hiccup. Got mine on order! Cheap too, $80 to my door.

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icehawk Cool, this was pretty much all I was looking for (although a remote/lcd would be sweet) and I like the pricing vs the competitors, plus it uses G mode so it shouldn't hiccup. Got mine on order! Cheap too, $80 to my door.

Mine occasionally hiccups...but that's probably because I'm sending wirelessly from my laptop, back to my B-router, and back again to the music bridge. It could also be Yahoo! Music...I've had issues with their latest version of Music Engine. When I used it with a CD and Windows Media Player 10, it was flawless.

 

[lan]

Have you increased your buffer to "for music"? That may alleviate some skipping from network interruptions.

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Have you increased your buffer to "for music"? That may alleviate some skipping from network interruptions.

I'm pretty sure that I have....I'll double check.

 

[elrod-tom]

I checked, and yes, it is set correctly.

I find that it runs just fine if I use Yahoo! Music in the download mode (i.e. don't log in). I'm not sure if this is an issue with Yahoo!'s Music Engine or my wireless network (we have a g-Router, and I'm sure my laptop's wireless connection isn't g-compatable). It also works fine playing CD's over Media Player 10, so I'm thinking the problem is mostly with Music Engine.

It sounds pretty good via toslink into my MSB DAC. Has anyone tried it with the audio out yet??

 

[den]

First Post: Have you tried winamp?

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by den First Post: Have you tried winamp?

I have, of course, tried WinAmp...I'm thinking you mean with the Music Bridge. I'm using Yahoo! Music Engine because it allows me to play my Yahoo! Music subscription files. I've not tried WinAmp with the bridge yet, but I'll make a point to do so soon.

 

[Icehawk]

That's all I'm interested in really since I don't use any music services/providers. All my (digital) music is local mp3. Mine is enroute, I'll be sure to post some comments once I get it.

 

[Icehawk]

Got my WBM54G today. Nice packaging, accessories, etc - device looks decent if you are into Linksys design (ho hum) and is fairly small. The manual and online info is beyond scant, it's embarrasing IMO.

Took me a little while to figure how to get it to work, mind you I have 6yrs exp as a Sys Admin so I like to think I know what I'm doing. At first I thought it might be an encryption issue but then I just took my time cutting out one possible problem at a time.

The problem it turns out it that very few of the sounds of my main rig, where I thought I'd run the app, come out of the device. I had about given up when I started a game up and it worked. Still no good though if it won't play what I want.

Anyhoo, I realized that I'd probably want to play music/games on my main PC on occasion when I want music off the stereo in the other room (where the WBM is) so I installed it on my second PC that does all my grunt work. Downloaded and installed WinAmp and now it is working great.

I briefly tried the lineout with some IEMs while troubleshooting and there was some hiss when volume in the WBM control panel was set to >60%. I've got the volume at 100% and RCAs to my stereo, which is pretty much a hunk so it'll have to wait until I get my new setup to really get an honest workout (and try the optical) but so far it sounds as good as straight off the PC, no hitches, and no hiss.

 

[slwiser]

Ian

Which buffer in particular are you talking about? The music server or the internal windows drivers. Does the music server use the normal drivers like kernel streaming, directsound?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Have you increased your buffer to "for music"? That may alleviate some skipping from network interruptions.

 

[Icehawk]

If you right click the icon in the windows tray it has a "buffer" option with a three choice subselection.