[IronLion]

I don't know how many of you read 6moons here, but they had a review posted yesterday of an interesting new wireless music product: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/sonneteer/bard.html. I like the idea behind this, but for me it isn't the right solution to my needs; I want something that will transmit my digital music as reliably as the above product does, and has a receiver that then takes that wireless signal and outputs it through a digital coaxial cable so that I can connect it to my Bel Canto DAC2 using my Stereovox HDXV. The Bard product seems great, I just wish that you didn't have to rely upon its built in DAC for digital-analogue conversion. I know the the Airport Express can do wireless through an optical out, but I'm not sure how reliable that wireless system is (like the product above, I'd rather have the product use a dedicated bandwith like 2.4 gigahertz rather than 802.11g, and wireless networking does not interest me) and frankly, I am pretty averse to Apple products. Are there any products that would fill this gap that I'm looking for? Basically I want to be able to have my laptop far away from my DAC, which will in the future be hooked up to my integrated amp and speakers, but stlil stream lossless music and have it played back as if I were connected to the DAC directly.

 

[BillC]

The SqueezeBox from SlimDevices:

www.slimdevices.com

Does much of what you ask, but it is an 802.11g or wired ethernet connection rather than seperate dedicated wireless connection. It offers bit perfect S/PDIF through either optical or Coax and supports FLAC.

 

[iamdone]

Airport Express works flawlessly. Never had a problem.

 

[Oski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronLion I know the the Airport Express can do wireless through an optical out, but I'm not sure how reliable that wireless system is (like the product above, I'd rather have the product use a dedicated bandwith like 2.4 gigahertz rather than 802.11g, and wireless networking does not interest me) and frankly, I am pretty averse to Apple products. Are there any products that would fill this gap that I'm looking for? Basically I want to be able to have my laptop far away from my DAC, which will in the future be hooked up to my integrated amp and speakers, but stlil stream lossless music and have it played back as if I were connected to the DAC directly.

Hey IronLion. I think you might also be thinking about my setup from the NY meet where the APX kept dropping out. This problem plagued my setup until two days ago. I finally decided that the problem was likely with my laptop and scouring the Vaio support site, they had just put up a driver update for my wireless card two weeks ago. Apparently the buit-in Intel card had problems maintaining a lock on a signal, which wasn't a problem web surfing as it doesn't need to be continuous, but was extremely aggravating for music streaming. Now I'm happy to report that it's working the way it should and I can be all over my apartment (even from the bedroom to the APX in the living room) and get uninterrupted streaming.

The only nit is that since the unit buffers a bit, there is a slight lag between selecting a song or skipping forward to a song and when the music would start playing again. But on the plus side, there is gapless playback on the APX. Now that this connection issue has been solved (again, it was on the end of the laptop) I think this is a great and inexpensive solution to do what you want to do as well.

 

[Teerawit]

Hey Oski, do you have your APX plugged directly into the wall, or do you have some sort of extension cord so you can have the APX right next to your computer on the desk?

 

[JiiEf]

Yeah, the APX is rock-solid when compared to other wlan access points I've had the pleasure of using. I think I've had 2 dropouts in the six months I've had it, and I have a connection running practically 24h. Apple also does a fairly good job with updates, like the WPA2 patch. Neat. I'm pretty sure I'll stick to them for all my wireless needs. The squeezebox might be better for pure music use, though...

/JF

P.S. Had to order the Griffin Airbase for extra Source Credibility(tm) (Or lack of it?

)

EDIT:

Teerawit:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/xpressstand/

You might want to check that out. Useless, but fun. Had to order it the second I saw one in the meet impressions section.

 

[IronLion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamdone Airport Express works flawlessly. Never had a problem.

If you use an Airport Express, do you have to play your music through iTunes? I would rather stick to Foobar. Anybody have any experience or read anything about the Squeezebox?

 

[IronLion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oski Hey IronLion. I think you might also be thinking about my setup from the NY meet where the APX kept dropping out. This problem plagued my setup until two days ago.

Hey Oski, I wasn't really thinking of your setup from the NY meet although I do remember it having problems. The main thing for me is I would rather not use Apple products and iTunes, and I want to use a coaxial digital out to my DAC and not an optical. I thought the unit I posted about (the Bard?) was interesting in that it uses the 2.4 gigahertz frequency to transmit data.

 

[Oski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teerawit Hey Oski, do you have your APX plugged directly into the wall, or do you have some sort of extension cord so you can have the APX right next to your computer on the desk?

Yup, it was a picture of my setup that JiiEf saw from the NY Meet. With the Griffin AirBase, the APX sits right next to my DAC on my table. It's not just convenient, but looks cool too.

 

[IronLion]

A question- if I were to go for the Squeezebox solution and hook it up wirelessly, would I be limited in terms of transmission/reception speed by the bandwidth that I'm getting from my DSL provider (that would be Verizon DSL.)? My bandwidth seems to be on the slow side and varies from time to time and I wouldn't want that to affect my music.

 

[machead]

Provided you have a firewall router to separate the DSL WAN from your LAN (be it wired or wireless), the speed of your DSL connection would have no effect on the speed of your local network.

If you don't have a router, then you should definitely get one.

 

[IronLion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by machead Provided you have a firewall router to separate the DSL WAN from your LAN (be it wired or wireless), the speed of your DSL connection would have no effect on the speed of your local network. If you don't have a router, then you should definitely get one.

I do have a router. I think I already know why, but if you don't mind could you explain why the LAN speed is not affected by the speed of my DSL connection? As far as I understand it a local 802.11g network for a home creates its own wireless network that can then be linked to the internet; the speed of this local wireless network runs at best 54mb/s and is not limited by the DSL connection, (it could, in fact run independent of the DSL connection transmitting data locally) unless for some reason it drops below a speed of 54mb/s. Is this correct?

 

[rimmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronLion I do have a router. I think I already know why, but if you don't mind could you explain why the LAN speed is not affected by the speed of my DSL connection? As far as I understand it a local 802.11g network for a home creates its own wireless network that can then be linked to the internet; the speed of this local wireless network runs at best 54mb/s and is not limited by the DSL connection, (it could, in fact run independent of the DSL connection transmitting data locally) unless for some reason it drops below a speed of 54mb/s. Is this correct?

Exactly. DSL connection has little to do with your own network.

 

[mkozlows]

I second the recommendation for the Squeezebox, which is basically ideally suited for this application. It plays FLAC natively, and can transcode WMA Lossless and Apple Lossless to FLAC on the fly. I've written more elsewhere:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403013 (A review of the Squeezebox 1, somewhat dated, but the basic information is still accurate and useful)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=555364 (A review of the Squeezebox 2)

 

[jefemeister]

I also agree with Squeezebox. I have 2 of them and have never had a reliability problem. I love the concept and it has transformed the way I listen to music.