HiFi over WiFi

[wakibaki]

OK, well you say you like to keep your digital sources far from your amplifier.

I don't know if this is a purely room decoration issue or if you feel that there is some technical reason to do this.

I feel that a straightforward approach to this might be to run a no-KVM PC with WiFi near the amplifier. You can get very small ones. This could have a hard disk to store all your music uncompressed, provide connectivity from S/PDIF thu USB to Firewire and be connected to the DAC of your choice. It can even have a CD drive for direct play as well as updating your collection.

Then you could open a remote desktop on your laptop or other computer to run the player.

I have a PC or laptop in front of me mostly while at home so this kind of solution is direct and obvious for me, but this may not suit you, or perhaps you are not reconciled to using a computer as a source?

Of course there are several proprietary systems some of which, such as the Squeezebox, have already been mentioned.

w

[Sandor]

Hello wakibaki,
thank you for your contribute.
My digital source is a Dlink DSM-320 media server, which I use for both audio and video and that requires a tv or a monitor to operate. Now in my living room the TV set is far from the hifi set. Using cables across the room is not advisable because of excessive length (about 25 feet), not to mention a less-than-zero WAF (wife acceptance factor). That's why I am searching for a wireless solution.

Substituting (for audio only) the DSM-320 with a small pc remotely operated by my pocket pc is an option that I am considering. By the way, what is a no-KVM pc?

Best regards.

Paul

[lgreen]

Two new products may do what you want.

1. Audio Research or Audiovox WPA24

http://www.audiovox.com/pressrelease...008010719.html

2. I forget, will post if I can remember.

[wakibaki]

OK, I understand why you want to do this.

KVM = Keyboard Video Mouse.

The device that allows one keyboard, monitor and mouse to be switched between computers is called a KVM switch.

Most machines will run happily without a monitor or mouse. Some BIOSs allow you to ignore the 'no keyboard' error and boot without one. If the machine is addressable on your (wireless) LAN you can run it using remote desktop (if it is XP or better - which is recommended for Windows media machines).

You can probably go cheaper with some flavour of Linux, but I'd steer clear unless you have some previous Linux experience.

If the machine really isn't doing anything else, there's no advantage to e.g. dual processors. If you don't mind the box, it's a good way to retire an old machine. 1600 Athlon? You just have to think about fan noise, which can be a serious issue.

Do you have an FM receiver in your audio setup? You could use a low power FM modulator in that case. FM can be very good quality-wise, but again guaranteeing quality might be difficult. There are loads of these around though, for sending your iPod to the radio, although the range is probably short.

w

[Jamh]

If I could make a suggestion, take a look at:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article591-page1.html

Also, feel free to roam in this site in general, ie. silentpcreview, they have good information about building a silent media server.

I would also recommend looking at linux (ubuntu) as an option. It is now as easy as windows to install and run, and it's great for your purpose. For all your media needs take a look at mythtv.

Finally, I use songbird as my library, and keep all my music in uncompressed flac version. The advantages of songbird are many, chief among them an incorporated browser to search for music.

[bbaker6212]

You might want to check out the AudioCurrents site I just created. It might give you some other alternatives you did not know, or have thought about.

http://audiocurrents.ning.com