USB from PC to Hifi done wireless

[mlihl]

Hi fellow DIYers,

Being inspired by the many posts here, especially about
the Squeezebox and media centers in general, I'd like to
build a music/media server. The problem is that I'm basically
a hardcore audiophile and it's hard to imagine having
a PC in my listening room. In addition, I want to avoid having
two computers at home if I can use my way too powerful
main system as a music server. So I have this idea: using my existing PC
with an external high-speed harddisk for my music library in FLAC/RAW
format and streaming the data out via USB
to an appropriate USB-enabled DAC. That should give me true
audiophile quality. But my listening gear resides in another room,
about 25m away from my home office and PC and I want to avoid
tons of cables in our house to make the connection. Is there
a way (or a workaround) to transmit the USB stuff wireless?
Like sending the USB data through a WLAN station and receiving
the streams in the listening room with USB out? I know a
squeezebox would be more appropriate for this task, however
I'd like to find a way to remote-control my PC choosing music
in a convenient and lossless manner and maybe (in the future)
having the option of even streaming an occasional video to my room.

So the main idea is getting USB out without quality/signal loss
and having a way to remote-control the server and seeing
what music is currently playing. Any ideas?

Thanks for any creative inputs,

Mike

[I_Forgot]

I also have a way too powerful machine that serves audio and is my main PC. I run the slimserver and have a squeezebox connected to my stereo.

One thing I have found is that if the main PC gets really busy doing something that requires a lot of disc access, such as DLs from usenet, etc., the audio server response to the remote control can occasionally become very slow, sometimes to the point of unuseability. I have NEVER experienced any interruption in the audio streaming, any no noise out of the SB3 other than what I tell it to play. The SB3 has a conventional coaxial (and toslink) digital output so it will connect to just about any outboard DAC available. I don't think there are many USB DACs out there (yet?).

I think if you are a hardcore audiophile you will ultimately want to set up a computer as a dedicated server. It doesn't need to be a terribly fast machine, just lots of disc storage if you have a big collection of CDs and a lot of memory. I will be setting up such a machine myself in the near future. I will try to run linux if I can find a version that will recognize the RAID controller on the mother-board I intend to use.

Another thing to consider is the time it takes to rip a big library of CDs- better have a backup, unless you want to do all that ripping again. In that case, a RAID array in the server is a good idea. That can be just two HDDs connected to a RAID controller. There are a few ready to run audio servers available with OS and slimserver built in, so you just connect them to your network and they go.

My library of about 600 CDs stored in .flac format takes up about 185 GB. Ripping is easy, but requires that you sit at the machine for long periods to change discs. You also have to make a lot of corrections and adjustments to the freeDB data as the ripping software downloads it.

Before I bought the squeezebox I looked into doing things like connecting a networked laptop to my stereo. I liked the idea of the big display that could easily be seen across a room. Laptops are generally pretty quiet and if placed inside a cabinet can be completely silent. But when I looked into getting a decent outboard audio interface for the laptop, and trying to integrate a remote control, and then added the expense for all of it, I decided the SB3 was the way to go.

In the end, you really want the display in your hand so you can select music and have the info available wherever you are. To that effect, some people have been buying the Nokia 770 to use as a remote control for the server.

I subscribe to some engineering magazines and think I've seen some ads for wireless USB extenders. I'll see if I can find one...

I_F

[Magsy]

Money!:|

I have a Ipaq hx4750 PDA, using that I can remote control Winamp, browse songs, add to the playlist - everything! However it cost 400 quid and needs wireless access point.

I can also control via Bluetooth and my mobile, its just simple commands though - your phone may be different.

You could control via an RF remote, such as the ATI Multimedia remote - it has no display though.

You could bag a cheap laptop, something P2/P3 class with wireless? Quiet...

You can run SPDIF over coax for 25m, nice mini coax, say 3-4mm diameter and cheap. I'm running it 20m over cat 5 at the moment!

You could extend USB that far, but it would be slightly messy.

Apples Airport Express can kind of do what you require, a wireless device with SPDIF out.

Nothing will work as easily as the Squeezebox type devices I feel. I am a geek with a PC in every room of my house, it is my career and life but even I tire of waiting on Windows to load, fiddly interfaces etc!

[dddac]

I made this as a livingroom solution,

totaly silent, and no mouse, keyboard hassle....

works with my USB-DDDAC1543 DAC

please see for all details and descriptions dddac webpage

doede

[I_Forgot]

I did some looking in the engineering rags for the wireless USB stuff. I think you can proabbly forget it for a while. It's all new stuff just coming out using ultra wideband radio chips. In order for it to be called USB it has to be able to handle the 400 Mbps like wired USB 2. That's why they need to use UWB radio.

Right now you can get engineering/product development demos from the companies that make the chips, but it's expensive. I think there are a couple companies displaying prototypes of wireless USB links at CES, so you might be able to buy one comercially in a year, and pay a lot for it. In 5 years or so the price should get reasonable...

I_F

[mlihl]

Thanks to everyone!

I have discovered a nice freeware app that runs on my IPaq
PDA - Vinyl! I think I'll either go with USB cable + repeater
and wireless PDA + Vinyl or purchase a Squeezebox. I don't know
yet because we might be moving this year and if I end up losing my
dedicated listening room, my PC would move closer to the Hifi
gear anyway. So I can probably hook up everything easily.
And I discovered wireless video transmitters/receivers that are
pretty cheap. I think I'm finally moving closer to my dream
of taking full advantage of a PCs built-in intelligence and computing power...

I'll post some pictures soon showing my setup.

Thanks again,

Mike

@Doede: I'm interested inpurchasing your USB/SPDIF
and 1543 DAC kit

[dddac]

Originally posted by mlihl
Thanks to everyone!

@Doede: I'm interested inpurchasing your USB/SPDIF
and 1543 DAC kit

thanks for your interest !

[Inniswhe]

I am also looking for a solution to the remote control of a home PC audio system.

I have a PC with all of my music on it. I was wondering how the Nokia 770 interface works as a remote. Are there any articles on this topic. I have found a couple describing using the 770 with a squeezebox as a remote but what if you want to just control the PC audio output when you are hardwired from the PC SPDIF to the amplifier/receiver. I would need to get/build a DAC to do this but I am looking for more info on how the Nokia gets set up.

I think if this is a possible remote for itunes or softsqueeze on the home PC without using squeezebox at the amplifier/receiver it would save considerable cost and have the nice diplay interface which is desireable.

Thanks to anyone who can shed any light on this .

[I_Forgot]

You can use the 770 as a remote control for slimserver, a program you run on the audio server machine to stream audio to the player connected to your stereo. You can use a laptop running winamp or just about any other audio player program at the stereo system (of course, a squeezebox works, too). Slimserver is free, so you can DL it and try it out at your leisure.

Slimserver is controlled via a web page. If you can access the page you can control the music playback. The 770 is set up to access the locally generated web page on your wireless network. There are multiple "standard" web page layouts for slimserver so you would select the Nokia 770 layout. You can find a lot of detail about the exact setup at the slimdevices forums. http://forums.slimdevices.com/

There is no reason you can't run both the server and the player on the same machine and still use the 770 for the remote control, so if you want to use a USB DAC it should be no problem.

I_F