Wireless audio?

[star882]

Some video transmitters will work with S/PDIF. Not sure which ones, though.

Or just use some kind of embedded system to connect to the server using NFS over 802.11 and write a simple program to control whatever player program you use. You can use XDMCP with Amarok, but you'll need a rather good embedded system. I think there are already media players intended for such embedded applications.

[Lostcause]

Originally Posted by rossco_50

Can you not just use the volume on your media player and run fixed gain power amps?

You could get 2 x airport express and just use 1 channel from each. Or get a wireless usb hub and use usb dacs (still have to have 2 usb cables though).

Hi Ross, not with that particular transmitter it seems, the question was asked in the FAQ @ the bottom of the page.
How much are airport express's... I'll look into it....
The USB seems a good idea as the transmitters would only be small and at the back of the laptop.... and there is a nice little kit that DIY Paradise do for USB... Hmmm

Originally Posted by star882

Some video transmitters will work with S/PDIF. Not sure which ones, though.

Or just use some kind of embedded system to connect to the server using NFS over 802.11 and write a simple program to control whatever player program you use. You can use XDMCP with Amarok, but you'll need a rather good embedded system. I think there are already media players intended for such embedded applications.

Star882, that sounds really impressive but I have absolutely no idea what you are saying, leave me for a day or two to work it out

Question: If I do use USB or S/PDIF can I use the media players volume control?

[rossco_50]

They are £65+ each. You might have to use itunes, if you are not already, but there may be plugins to allow you to use other players. A bit more pricey than the AV sender, but to me the more elegant soultion if you can stretch to it.

There is some discussion of wireless usb on audioasylum - it seems it will work quite well, but from an audiophile perspective the jitter is high. So usb dacs will be less sensitive to this than others, but I believe the DIY paradise usb dac will be using an adaptive mode that is sensitive to interface jitter. I would imagine spdif over a composite video interface would fall even shorter of audiophile standards, but if you are going to run unsynced dacs for each channel you might not be concerned about these issues. Probably better than the bluetooth with inbuilt dacs right enough.

Ross

[Lostcause]

Originally Posted by rossco_50

They are £65+ each. You might have to use itunes, if you are not already, but there may be plugins to allow you to use other players. A bit more pricey than the AV sender, but to me the more elegant soultion if you can stretch to it.

There is some discussion of wireless usb on audioasylum - it seems it will work quite well, but from an audiophile perspective the jitter is high. So usb dacs will be less sensitive to this than others, but I believe the DIY paradise usb dac will be using an adaptive mode that is sensitive to interface jitter. I would imagine spdif over a composite video interface would fall even shorter of audiophile standards, but if you are going to run unsynced dacs for each channel you might not be concerned about these issues. Probably better than the bluetooth with inbuilt dacs right enough.

Ross

Hmmm, OK I'm starting to pick this up now, I'm a FLAC Fubar kinda guy but from what I've heard apple lossless is just as good.

Well I doubt that the different latencies?.. if their is any will be audible, I think we are talking 10ths of miliseconds here aren't we?

I'll look into the express jobbies this weekend to see how they stack up

Cheers Ross

[rossco_50]

HiFi over WiFi

[1audio]

I have been looking at the state of the art wireless digital audio for the lat year. I have met with most of the chip guys in the business. Its far from what is possible with wires. There are several challenges-
1) sample rate: most are fixed sample rate. When I ask if it runs at the source rate I get inconclusive answers. Very few go above 48 KHz. 24 bit depth is discussed but not demonstrated.
2) Syncing multiple units is very difficult. Its the jitter problem but much bigger. Even when they are good they don't start in the same time relationship every time.
3) How do they handle interferance and signal loss? A few glitches at full output and you will lose interest in the whole project.

Its not a simple undertaking. If you just want the playback local to the speakers and wireless control with the content local (in the PC) it can be done with a linux PC, MPD and an MPD client or through a variety of windows/mac solutions. However thats pretty far from a wireless link to the speakers.

[xerocomm]

Sony offers their solution called S-Air Sony AIR-A10R which is really HiFi over WiFi. You can read more at Sony' site: AIR-A10R | Universal Receiver | Sony | Sony Style USA it retails for $99.00

[sxr71]

If Airport express is an option then Squeezebox is an option as well. You will need to run "Squeezeserver" on one your running machines. It will index your music and serve it to up to 8 "Squeezeboxes" ($129) and you can control everything with the controller ($220) or an iPod touch/iPhone. There are many plug-ins which enable you to tweak the system and its control to quite a wide degree.

The system uses Wi-Fi to transmit PCM or Flac data and converts it at the box. You can do up to 24bits/96Khz if you use a Transporter playback device ($1300) or the future Squeezebox Touch (April 2010; $400).

I currently use Squeezebox but plan to run both it and iTunes based Airport Express as a backup system. I maintain parallel libraries in FLAC and ALAC.

The Squeezebox system can be synched, but is software driven. I hear the competing Sonos system is better for synching as it is designed from the ground up to sync.

You have a few options but each of them requires a machine to be live. Well with Sonos I believe you can use a NAS device to hold your music and it will read from the NAS. I decided to go with a Home Server so it makes no difference to me. All of the 3 mentioned systems can be controlled with an iPod touch/iPhone (+ Olive - which you should also look into in the higher $$$ category).

It also seems that as you go up the price ranges what you are buying is service/support/reliability with the exception of iTunes/Airtunes/Airport Express which is cheap and reliable but limited. I keep the 2 cheapest systems around and between the 2 have reliability and customizability.