Streaming advice needed.

[shane]

Funny how you don't realise how little you know about something until you try to explain it to someone else.

After a long time when for various reasons he wasn't that bothered, my brother has recently revived his interest in hifi, and has discovered computer audio. He's had his old Quad 57s and 44/405 rebuilt, and has been using them in his study fed from the USB output of his Vista desktop PC via one of those Chinese 4396 Ebay DACs. Music is all stored on the PC's internal hard drive although he also has a USB hard drive available.

He's quite happy with all of that, but has now decided he wants to move the Quad amp and speakers into his sitting room whilst retaining the ability to feed the DAC into an ancient Armstrong 621 and a pair of surprisingly good Quad 11L2 speakers he's got knocking around for when he's listening in the study. This means that we need to find a way to feed the system in the sitting room from the PC in the study.

The obvious choice would be a Squeezebox, but I'm reluctant to send him off to look for second-hand gear of unknown provenance, 'cos I know what'll happen.

What's the simplest (and cheapest) alternative?

Oh yes, there is a pair of ancient and horrible phono-phono leads about 20' long buried under the floor from one room to the other, but it's not possible to put in any other cabling without ripping up the recently laid flooring and carpet, which isn't going to happen!

[Stratmangler]

Has he got a laptop?
Foobar & USB DAC could be one way to go.

[Val33]

Airport Express into DAC with Toslink. Best when running on ethernet, so homeplug an option.

The internal DAC is terrible, but plugged in to a decent external one is really rather good. Only 16/44.1 but is bit perfect (unlike Apple TV).

Val

[SteveW]

Airport Express into DAC with Toslink. Best when running on ethernet, so homeplug an option.

The internal DAC is terrible, but plugged in to a decent external one is really rather good. Only 16/44.1 but is bit perfect (unlike Apple TV).

Val

Yes I'd agree with Val about Airport Express - used a couple happily for several years in 2nd systems. However only really ok if you are using itunes.

However since getting a Linn DS and valve DAC, along with a QNAP Nas, I've been storing huge amounts of Flac files as my main source.

Discovered a very neat way of playing Flac files through an app called Plug Player on my iphone.
Shove that in a dock and it plays acceptably well...and access to all my library.
Haven't even bothered with a dac to be honest, as its mostly background or kitchen music
Of course ..all this pre supposes that you have wifi router set up etc.

[jl-lb.ms]

Another cheap way to get a stream from the wireless is through an Apple TV device ($99USD). It would have to have a television for one time to set it up, then it can go headless, using an iPhone app to select the music. This also requires the use of iTunes. The ATV can access either the library on the local PC, or there's an option called iMatch that lets you access your iTunes library through "the cloud". This a fee service, $25/year.

Hope that helps, John

[pjdowns]

(unlike Apple TV)l

Hi Val,

I currently use a Squeezebox Touch but was planning on using my Apple TV for music if the Squeezebox were to die... can you elaborate more on the above please as I am unclear :)

Thanks

Paul.

[StanleyB]

I currently use a Squeezebox Touch but was planning on using my Apple TV for music if the Squeezebox were to die...
Let's hope that never happens. There will be a plunge in SQ.

[pjdowns]

Let's hope that never happens. There will be a plunge in SQ.

Really Stan?

What is wrong with the AppleTV then for audio?

Paul.

[StanleyB]

Limited to 16 bit/48Khz max. All those lovely 96 and 192KHz 24 Bit files will never be enjoyed in all their glory.

[AlfaGTV]

Firstly it's 16/48 only... Red Book format gets resampled into this...
And it doesnt presnt 16/44,1 material nearly as good as an AirPort Express.

[Val33]

Hi Val,

I currently use a Squeezebox Touch but was planning on using my Apple TV for music if the Squeezebox were to die... can you elaborate more on the above please as I am unclear :)

Thanks

Paul.

Yes, the ATV upscales everything to 16/48 whereas the AE runs in bit perfect 16/44.1 (ie CD redbook). So, assuming that 90% of your music library is ripped from CD, the AE will replay it perfecty.

No need to use iTunes, the AE (should) appear as a speaker in the audio menu and is available to any player.

Val

[jl-lb.ms]

I don't know, Stan. Your DAC makes the ATV sound pretty good.

[jl-lb.ms]

Having been listening to the ATV, I wanted to see if the hardware would make a noticeable difference, so after considerable farting around with the DLNA server, I got the Sony BDP streaming audio from my PC, as does the ATV. I did an A/B comparison in real time between the ATV and the BDP, using a Walter Becker's Surf and/or Die (11 Tracks of Whack), 256 Kbps, 44.1Khz, AAC format. To my untrained ears, I could not distinguish the two streams, at least to no significant difference.

Yes, this was one example of a song played on a lossy format, but I would have thought that if the ATV was affecting the sound quality, I could have heard some difference. Not to mention that the Sony was significantly slow in loading up the files (I suppose an effect of the server software). At this point, I'd like to have an Oppo player, but that's going to have to wait. ATV it will be...

[shane]

Thanks all. After much pondering, he's decided to risk the hazards of Ebay and go for a Squeezebox Touch.

I'm really surprised that firstly Logitec decided to abandon such a useful device, and secondly that no-one's come up with a replacement.

How 'bout it, Stan?

[AlfaGTV]

The SqueezeBox may well be a good solution to streaming. It is, however inherently flawed by the fact that it requires it's own dedicated server. There are dozens and dozens of UPnP/DLNA music players out there, and they deliver same or better audio quality compared with the Squeeze... In other words, don't grieve, the king may be dead, but there are plenty of of successors out there! ;)

Edit:
The SqeezeBox Touch does sound really good, and it will better any Apple solution! Your mate will be pleased!