Simple question

[Lrod]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking off and on for a couple of years. At one point I was using an Apple Airport Express to stream music from my I-pod Touch but there were too many very frustrating dropouts and after upgrading the router and monitor, I couldn't be bothered to re-configure the Airport.

 

All I want to do now, is a hard connection between my various digital sources, the Touch, my Android phone, maybe a laptop, and my stereo system. Not too expensive, and as few acronyms as possible. (Maybe one: DAC).

 

Can you help me?

[ed71]

If your music is on the laptop, I'd think the easiest approach would be laptop --> DAC --> stereo. If you are talking about needing to play music stored on these other devices, I'm not sure how that would work. Could they just be used to control your laptop?

[Paul R]

Few questions:

Where are you storing the music?

Where do you want to store the music?

Can you dedicate a server to storing the music or storing and playing the music?

How do you want to use your iPod and Laptop?

Is there just one location/system or do you have more than one location/system to feed?

Music only or Music + Video?

 

-Paul

 

 

Hi everyone. I've been lurking off and on for a couple of years. At one point I was using an Apple Airport Express to stream music from my I-pod Touch but there were too many very frustrating dropouts and after upgrading the router and monitor, I couldn't be bothered to re-configure the Airport.

 

All I want to do now, is a hard connection between my various digital sources, the Touch, my Android phone, maybe a laptop, and my stereo system. Not too expensive, and as few acronyms as possible. (Maybe one: DAC).

 

Can you help me?

[Lrod]

Few questions:

Where are you storing the music?

Where do you want to store the music?

Can you dedicate a server to storing the music or storing and playing the music?

How do you want to use your iPod and Laptop?

Is there just one location/system or do you have more than one location/system to feed?

Music only or Music + Video?

 

-Paul

 

The music is stored on several Ipods, phones, etc. There's just one location to feed. I'd be happy with a hard connection from the device to the stereo, as streaming was just too frustrating. But, what goes between my phone and my old Linn amplifier?

[Paul R]

The very hard part here is that you are storing the music on scattered iPod devices. That limits the quality and the quantity of the music files, and nearly demands using an Airport Express, Apple TV, or similar device to stream to.

 

I would recommend a small Mac Mini or Netbook PC, run iTunes on it, connect it to your main system with a USB DAC or over an optical connection, and then use the same system to manage the content on your iPods. you can also stream the entire library to your iPods around the house over your wireless network.

 

That is very conventiional, but it gives you really good sound, centralized management of your music files, streaming, and a wide choice of connections to your maisystem.

 

The music is stored on several Ipods, phones, etc. There's just one location to feed. I'd be happy with a hard connection from the device to the stereo, as streaming was just too frustrating. But, what goes between my phone and my old Linn amplifier?

[John]

I too see streaming as the most viable option. I get your frustration with airport express. I threw mine out. I have 3 old style apple tv's though and have used them on multiple networks, streamed to them from ipods and android devices with never a problem. You can put files locally on them too should you wish. Audio from the internal dac is actually quite good so you may not even need a separate dac; just join to your amp with standard interconnects. You probably have to get them second hand now (and jailbreak them to allow airplay streaming), but for pocket change and half an hours work you would have a workable solution.

[Paul R]

Streaming is not usually a problem, especially using a Touch, but there is always the odd duck situation where something just won't work right.

 

Usually I see that when people decide that Apple products are a "rip off" and go buy a D-Link or Belkin router and such. Then life gets more difficult and far less reliable. Sometimes it is the reverse, but not often.

 

-Paul

 

 

I too see streaming as the most viable option. I get your frustration with airport express. I threw mine out. I have 3 old style apple tv's though and have used them on multiple networks, streamed to them from ipods and android devices with never a problem. You can put files locally on them too should you wish. Audio from the internal dac is actually quite good so you may not even need a separate dac; just join to your amp with standard interconnects. You probably have to get them second hand now (and jailbreak them to allow airplay streaming), but for pocket change and half an hours work you would have a workable solution.

[mayhem13]

Strange IMO to see so many unhappy AEX owners as mine work flawlessly. I admit I do my firmware upgrades directly through Cat cable and my wireless network is tweaked to perfection as is the AE Utility.

 

It would be nice considering the use of Apple products here on CA that maybe someone from the company would pop in from time to time with guidance. Maybe Chris can reach out to someone over in Cuppertino? Netgear offers direct forum support and does a few others.......

[ipeverywhere]

One option, which I've kind of done in my house by accident (long story), is to set-up a wireless AP only for streaming. Go to your favorite retailer and buy something like a Buffalo N300 ($50) or N150 ($30) or something similar and put it in AP mode. AP mode is critical here which is why I like the Buffalo devices because it's a switch on the back to do this. Take your streaming "receiver" device, like AppleTV or whatever supports AirPlay at the stereo, and plug that directly into your stereo by whatever your favorite interconnect is. Take the Buffalo AP and plug your receiver device directly into the AP with an ethernet cable. Then, make sure your sender, iPod or Android with doubleTwist AirSync, and connect it to the AP via WiFi. This eliminated any drop-outs or problems for me and has been rock stable. That's the simplified explanation though.

 

Details or Why is an AP is critical here?

An AP or Access Point is simply a Wired to Wireless bridge. It does not do anything fancy like a router would do which reduces latency and has some other benefits one of them being distance in your case. I assume when streaming, the source device and the AP would now be in the same room. This provides a much stronger wireless signal then trying to fight through walls etc to reach the router which I assume is near your "modem". But, because this device isn't doing anything fancy it needs to be plugged into a router if the devices connected to it expect internet access. It also won't hand out addresses (no DHCP server in AP mode) which is another reason you need to connect this thing to your router (DHCP server) or you'll be manually configuring IP addresses on everything that connects to it.

 

The other bit that can be a benefit or complicate things is choosing an SSID. The WiFi spec allows for the same SSID and security settings to be placed on multiple APs and the devices are supposed to just attach to the strongest signal. This is how I've got it set-up so 1 wireless network but multiple APs to keep the signal strong. This does not work for some Android devices though which causes me to turn WiFi on/off as I walk around the house to get it to re-attach. Also, if this new AP cannot be connected to your router it will cause issues to be on the same SSID (think attaching to the AP but then no more internet).

 

Sorry this diverted so far into a wireless networking talk but I see this question come up a lot and really the best solution is to drop in another AP to boost the wireless signal.

[mayhem13]

That!s EXACTLY what I'd did with an older Netgear router but located it in the far end of the house and used powerline adapters as there's no Cat5 in that part of the house.

[Paul R]

Very good idea. Like Mayhem, my home audio network is setup almost exactly along those lines, with the exception I only use Apple Airport Extremes and Express units for the music network.

 

Two things to consider. (Well consider them, do the best you can to mitigate them, and then forget about them and enjoy the music.

 

(1) Packet Queues can get annoying long in bridges or repeaters - try to buy equipment with multiple antennas for bridges with multiple devices on the wired side of the bridge. This usually pays off rather nicely in terms of reliability and robustness.

 

(2) Try to space the bridges/repeaters/etc. close enough together to use 5ghz networking. The bandwidth gains are significant.

 

-Paul

 

 

One option, which I've kind of done in my house by accident (long story), is to set-up a wireless AP only for streaming. Go to your favorite retailer and buy something like a Buffalo N300 ($50) or N150 ($30) or something similar and put it in AP mode. AP mode is critical here which is why I like the Buffalo devices because it's a switch on the back to do this. Take your streaming "receiver" device, like AppleTV or whatever supports AirPlay at the stereo, and plug that directly into your stereo by whatever your favorite interconnect is. Take the Buffalo AP and plug your receiver device directly into the AP with an ethernet cable. Then, make sure your sender, iPod or Android with doubleTwist AirSync, and connect it to the AP via WiFi. This eliminated any drop-outs or problems for me and has been rock stable. That's the simplified explanation though.

 

Details or Why is an AP is critical here?

An AP or Access Point is simply a Wired to Wireless bridge. It does not do anything fancy like a router would do which reduces latency and has some other benefits one of them being distance in your case. I assume when streaming, the source device and the AP would now be in the same room. This provides a much stronger wireless signal then trying to fight through walls etc to reach the router which I assume is near your "modem". But, because this device isn't doing anything fancy it needs to be plugged into a router if the devices connected to it expect internet access. It also won't hand out addresses (no DHCP server in AP mode) which is another reason you need to connect this thing to your router (DHCP server) or you'll be manually configuring IP addresses on everything that connects to it.

 

The other bit that can be a benefit or complicate things is choosing an SSID. The WiFi spec allows for the same SSID and security settings to be placed on multiple APs and the devices are supposed to just attach to the strongest signal. This is how I've got it set-up so 1 wireless network but multiple APs to keep the signal strong. This does not work for some Android devices though which causes me to turn WiFi on/off as I walk around the house to get it to re-attach. Also, if this new AP cannot be connected to your router it will cause issues to be on the same SSID (think attaching to the AP but then no more internet).

 

Sorry this diverted so far into a wireless networking talk but I see this question come up a lot and really the best solution is to drop in another AP to boost the wireless signal.

[mfaoro]

I had the same problem streaming music from the iPod. Updates to the airport express over the last year or so have fixed the problem.