Asus RT-AC68R 802.11ac?

[robcentola]

Anyone have any experience with this router? Being a novice, I'm not sure if this is exactly what I need.

 

I figure I might be able to do this: It has a USB 3.0, so I'll attach either a big thumb drive (to start), or maybe an external hard drive...maybe the Buffalo Drivestation? Not sure, but I'm thinking it would act as a budget NAS. I don't have anything that is equipped with 802.11ac, but maybe my galaxy S4. I was wondering if I put an adapter on if I would notice any difference in speed. The router has this download manger thingy, so I can close the laptop after I begin to DL content. Seems pretty neat to a beginner...

 

I'm thinking I would wire the Oppo 103 via Ethernet, but it doesn't accept Gigabit, so I was wondering if an adapter would work on that, or if it would make any difference. If I do this, will I have to use DLNA to play files on the Oppo, or would the data from either the thumb drive, or the Bufffalo Drive, feed to the Oppo? Maybe the faster connection would result in less buffering when I use DLNA. I just don't know and I was hoping to find some guidance from you good people.

 

Ultimately, I want to play hirez files gapless and with the best quality (of course) and use Jriver, or Gizmo, as the controller.

 

I wish I had a map! There's little to no youtube vids for direction. Pretty much anything nad everything I've learned about computer music has been right here the last month or so. I've learned a lot, but have a long way to go......

 

 

Thanks

[Cebolla]

The older 802.11n wireless standard should certainly be fast enough for streaming even the highest resolutions of audio files. If you are having particular problems with WiFi reliability/connectivity with your current network setup (assuming your hardware & configuration are themselves ok), it's possible that the extra speed of the 802.11ac will make no difference. This is especially so if the problems are due to factors which may be hard for you control, if at all, such as intereference by other devices, the structure of the building, the WiFi range you require, etc.

 

Certainly test your audio kit via a wired ethernet network connection first to make sure that any 'buffering' issues aren't actually a problem with them rather than the wireless network. An alternative to using WiFi are powerline homeplug network adapters, which use the electrical power circuit to carry the network. They can be more reliable than wireless, if not as convenient.

 

If you do go for the RT-AC68R, it appears to have its own built in DLNA server, which you could use to supply the Oppo with the music files from a USB drive attached to it. I haven't been able to find a spec for the music file types the DLNA server supports, so it may be risky relying on it. For example, my own router also has a UPnP/DLNA media server, which would have been useful apart from its lack of FLAC file support! Also the RT-AC68R DLNA server's library categories and structure may well be biased towards video, rather than audio, so it may make navigating & selecting music from it for playback a bit of a chore.

 

I've not been able to find out if the Asus router also has a network file server to allow an attached USB drive's files to be available via network shared folders. If this is the case, then you should be able to access the files either directly by the Oppo, which I believe can access network shared files, or indirectly via a decent UPnP/DLNA server running on another device on the network (such as JRiver, MinimServer, Asset UPnP, Foobar2000 with foo_UPnP plugin, etc) and then on to the Oppo.

 

Unfortunately, as you may well be aware, the Oppo 103 & 105 still don't support gapless playback as UPnP/DLNA renderers, ie when using a UPnP/DLNA control point to push the selected music files to them, such as the one on JRiver (regardless if controlled directly or indirectly by remote software such as Gizmo). The current beta firmware for the Oppo 103/105 has got an experimental gapless support, but only for WAV & APE files and you have to use the Oppp itself for playback (ie use the TV).

 

If you are running JRiver on a Windows computer or have access to a Windows computer, there's one possible way of achieving gapless with the Oppo 103 as a UPnP/DLNA renderer, but it requires you to be fairly hands on and happy to use the free excellent Foobar2000 music player with foo_UPnP plugin alongside, if not instead of, JRiver.

[robcentola]

Thanks so much for the reply. Being new to all this, it's a tad confusing, but I think I'm getting thanks to the good people here on CA. Love this site.

 

Much to think about......

[Cebolla]

Yes, just thought your original post merited a bit of background/detail in my response - looks like I may have overdone it, sorry about that!

 

Have a go at seeing if you can make some sense of it and of course feel free to ask any further questions.

[robcentola]

Are you kidding? ANY info is great info. Thanks so much!

[robcentola]

Will check out Foobar200 when I get home. I'll look for that plug-in. Sounds great.

 

Thanks!

[davide256]

All modern routers/switches will support FE on a GigE port. On a simple home network a switch will reduce configuration complexity/latency but if you use a wireless router and physically connect NAS and Oppo to it you should get very much the same wired benefits as a switch with the added benefit that the Oppo which only allows one network connection choice will be able to get to the Internet directly through your router.

[robcentola]

All modern routers/switches will support FE on a GigE port. On a simple home network a switch will reduce configuration complexity/latency but if you use a wireless router and physically connect NAS and Oppo to it you should get very much the same wired benefits as a switch with the added benefit that the Oppo which only allows one network connection choice will be able to get to the Internet directly through your router.

 

Great info, thanks. I see you have the 013 as well, and stream from a NAS. I believe that's the route I'm going to as well. I guess that means I would have to set up the NAS below the Oppo. Any suggestions for a nice quite one?

 

I just got a pic of my speakers in progress from Salk. They are looking sweet! And that's a standard finish.

 

[Priaptor]

I tried this router and returned it. First, I didn't find it's performance in my home to be as good as advertised. Second, on my wired connection, my Xfinity speeds dropped from 110 Mbs to 65 Mbs compared to my old Apple Wireless router, so that was a nonstarter for me.

 

However, I do highly recommend their extender, which is fantastic and the blows away the Apple variants and the best I have ever used. Here is the link:

 

https://www.asus.com/Networking/EAN66/