FM radios to casually listen to local music files

Qhwoeprktiyns · October 13, 2021

On 10/8/2021 at 3:22 AM, One and a half said:

Quite often, streaming from say Spotify on a phone, then transferring to a Bluetooth speaker, then to a computer is a bit of nightmare to disconnect one from the other. These days FM portable radios are common place, so why not combine the two technologies? This is only for casual use, is genuine wireless and most homes have FM radios, many portable, even the old Walkmans tucked away in a drawer may become useful.

Principal components are a music server, which most of us would have with an analog output, either RCA or 3.5mm stereo. The software, something like VLC could output to the computer's standard analog out, and shouldn't interfere with other software, like Jriver, HQPlayer, Roon, Audirvana etc. since their outputs are either ASIO or Ethernet. Picture from. Select an unused channel and away you go :)

Looking at Amazon, most FM transmitters accept a 3.5mm connection. There are though various regulations from different countries as to strength of the transmitter to use. For AU, the transmitter is restricted to 10 microwatts without requiring a full blown license, which should be OK for home to go through walls or floors?

Has anyone considered or used FM radios to listen to one's own music around the house and is working OK? Right, it's not hifi, Bluetooth isn't either, FM radios are still wireless without the overhead of the WLAN networking and that complication to decode the other end.

I did this for a while, just because I thought it was cool! You need an FM transmitter. I got a USB model which worked quite well. It worked with windows or Mac (I think). You have to find a frequency which is not used locally. The transmitter worked as soundcard on windows so any app ca' be used to "broadcast".