How do I play music stored on my computer over my home audio system?

[slmcdonald7]

Hello all,

Here's my quandry: I recently came into the digital music age and discovered iTunes. As my digital music library grows, I find myself wishing that I had an easier way to play music from my computer on my home audio system (Denon 2805, Paradigm Monitor 11's, Paradigm Phantoms, sub) than to have to burn CDs. My problem is that my computer is several rooms away from my receiver. What do I need to do in order to connect the two? Is there some way to do it wirelessly?

I know that this inquiry is very broad, but as I have no knowledge on the subject, I am not even sure how to properly ask the question.

I appreciate any and all help.

Thanks,
Stephen

 

[jaxvon]

A squeezebox would be the perfect thing. All you need to get is a wireless router (like $50 bucks), a Squeezebox, and the proper cabling. Check out the AH review here. It's not too expensive, has good quality, and should do exactly what you're looking for.

 

[slmcdonald7]

Jaxvon,

Thank you very much, I sincerely appreciate your help.

Now my next question: If I were planning on buying an Xbox 360 when it comes out, would it be able to perform the same functions as the squeeze box? Or, is it possible / probable that the Xbox 360 would provide inferior sound quality?

The answers to my questions may not be known, but I figured that I would throw them out there all the same.

Again, I appreciate any and all help.

Thanks,
Stephen

 

[JJMP50]

Rockford Fosgate Omnifi DMS1 Wi-Fi Digital Media Streamer

I recently came out of the stone age myself and replaced my old Compaq Presario Win95 computer with a new Dell. I have loaded about half of my CD's onto my hard drive and I want to be able to shuffle and listen on my deck speakers that are running off my Yamaha in the family room (upstairs from the computer). I am a true newbie when it comes to "Computer" music and I thought I could just run cable from my sound card to the AUX analog input on the Yamaha. I did some research and it looks like you can but it will sound terrible due to the RF interferience from the PC. It's too much work just to try it and see and it would be about 50' of cable. The squeezebox solution sounds good but expensive. I found this Rockford Fosgate unit and wonder if anyone has any experience.

http://store.pcpowerzone.com/rofoomdmwiho.html

 

[jaxvon]

Well, judging by the very sparse mentions of features on the official fact sheet, I would say that yes, the X-Box will do the same thing. As long as you're using the digital connection on your X-Box 360 (to avoid the analog stage in the unit), you should have high-quality sound.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Jaxvon,

I don't know about you, but my mp3 downloaded material is horrible compared to cd's and digital cable's "Music Choice" - when played through my home system. As far as playing these mp3's on patio speakers, I don't think there's any harm. Just don't expect cd quality sound from these mp3's. It even loses quality compared to ripping these mp3's to cd-r. But then there's the convenience factor.

As Clint stated in the article you were referring to, "The MP3s sounded a tad harsh and lacked the low-end punch and depth of the original CD recording. The CD also had a smoother sound with more spacious reverb on piano and vocals. The sound stage was also affected in that is was much narrower on the MP3 tracks."

This is probably great news for the recording industry. But as Clint stated later, " For the best fidelity, we recommend using the bit-accurate formats such as WAV, AIFF, or FLAC and allow the on-board Burr Brown DAC do its job."

 

[slmcdonald7]

Thanks again jaxvon, I will probably just burn CDs until the 360 makes its debut.

 

[3beanlimit]

If you have a soundcard with a coax output and a setting to allow you to set it for digital out, all you need to do is to connect your puter to your home unit.

I'm using some cheap coax with rca ends on it, that's about 40-50 feet long. The bad? You do have to route it if your puter and home stereo are very far away from each other.

The good? This cost me the price of a couple of Canare rca ends. 6 bucks...The cable? It was some left over I pulled out of the attic from an old wireless tv install.

I'm going to change out the coax to something with more shielding sometime or even try my hand at a diy optical cable. But for now, nothing beats your own radio station that plays your favorite songs without any commericals.

Make your own MP3's for better quality or even better since hard drives are getting huge, flac files.

 

[JJMP50]

If you have a soundcard with a coax output and a setting to allow you to set it for digital out, all you need to do is to connect your puter to your home unit.

I'm using some cheap coax with rca ends on it, that's about 40-50 feet long. The bad? You do have to route it if your puter and home stereo are very far away from each other.

The good? This cost me the price of a couple of Canare rca ends. 6 bucks...The cable? It was some left over I pulled out of the attic from an old wireless tv install.

I'm going to change out the coax to something with more shielding sometime or even try my hand at a diy optical cable. But for now, nothing beats your own radio station that plays your favorite songs without any commericals.

Make your own MP3's for better quality or even better since hard drives are getting huge, flac files.

You sound like you have had some experience with this. I have not. My new Dell came with Soundblaster Live! 24bit. There is no hard copy documentation and the disk just wants to reinstall the drivers when I load it. Have you had experience with SB24bit? I don't think it has a coax out. Just headphones and line out.

 

[MDS]

I think the Audigy and above are the only SoundBlaster models that have coax digital outs. You could still use the idea of direct connect to the stereo, but you would have to use the analog outs. You would still be able to play MP3, its just that the card would be doing the digital to analog conversion (MP3 is PCM) rather than the receiver.

 

[AFJumper03]

My computer has a soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS with a digital out. My question is, would the quality of the sound be better or worse using a wireless router like the one described above or just using the digital out with not too long of run directly to my receiver? I feel like the digital 1s and 0s coming out my computer into the digital out should be reproduced perfectly at my reciever as long as I keep the length of the coax short. Any advice would be apprecated

 

[MDS]

My computer has a soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS with a digital out. My question is, would the quality of the sound be better or worse using a wireless router like the one described above or just using the digital out with not too long of run directly to my receiver? I feel like the digital 1s and 0s coming out my computer into the digital out should be reproduced perfectly at my reciever as long as I keep the length of the coax short. Any advice would be apprecated

It should be identical - you are just sending the bits to be decoded by the receiver. However, 802.11b wireless can be susceptible to interference from cordless phones and placement of the router with respect to the wireless receiver (the music streaming device, like Squeezebox). Its not a given that you will experience interference and drop packets occasionally, but it can happen. If the run is not too long and you can do a reasonable job of hiding the cable, I would just go with the direct connection via a coax cable.

 

[3beanlimit]

My computer has a soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS with a digital out. My question is, would the quality of the sound be better or worse using a wireless router like the one described above or just using the digital out with not too long of run directly to my receiver? I feel like the digital 1s and 0s coming out my computer into the digital out should be reproduced perfectly at my reciever as long as I keep the length of the coax short. Any advice would be apprecated

You don't have to keep the digital cord short....It can be quite long if you use a coax with decient shielding.

Again, I used something I pulled out of the attic to test this and it's around 40 feet long. I've heard of others going as long as 100 feet.

If you need some pointers on what to use for a good shielded cable, let me know. You can get ends at Parts Express or even Radio Shack.

Sidenote. The digital out on the soundcard is a mini plug. Radio Shack also sells an adaptor for a mini plug to an rca......

 

[rumble]

You sound like you have had some experience with this. I have not. My new Dell came with Soundblaster Live! 24bit. There is no hard copy documentation and the disk just wants to reinstall the drivers when I load it. Have you had experience with SB24bit? I don't think it has a coax out. Just headphones and line out.

I'm using an older Soundblaster Live! card that does have a digital output. I believe your card requires an additional daughter card to do this(Creative Digital I/O Module?). You may be better off just replacing the entire card.

I use a simple cat 5 network cable to connect my system to my home theater receiver. Just pull off 2 wires and slap on a couple of rca connecters(thank you radio shack) and off you go.

I have ripped all of my cds to ogg vorbis(instead of mp3) using the highest quality setting and find the sound quality to be quite excellent. The ogg files are played back using foobar2000.

 

[snickelfritz]

Just install an Apple Airport Express module on one of the spare inputs of your audio system.
You can then broadcast your music wirelessly from iTunes.

 

[pikers]

Thanks again jaxvon, I will probably just burn CDs until the 360 makes its debut.

Here's what I did. House is pre-wired for cable. If you have a digital output on your PC, you can convert it to digital coax thru a $15 Parts Express device that converts optical to coax. Use a splitter and some screw-on RCA adaptors to tap into the existing cable coax. Run a lead to dig coax on receiver and done.

Coax and all parts are super cheap. Ghetto Fireball! Using iTunes, the inrface is perfect. Two receivers have 900+ songs (and counting) on tap whenever.

 

[sts9fan]

sqeezebox2

get a squeezebox2

 

[JJMP50]

The cheap way

OK...I'm going for it today and I'm going to try the cheap way first. I just received 100' of 75 Ohm sheilded RCA cable from an on line cable company for $32 including shipping and it looks the same quality as RS Gold series. I got my RS 1/8" to RCA stereo adapter and I'm going to try the analog method out of my Soundblaster Live! 24bit card to an AUX input on the Yamaha. I need to run the cable from the family room on the middle floor through the floor to the basement where my office and computer lives. The guy at Radio Shack told me to turn all volume controls on the computer down to zero before cranking it up because the line out isn't really a line out but an amplified signal for headphones. I'll post the results when I'm done. If it doesn't work, at least I will have the cable laid for a digital try next.

 

[Audiacc]

Sooundblasters have mini jack digital output, not coaxial. It does not make a jot of difference though. You can simply connect this output of the card to the amp using minijack to RCA cable.
Audigies, I am sure about that, have an option "digital output only" somewhere in the soundblaster settings.
Not sure how it lookes with Live 24 bit, but if you have this option, tick it... Or give Dell a ring to experiance their technical support!
...
btw. that was mind-boggling experience I had with them

 

[JJMP50]

For My Purposes

Well I finished my project "The Cheap Way" and for my purposes it works fine. I was concerned that I would be getting some unwanted noise using the analog method, but I've experienced none. The only unseen issue was the only line out on the SB 24bit is the one used for the computer's speaker system (unless you use the headphone jack on the front). Not a major issue since if I'm listening to music on my deck, I'm not on the computer. I had promised my wife that I would not make any "new" holes in the walls. Well I accomplished that but I did have to enlarge a hole in the hardwood floor in the family room to accommodate the rather large RCA plugs on my cable. I made it invisible by cutting a circular piece of black rubber with a hole in the middle over the floor surgery. It looks better than before. Most of the other responses on this thread are looking for multichannel or games but all I needed was to listen to my "library" and not have to change CDs. The refrigerator is in a different direction from the rack.