Want internet radio on my stereo

[janlafata]

I have a very well-built custom desktop,..good connection and all that, running Windows 7x64 with plenty of speed and power and I really enjoy listening to many of the Shoutcast internet radio stations. I am connected to a Linksys router and I have a Onkyo Home Stereo receiver in the same room. I'd like to be able to hear those stations on the Onkyo but I nothing about this new trend called Network Music Player's.

I do know one thing...I don't have much to spend and from little online research I've done already the The Sony SMP-N100 looks about right. But is that exactly what I need and how do I hook it up to the receiver. I figure that once it connects with the network I'm halfway there, but then what kind of cabling to I run out of it to go into the back of the Onkyo receiver? I don't have a whole lot of available inputs on it left. A tape monitor, a Line 1 DVD input and Line 2 input, and the latter two are supposedly both analog, so that's a concern.

I've also heard that squeezebox is good, though I don't know much about it

 

[markw]

That unit has your basic red/white analog outputs which can go ito an open like level input on your receiver and it also has a digitalaudio output if you have an onen input there as well. IMNSHO, that red/white analog link will be fine.

 

[slipperybidness]

It's all in the same room? Then this should be fairly simple. What kind of sound card do you have?

Depending on s/c, you could do HDMI, optical or digi coax, or the red/white to the onkyo and be good to go. The audio signal goes to the Onkyo, no networking required. That is my living room setup, my computer is in living room and I have wireless mouse and keyboard.

 

[highfigh]

I have a very well-built custom desktop,..good connection and all that, running Windows 7x64 with plenty of speed and power and I really enjoy listening to many of the Shoutcast internet radio stations. I am connected to a Linksys router and I have a Onkyo Home Stereo receiver in the same room. I'd like to be able to hear those stations on the Onkyo but I nothing about this new trend called Network Music Player's.

I do know one thing...I don't have much to spend and from little online research I've done already the The Sony SMP-N100 looks about right. But is that exactly what I need and how do I hook it up to the receiver. I figure that once it connects with the network I'm halfway there, but then what kind of cabling to I run out of it to go into the back of the Onkyo receiver? I don't have a whole lot of available inputs on it left. A tape monitor, a Line 1 DVD input and Line 2 input, and the latter two are supposedly both analog, so that's a concern.

I've also heard that squeezebox is good, though I don't know much about it

I tried a Sony SMP-N100 and N200- they both have component video output, which I like but the N100 didn't stream as smoothly as the Roku and Roku has a lot more channels available. The N200 was being installed for a customer and they wanted to be able to access more than 1 Pandora account, so I installed a Panasonic BD player, which supports up to 7 accounts. The added BD capability made it a no-brainer.

With either the Sony or Roku, you'll need to have an audio/video input to navigate but both will be able to feed your analog inputs with no problem.

 

[bikdav]

I don't know if my thought is worth anything. But, when it comes to listening to the radio over the internet, I got lazy and bought a laptop PC to connect to the systems in my house wherever I am. My laptop has an audio out which makes connecting way easy.
Speaking of which, I have a question for anyone that may have tried this. Some AV receivers have a USB port on the front. Can a laptop with a USB be connected to the AV receiver via USB to get audio to the receiver? Has anyone tried this and how well did it work for you?

 

[m_vanmeter]

by far the quickest way to connect your computer to the stereo receiver is to use a 3.5mm stereo plug to red/white RCA male connectors cable. Attach the 3.5mm plug to the headphone jack or the line out jack on the computer sound card and run the cable to an AUX input on the stereo receiver....any input except the "phono" input.

Regulate the volume out of the computer so you do not overdrive the stereo input on the receiver and you are done. For only $4.14 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 15ft Premium 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2RCA Male 22AWG Cable (Gold Plated) - Black | Premium 3.5mm to RCA Audio Cables these cables come in length 6' to 50'

This will tide you over while you study up on media servers and all the rest, but you will get your internet radio playing on the stereo receiver

 

[slipperybidness]

by far the quickest way to connect your computer to the stereo receiver is to use a 3.5mm stereo plug to red/white RCA male connectors cable. Attach the 3.5mm plug to the headphone jack or the line out jack on the computer sound card and run the cable to an AUX input on the stereo receiver....any input except the "phono" input.

Regulate the volume out of the computer so you do not overdrive the stereo input on the receiver and you are done. For only $4.14 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 15ft Premium 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2RCA Male 22AWG Cable (Gold Plated) - Black | Premium 3.5mm to RCA Audio Cables these cables come in length 6' to 50'

This will tide you over while you study up on media servers and all the rest, but you will get your internet radio playing on the stereo receiver

Just be aware that the SQ may not be very good with this type of connection. Guess it mostly depends on quality of the sound card and the length of cable run. I had tried this before and it sounded bad. I went to a S/C with an optical out and it sounded great.

 

[bikdav]

True

Just be aware that the SQ may not be very good with this type of connection. Guess it mostly depends on quality of the sound card and the length of cable run. I had tried this before and it sounded bad. I went to a S/C with an optical out and it sounded great.

That's a good point. I found the sound quality problem to be a faulty sound card. When running the normal 3.5 to RCA, my first PC's sound card wasn't that good. Yet, my present desktops and laptop sound excellent to me with that same simple hook up _ much better sound cards by far.

 

[m_vanmeter]

Yep, that is a great point....not all sound cards or on-motherboard sound chips are created the same. And not all computers adequately control the amount of stray RF interference generated within the box.

That said, Toslink optical will be the best connection to cards that have it, but the plain old analog red/white will work fine (at least it has for me) if the various electronic components are up to snuff. Getting control of the computer output level is really the key to the link between player and receiver

 

[bikemig]

I have a very well-built custom desktop,..good connection and all that, running Windows 7x64 with plenty of speed and power and I really enjoy listening to many of the Shoutcast internet radio stations. I am connected to a Linksys router and I have a Onkyo Home Stereo receiver in the same room. I'd like to be able to hear those stations on the Onkyo but I nothing about this new trend called Network Music Player's.

I do know one thing...I don't have much to spend and from little online research I've done already the The Sony SMP-N100 looks about right. But is that exactly what I need and how do I hook it up to the receiver. I figure that once it connects with the network I'm halfway there, but then what kind of cabling to I run out of it to go into the back of the Onkyo receiver? I don't have a whole lot of available inputs on it left. A tape monitor, a Line 1 DVD input and Line 2 input, and the latter two are supposedly both analog, so that's a concern.

I've also heard that squeezebox is good, though I don't know much about it

Squeezebox is a killer product. It does much more than allow you to listen to internet radio since you can use to stream any music you have ripped onto a computer as well. I use them all around the house. It is easy to operate and the sound quality using the analog output (and the internal dac on the SB) is very good; it also has digital outputs if you prefer to use the dacs on your AV receiver.

 

[bikemig]

I don't know if my thought is worth anything. But, when it comes to listening to the radio over the internet, I got lazy and bought a laptop PC to connect to the systems in my house wherever I am. My laptop has an audio out which makes connecting way easy.
Speaking of which, I have a question for anyone that may have tried this. Some AV receivers have a USB port on the front. Can a laptop with a USB be connected to the AV receiver via USB to get audio to the receiver? Has anyone tried this and how well did it work for you?

You need to check with the manufacturer. Some usb connections are designed to work with an ipod, some with a computer but I think the latter is relatively rare. But if you have an old laptop or netbook lying around, it is a great way to stream internet content without having to invest in a streamer. That said, laptops are noisy environments and you may want to do the D to A processing outboard with something like the HRT music streamer (which runs around $150). It does a nice job of isolating any computer generated noises, it is asynchronous which means that the dac (not the computer) controls the stream of 1s and 0s, and it sounds good.

http://www.amazon.com/HRT-Music-Streamer-II-Resolution/dp/B0038O4UFQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1326998631&sr=1-1

 

[bikdav]

Thank you.

You need to check with the manufacturer. Some usb connections are designed to work with an ipod, some with a computer but I think the latter is relatively rare. But if you have an old laptop or netbook lying around, it is a great way to stream internet content without having to invest in a streamer. That said, laptops are noisy environments and you may want to do the D to A processing outboard with something like the HRT music streamer (which runs around $150). It does a nice job of isolating any computer generated noises, it is asynchronous which means that the dac (not the computer) controls the stream of 1s and 0s, and it sounds good.

Amazon.com: HRT Music Streamer II High Resolution USB D/A Converter: Electronics

Cool. This looks like something worth looking into.

 

[psbfan9]

by far the quickest way to connect your computer to the stereo receiver is to use a 3.5mm stereo plug to red/white RCA male connectors cable. Attach the 3.5mm plug to the headphone jack or the line out jack on the computer sound card and run the cable to an AUX input on the stereo receiver....any input except the "phono" input.

Regulate the volume out of the computer so you do not overdrive the stereo input on the receiver and you are done.

I was just going to post how to do it. I did this exactly as described and it works perfectly. I use an audio only media player called XMplay that you can get here,

Un4seen Developments - 2MIDI / BASS / MID2XM / MO3 / XM-EXE / XMPlay


I set the receiver to 'pc', just like you would set it to tuner, cd, phono, etc,..
Good luck.

 

[BMXTRIX]

IMO the Roku box is the way to go for most people looking for a nice simple setup. A PC, driving local speakers is it's own entity and sharing that entity with a home theater system can be fun, but can also be a real pain in the neck if you are losing your local audio capabilities or if you want to be doing something different on the PC, or just have it off, when listening to music.

The Roku is designed as a quality streamer at an affordable price and delivers on just that. It doesn't attempt to do other things, and doesn't make claims to do so. It gives HDMI and composite video outputs with analog (red/white) audio, so connecting to your existing receiver and TV shouldn't be a problem.

Roku Streaming Players | Roku 2 HD Player, Roku 2 XD Player and Roku 2 XS Player

Now, the bad side is that these really are all in need of some sort of television so you can navigate your way around and select the music you want to listen to. Once you have something playing back, you don't need to leave the TV on, but you definitely do to get things started.

We will talk about your need for a new receiver soon if you don't have any HDMI inputs availabe on it!

 

[derrickdj1]

internet radio

I know this is not exactly what is being discussed, but a cheap BD player may work. I use Pandora on my blue ray. Excellent SQ. I also have internet radio on my avr which is also nice. But I use pandora 90% of the time. This is a nice option if you need a new BD player.

 

[bikdav]

That Sounds Cool.

I know this is not exactly what is being discussed, but a cheap BD player may work. I use Pandora on my blue ray. Excellent SQ. I also have internet radio on my avr which is also nice. But I use pandora 90% of the time. This is a nice option if you need a new BD player.

Wow! I didn't know that. I'll have to investigate that. I've been thinking about a BD player anyways.

 

[jcl]

I have a Panasonic BD and a Roku. While the panny does stream netflix and pandora too, the Roku's interface is better. The Roku also seems to have much more content than the BD.

Either way you will need a TV of some sort.

 

[riker1384]

An Ipod Touch can receiver Internet radio over Wi-Fi and do a bunch of other things as well.

 

[bikdav]

An Ipod Touch can receiver Internet radio over Wi-Fi and do a bunch of other things as well.

Yep, as does the Apple iPad and the Google Android versions of those. I saw an Android do that not too long ago.