Using a laptop for stereo interface?
 

Hello,

I'm in the process of setting up our home stereo system, and I wanted some thoughts on a possible setup I am considering.

I have a main computer (Pentium III) with many gig of music from my CDs, etc. That is also a computer I use for browsing, etc.

In the adjacent room is the stereo system with the amp & speakers. I'd like to be able to play the songs through the stereo. Now as far as I can tell, there are 2 ways I can do this:

1) Run line-out from the computer to Aux-in on the amp.
2) Have a computer at the stereo which will pull-down the songs via the network and line-out to the amp that way

Now option 1 is technically the easiest, but most limited in terms of convience and options.

I'm leaning towards option 2, and to make it work I have an old Pentium II laptop which I can use at the stereo. I would share the songs folder on the PIII, boot up the laptop using either Linux or Win 98, and run winamp/xmms/whatever to pull down the songs across the network. For the actual LAN I can go either wired at 100 mb or wireless at 54mb (802.11g). Not sure if the wireless is enough bandwidth though.

Any thoughts on this setup? I'd appreciate all comments.

Thank you

I've got a wireless laptop (along with a desktop) that I carry over to the stereo and plug in. I can play MP3s from the harddrive or access streaming audio. I don't care for the local radio stations around here so I listen to internet radio most of the time.

I don't have much information to add, however...

I know that the Apple Airport Express uses 802.11g to receive audio, and that the audio is sent in AAC Lossless format, which is about 800 kbps (compared to the typical MP3 of 128 kbps). And the system can still handle other network traffic while that is happening. So, as long as you aren't storing pure WAV/AIFF files on your server, everything should be fine.

Oh, and of course, option 3) would be to use an Airport Express, but I think you'd need something above Win98 to run it.

Never had any bandwidth problems from the wireless set-up even when using 802.11b. I'm using a Mac system with the Airport. No idea how it would work with Windows.

I havent looked in to the Express but it seems like another good wireless option. And it's not expensive. It's basically just an antenna to your stereo from your LAN.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

I was going to suggest the airport express also, but I'm curious as to the audio quality that it would produce through streaming. I'm not really experienced with streaming audio/video on a home network, but it seems like when I listen to internet radio the sound isn't very good.

For right now I use Option 1 with my laptop when I want to listen, but that is pretty painful. I too have thought about doing option 2 with an old Win98 laptop. I would be interested in what you choose and how it all works out

I wouldn't do it. The integrated sound from a laptop, especially an older one, isn't going to be good at all. If you have a higher end laptop with either the external Audigy, or some really good integrated sound chip, I wouldn't do it. Of course, it all depends on what your home stereo is, too.

Well, as of now I still don't have a stereo system. We just moved so I'm constructing the whole thing from scratch. In terms of the sound quality of of the laptop - you are right that onboard sound quality can be rather low. But there are other options (USB soundcard for example) which may work. I'm leaning towards the laptop more than the airport since I can control everything from it rather then going back and forth to rearrange playlists, etc.

In addition, there are plug-ins for programs like winamp that allow you to control the program by remote control, which is pretty cool.

The sound quality of your laptop has little to do with anything. It's mostly bandwidth and processing power. As long as the streaming audio is 128kbps or higher and you have a fast enough processor to turn those 1s and 0s in to music, you can run near-CD quality music out of a headphone jack to your stereo RCAs.

Fred181, a lot of straming stations run bit rates as low as 24kbps. Maybe that's what you are listening to that sounds poor. Even 64 isn't great. But once you get to 128, it's hard to tell it from a CD.

This is a mac setup, but you can check this out for ideas.

http://www.wildrice.com/BlueCabbie/

Now THAT is sweet. I wish I had free time like that guy does.

Another alternative, if you have a little money to throw at this project, would be the Turtle Beach Audiotron. It's a small piece of "real" stereo equipment with a remote and an ethernet jack. It simply plugs into your network, grabs files from wherever they are stored, and plays them. It can also read playlists and play Shoutcast streams. Sounds like just what you're looking for, if you're interested in buying something rather than going the DIY route.

I would expect sound quality to be a non-issue, as Turtle Beach also makes a line of well-regarded sound cards and has roots in software and home studio doodads for musicians.


edit: fixed some particularly ugly typos. :o