Basic wireless system

[Cass]

First of all, please bear with me as I am a total newbie to PC-based music! I'm looking to set up a means of playing PC-stored music on my hi-fi for as little cash outlay as possible. Has to be a wireless solution as the PC is in a different room to my hi-fi. I'm looking at the Apple Airport Express as a way into this. Forgive me if this is a silly question, but is that all I will need? I have a wireless router – am I correct in thinking that I can configure the AE to communicate with my router, then link the AE physically with my amp (NAD C326BEE), and that's it – I can then use a PC app (ITunes, presumably) to transmit the music to the AE? Or am I missing something really basic? Also, what is the best way to connect the AE to the NAD amp? Thanks for any advice.

 

[richie60]

I don't know anything about the Apple Airport Express, but wouldn't it be easier to get a Logitech Squeezebox Touch as this has built-in wireless functionality. This will connect directly to your amp and you can then stream the content from your PC to it.

 

[Anonymous]

First of all, please bear with me as I am a total newbie to PC-based music! I'm looking to set up a means of playing PC-stored music on my hi-fi for as little cash outlay as possible. Has to be a wireless solution as the PC is in a different room to my hi-fi. I'm looking at the Apple Airport Express as a way into this. Forgive me if this is a silly question, but is that all I will need? I have a wireless router – am I correct in thinking that I can configure the AE to communicate with my router, then link the AE physically with my amp (NAD C326BEE), and that's it – I can then use a PC app (ITunes, presumably) to transmit the music to the AE? Or am I missing something really basic? Also, what is the best way to connect the AE to the NAD amp? Thanks for any advice.

Yes, this is correct.

 

[professorhat]

I have a wireless router – am I correct in thinking that I can configure the AE to communicate with my router, then link the AE physically with my amp (NAD C326BEE), and that's it

Yup, in the setup wizard, get the Airport Express to connect to your existing wireless network and enable AirTunes on it. Job done.

I can then use a PC app (ITunes, presumably) to transmit the music to the AE?

Yup, iTunes will have a symbol at the bottom left where you can click and choose to stream to your Airport Express. You can also purchase a program called Airfoil (click here) for just over £15 to allow you to stream other applications' sound to the Airport - useful if you don't like iTunes, or if you wanted to stream something from BBC iPlayer or a BBC radio station direct from the website.

Also, what is the best way to connect the AE to the NAD amp?

Depends how much you want to spend! The best way would be to buy an external DAC (such as the Arcam rDAC or the Cambridge Audio DacMagic) - connect the Airport into this via an optical cable and this then connects into NAD via standard phono interconnects.

However, the DAC inside the Airport does a pretty decent job considering the price of the thing, so you can just connect via a standard 3.5mm to RCA phono cable - something like the iChord would do a good job, though there are obviously cheaper cables which will also do the job if you don't want to spend that much or need a longer cable.

 

[Anonymous]

What Prof said. I have 4 airport expresses at present and can't fault them! The built in DAC is pretty good, but you can certainly improve upon it with an external one (Beresford or higher, I'd say).

Only other comment would be to make sure your source material is ripped/downloaded at a decent bitrate, ideally CD's ripped as Apple Lossless or FLAC (Apple Lossless better if using iTunes), with iTunes+ or 320kbps AAC as next best. People will say 24bit is the best (and it is) but there's a limited selection at present and you'd need to get a Squeezebox or Sonos (or more expensive alternatives) to take advantage of it...

 

[Cass]

Thanks for the excellent advice.

The Squeezebox does look good, but the AE seems like such a bargain I think that will be my choice. Glad to hear that the onboard DAC is of acceptable quality - I reckon I'll go for an AE initially and see how I get on, with a view to upgrading to an external DAC later.

 

[nads]

or get the squeezebox touch and dont worry about an external dac as the internal ones are Excellent.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

You could also consider "QED UPLAY"

http://www.whathifi.com/review/qed-u-play-bluetooth-receiver%29

Bluetooth from your computer or ipod touch or iphone, straight to your amp and speakers via the QED uplay...simplicity itself and probably a bit cheaper than the AE...Just my 2 pence worth.