Kit required to connect wirelessly to several Hifi systems

[admin_exported]

I have several trad systems about the house. One is centred on Cyrus kit (PreVs2, Power 8) one on the Sony STRDA1200, one on some active speakers connected to a Freeview box in the kitchen and an old QED amp in a family member's bedroom. I have a 300gb Buffalo NAS connected to a 802.11g wireless network running WEP encryption (but wil be updating that to WPA eventually) that is crying out for some digital music to be stored and used as a server

What I would like to be able to do is listen to different tracks simulatenously at the highest quality (Apple lossless) in the different locations but I am struggling to find the relevant kit.

Is there a simple solution to have a wireless transceivers that has a line level and /or optical digital outputs that could connect wirelessly offering security and multilpe sessions to achieve the above?

 

[Andrew Everard]

One word answer: Sonos.

 

[Anonymous]

So long as your NAS box has a UPnP server built into it then all you need are some wireless music players. I am going down the route of Noxon Audio 2's with the matching speaker box, and a Maxtor Shared Storage II 1TB.

The Sonos system may have better sound quality, depending on what speakers and/or amps you use, however the Noxon Audio 2 is so much neater and smaller for rooms like kitchens and bedrooms. It is limited to 320kbps though.

 

[Anonymous]

It's all so tempting, but I note that the first Zoneplayer has to be hard wired to the router which is next to my PC, which has several speakers attached. This Zone player would essentially be an expensive bridge.

I could put in some wall plates/wiring etc for an ethernet connection but I'm not exactly enamoured with that solution (why have an 11g wireless network if you have to drill holes in the fabric of the house). An alternative maybe something along the lines of the Homeplug standard. I see several companies advertise products of varying bandwidths that use the electrical wiring to create a network.

Have you tried any of these? If I'm conecting upto a hifi system wouldn't all those ones and oh's cause havoc with the electrical circuits of the hifi gear?

I see that Denon have now produced a wifi dock, the ASD-3w. This could be another solution perhaps although it doesn't look as if it will stream Apple Lossless.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="daveh"]
It's all so tempting, but I note that the first Zoneplayer has to be hard wired to the router which is next to my PC, which has several speakers attached. This Zone player would essentially be an expensive bridge.[/quote]

You might want to consider purchasing a new wifi access point and connect it to the first ZonePlayer (wired). Set up the new access point as a bridge to your already existing wireless network and you can place your ZonePlayer anywhere in your house (as long as it is wired to the wifi bridge).

Those access points cost only a fraction of what a ZonePlayer costs...

Regards,

Rob

ps: By the way, this concept works fine in my living room.

 

[Anonymous]

That sounds do-able, Rob. I have an old DLink AP that may fit the bill. It only has one Ethernet Lan port that is used to conect it to a Router. I'm assuming that this could be used in the manner you suggest,

Regards

Dave

 

[haider]

Before you go down any particular route I would first ask the question, do you want to control the music in different locations local to the systems or from a central source?

Also Is only one person controlling them or do you want the different people in different rooms controlling the music they play?

There are simple and comlicated ways of doing both. Also cost and sound quality may be an issue for you.

There is no holly grail as yet for any of the above but all can be done simply if with minor compremise.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Mr_Orange"]
So long as your NAS box has a UPnP server built into it then all you need are some wireless music players. I am going down the route of Noxon Audio 2's with the matching speaker box, and a Maxtor Shared Storage II 1TB.

The Sonos system may have better sound quality, depending on what speakers and/or amps you use, however the Noxon Audio 2 is so much neater and smaller for rooms like kitchens and bedrooms. It is limited to 320kbps though.

[/quote]

After a painfully long wait for stock of the Noxon speaker, I now have a Noxon 2 Audio, and can confirm that it talks perfectly to my Maxtor Shared Storage via my wireless router and uPnP. I have to say I think it is a very neat product that actually goes quite loud for its size.

It's not audiophile sound, but then again it's a lot cheaper, and when you throw in internet radio, podcasts, the ability for your mates to plug in a USB drive with their tunes on, it stacks up very well.

This solution fits the "controlled individually" scenario described in one of the other posts.