GreenFrog
17 answers
41 thumbs up

Streaming audio to amplifier over WiFi

I'm looking for a hardware solution for accepting an audio feed over WiFi and sending it into an analog amplifier. It can either decode a stream or access files, I don't care (as long as it's an open protocol I can tweak).


I don't need any fancy buttons and display for content selection (that's all done on the server). So all it takes is an WiFi card, MP3 decoder and D2A chip. But I want it simple, easy, cheap and compact. Any suggestions?


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sdfjkl
27 answers
59 thumbs up

Apple's

Airport Express deserves mention here. It's the size of a small laptop power supply, can plug directly into a power outlet and streams Audio via AirTunes (iTunes supports this out of the box). Not an open protocol I think, but there are ways to access it via other applications anyways. It also happens to be configurable as a WLAN router (complete with DHCP server, NAT, etc.) or access point and has a USB port which makes it work as a print server when hooked up to a USB printer. Currently it's priced at 129 US$. Or, if you're more of a hacker type you could use any mini-PC or old thinclient with WiFi and audio capabilities, pop some free unix/linux distribution on it and set it up to receive streaming audio from an Icecast server on your network (or any internet radio station). Keep in mind that any solution that works over WiFi brings notable playback delay with it, so it's fine for listening to music, but if you want to play games or watch videos where video/audio must be sychronized, this is not the way to go.
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GreenFrog
17 answers
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Hmm. Just found the Linksys WMB54G "Wireless-G Music Bridge" ($80), which would be the perfect solution for my needs if it didn't use a proprietary Windows-only protocol (with broken drivers). Ironic, for a device that runs Linux firmware.

There's also the Slim Devices Squeezebox, which sports a nice fluorescent display and remote control and seems ideal in all ways except price ($300).

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Roki
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You can do it with a PSP, it isn't so cheap, but it can do other fun stuff.

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How big is the delay, can you tell?
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+1 the Airport Express. 

I have two of them, and the older one is still supported with new drivers despite being about 4 years old. There are linux streaming drivers out there in the wild, but none are packaged in any distro.  (Google raop_play)

FWIW, they also do range-extension, bridging, have optical digital out and can operate as a portable wifi to 802.11 bridge (i.e., your own private wifi in hotels)  The newer one is 802.11n draft spec.  

Simply awesome... I wish they had web-based configuration.
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