Airtunes
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- rafalski
Is the sound quality worth getting an airport express? Is the playback smooth? Does it slow down the network at all?..
- benfal990
you'll only lost 40 brain cells per minutes.
- i see what you did therebulletfactory
- microwaves will kill us allbenfal99
- lambsy0
sound is about 5-10% degraded... but you have to really listen to notice it.
buffer takes about 2-4 seconds to react; i.e. switch song or volume change, etc
i haven't noticed a change in my network, but it's just my laptop and surfing qbn at home.
- rafalski0
Thanks lambsy, I'm getting the g model cheap to test it. I only have one computer out of 2 with n now anyway, the main router is g as well.
If the sound is good, I might upgrade it to n, but from what I read they haven't touched airtunes quality on the n version.
- ribit0
I never noticed any sound quality problem, but have had lots of drop-outs (like 5 secs each time)
- rounce0
Why not use Tversity or something similar (and free)?
- rafalski0
as a physical stream receiver rounce?
- rafalski0
It is a good one though rounce, I don't have a game console though.
I tried Belkin bluetooth receiver and returned it the next day, the audio was dreadful
- rounce0
How about an Archos as the client and run that into the Hi-Fi?
- rafalski0
Is Archos a media center for the TV? I don't watch TV recently and try to keep it simple and cheap. If I can stream music from the computer to the speakers that's all I need.
Also, I'm interested if I can use iphone remote to control the bedroom speakers while the music is streamed from the main computer without problems.I'll see if the quality/dropouts make it better value than 10-15 meters of extension cable with m/f jacks at its ends.
- ghandolf0
"Wireless speakers are the holy grail."
Amen.I've actually been playing around with this, without a solution yet, for a while now. These were supposed to come onto the market a couple of years ago.
http://www.househacker.com/perma…Then according to this, they vanished...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_…This looks promising, though I've not tried it, nor can I find a price yet. I looked for a dealer in my area ("Where To Buy") and it seems to be handled by only 'high-end' home theater companies in my area. Looks like it might do the trick though...
http://www.control4.com/cp/80-AA…Currently I'm using Vibestreamer sometimes, which is the bomb, but you have to pick and choose the songs you want to listen to, and save play lists. Once set up though, it works over your network or over the web and has worked for me, without fail, from hotels around the world. And it's free! There's also a hack available that allows you to download songs (not just stream) from anywhere in the world - access your drive (networked or not) and download it.
http://www.vibestreamer.com/I also at times, Shoutcast Broadcast. A little more intense to set up, but it streams my already generated play lists (from WinAmp) from my home, or from just upstairs. I usually travel with my laptop which is why I use this, so I don't have to travel with my drive(s). It plays right through Media Player or WinAmp as a stream.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHO…http://www.shoutcast.com/downloa…
The issues with these two are you need a computer at each end. Even an old laptop downstairs hooked into my amplifier, means I need two computers. (C'mon Wireless WiFi Speakers). I would like to be able to just connect to some wireless speakers over my network without using a computer. So, a few years ago, I tried one of these...
A Netgear MP101 http://www.dansdata.com/mp101.ht… and it completely frustrated me so I stopped using it. According to the article, there is new firmware and software (that I don't have yet) that addresses many of the problems. However... it wants to see the music on your computer, not on an attached network drive, like I have mine.
I have also successfully controlled WinAmp, on my upstairs computer, using my iTouch and VNSea, while it streamed music. It’s literally a wireless remote to my PC upstairs. I haven't got this all worked out yet... but it amazes me that you still can't connect to reliable, wireless, wi-fi speakers.
Oh, what a world....
- Thank god this thread isn't about wireless speakers.monospaced
- rafalski0
I was thinking of this baby, but after a bad bluetooth experience with belkin decided to try out the airport express
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HWSBT…
- ghandolf0
Yeah, I don't know... the comments seem to indicate that it cuts in and out, speeds up the music (buffering?), etc. I've wanted to try an airport express myself, but haven't yet.
- rafalski0
It works really well so far, I must say.. and yes, I can control iTunes remotely with my iphone sitting on the toilet, including selecting the airtunes speakers to be used.
Just as i wrote it, some weird scratching noise came out of the silent speakers hooked up to the receiver..
- Soler0
I have dropouts - kinda random - sometimes awful, sometimes perfect for hours. Pisses me off, but still awesome
- redrum0
i used to have one, like 2 years ago and i loved it. used it to control my itunes and printer from the couch
- rafalski0
Now you can fully control itunes from the couch with the iphone remote.. pretty amazing. I'm getting the n version from the US ebay, will cost the same I'll get for the g version here in the EU.
I will control the universe from my couch with it!
- pango0
using one right now. and loving it.
- iluvsoul0
I got airtunes going through a pretty decent amp, and sound is good i guess theres about a 1 sec reaction time. But i do get some drop outs... facking annoying. but over all i'm pretty happy with it.
- KennyRodger0
I have one at the office, works fine. I have my music on a server (just windows machine with raid) and grab the music from my laptop over wifi, which then spits the music back out to the airtunes device via itunes. Sometimes it drops or has issues if someone else starts copying a large file to the server, but thats just my network really lagging on sending me the mp3 to itunes, since I don't have some pro setup. It has crashed a few times, but nothing out of the normal. Overall I'm happy with it and you can hook a printer up to it as well if you need be.
- Oh yeah, and yes it does have a 1-2 second lag when changing tracks or something.KennyRodger