Playing music wirelessly on home stereo or not?

[bpatters69]

Hello All,

Kind of embarassed to ask but there are so many options, I do not know where to begin. Here is my question. I have a large music store on my PC and I want to play the music on my home stereo. How I do that is an open ended question - meaning, I do not care as long as it sounds decent and it costs less than $100.

Here are my options as I see it.

1. Play the music wirelessly over my home network via some kind of music bridge. I would use one of my PCs with some type of software to choose and play the songs. The music bridge to my reciever and play the music through the speakers via the reciever. The device would apppear like a CD or other audio device to my receiver.

2. Load the music onto some type of stand alone storage device and connect that device to my receiver in the manner described in option 1. I like this option as I do not plan to add more music to my library. Even if I had to add to the collection, as long as the device had wireless or USB, it is not that a big of a deal to add to it.

3. Some type of wireless speakers. Again, I would use a PC with an application to control and play the songs.

4. Load the music onto my laptop and connect the laptop to the stereo system.

My stereo equipment is not the latest but it can accept a composite connection or the red and white connectors.

I have two computers. One is a desktop model and the other is a Dell Latitude D620 which has bluetooth capability.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

So what are you asking? Which would be the best method? You've already came up with 4 good ideas that would work great there.

If your looking for a standalone box to hook to your receiver then look into an mvix box. If you only need audio then you could probably look into some of the older models and use one of them, which would end up costing you a much smaller amount of money.

Also, if you use iTunes then I think apple has a small USB powered wireless dongle that will do what you need, I haven't had one myself but I've seen them in the mac store. It is USB powered but runs the analog audio signal over a 3.5mm jack, which you can easily convert to the red and white RCA connectors.

 

[bpatters69]

SyndromeOCZ, thanks for the reply. I was looking for feedback on the best way to play the music that is stored on my PC over my stereo system. I also want simplicity. No need to complicate things which is why I was thinking that some type of music store that is directly connected to my stereo is the easiest way to go. A box that hooks up to my stereo receiver would also work. Do you have a specific model at MVIX? Thx

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

I actually don't have much experience with them, but my brother sets them up for a living. I think I've got a few older ones kicking around here at the house actually, maybe I could get one out and mess with it.

How do you have your music stored on your network? Is it password protected, on a readyNAS, or just on your PC? Some things like that make a difference on what devices to use.

 

[sdifox]

how much music are we talking about and how much control do you want on playback?

 

[NAC]

I have a Grace Digital Solo. I LOVE it.

It is less than $100 and can stream audio from a windows PC via wifi. You need a service from Windows Media Center running. It also plays Pandora and internet radio stations. In my experience, once I started with Pandora I almost never bother to play songs from my PC.

 

[bpatters69]

Thanks for the replies. To answer the questions that have been posed:

The music is stored on my hard disk.
There are no passwords. The files are stored in a few different sound formats, ie MP3
I have about 125GB of music
In terms of playback control, it would be nice to hit a play list and then just let the songs play. A nice to have would be an option to skip a song.

 

[bpatters69]

I have a Grace Digital Solo. I LOVE it.

It is less than $100 and can stream audio from a windows PC via wifi. You need a service from Windows Media Center running. It also plays Pandora and internet radio stations. In my experience, once I started with Pandora I almost never bother to play songs from my PC.

Hmmm.... we may have a winner! I can listen to internet radio and the songs on my PC. I also found a Aluratek AIREC01F WiFi Internet Radio which is similar to the Grace.