01-26-2005, 02:43 AM
|
|
Neophyte
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2
|
|
Streaming Audio from a PC
I have my whole cd collection stored on a hard drive attached to my computer which has a pair of fairly good speakers, but what I would really like to be able to do is to make my audio collection available on my home network and be able to play my music on the various stereo systems in my house (all 3 of them.) I got that Netgear thingie which does a decent job of getting the music from my computer to my living room, but even at the cheap price that I paid, the MP100 is too quirky for me to buy two more of them. Another method which works fairly well is that I simply copied the files on one external drive to a second one. Then I used a laptop hooked up to a stereo in another room to provide the display and the interface. This works nicely, but is kind of an ugly way to wire things up. I mean I don't really want a computer and a hard drive in my bedroom and my cranky partner is always complaining about the assorted flashing lights from the computer and the hard drive which is a WD in a clear case with some very spiffy colored lights. I got a really good price, so I bought it; what can I do?
All this is basically a way of putting out there a request for information on other methods of streaming audio to stereos in other rooms. I am really interested in streaming audio only -- I am an old lady who was born in the 1940s and grew up listening to 78s and the radio, so I am aurally inclined (aural as in related to the ear, not the other oral). I am pretty unimpressed with Windows Media Center which looks like windows for dummies. (Of course, when windows first came out, it seems alot like DOS for dummies, but I got used to that.) I was thinking about a nice little home network server like Maxtor and LaCie are coming out with in the next few months but that would require a computer interface -- albeit without the need of using that flashy WD hard drive. Then I was looking at the Sonos Audio servers, but I was kinda hoping to spend less than $1100 on something that may end up being as quirky as the Netgear thingie.
Of course, I could just listen to the cds themselves, but ugh...all the work involved in taking them out of their jewel cases and putting them in the player. And even though they are anally arranged from A to Z on my shelves, sometimes the little critters get themselves lost in the cd rack. Plus, I never did actually put them away when they came back from ripdigital because I've just been too busy looking for a neat way to stream around the house. I'm thinking of hiring someone to put them back in their little boxes for me...but that's another issue for another time.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Threaded Mode