Is it possible to stream music to a seperate hi-fi?

almillar

Any old networkable computers you have lying around could do this and more. We're looking for something that can plug into a stereo amp with phono inputs. Most products these days are aimed at streaming VIDEO rather than just audio.
How about an AppleTV, which can view Youtube directly for £100? Also plays your iTunes library (music and videos) wirelessly (or wired if you like) with your computer on and iTunes running.
What are those other little boxes - Roku?
Plenty of choices, but I would certainly avoid the Bluetooth and FM stuff for proper music listening.

InsideInsurance

Anselm wrote: »

Well it's a seperate cd/amp/tuner/speakers - is that hifi? If it is a hifi, do I need a "DAC" (whatever the heck that is!)

I think I might just go to richer sounds tomorrow; I need to get some bits from town anyway.

DAC - Digital to Analogue Convertor

If you need a DAC or not depends on what connections both the Amp and the proposed device you buy has. Evidently the signal that is being sent it going to be digital and so it needs to be converted somewhere along the chain to analogue so the amp can increase it and the speakers play it.

If your Amp doesnt have either Optical or Digital Co-Ax inputs then you're either going to have to buy a streaming device with a DAC built in or buy a separate DAC.

Depending on what sound quality you are hoping for be a little weary of the budget solutions with DACs built in as they tend to be terrible. Even Apple's Airport Express is poor sound quality if you hook it up via analogue (but is fine via digital).

For Youtube and Spotify the sound quality isnt great anyway so not too much of a worry. If you start talking about wanting to stream your MP3 or FLAC files etc then you should think of something better.

From the source material through to the speakers, your system is only as good as its weakest component.


Apple TV are ok but digital only output and so either your amp must have an HDMI or Optical input or you need to buy a DAC with one.

Anselm

Ok maybe I should just look for albums instead

esuhl

Anselm wrote: »

Ok maybe I should just look for albums instead

Ha ha! I know the feeling. :cool:

The easiest, cheapest, most reliable option is to run a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack from the PC's soundcard to one of the twin-phono inputs on the hi-fi.

Is that feasible? Or could you relocate the PC and/or hi-fi so they are close together?

At least, once you've laid the cable, the setup will be more reliable than any high-tech solution!

You should be able to run a good few metres of cable without too much degradation in audio quality (assuming you don't use a really cheapo cable or run it parallel to mains wiring).

Using a digital signal would be preferable to eliminate noise, or maybe you have a six-speaker set up and surround-sound outputs on your soundcard, but a simple old-fashioned analogue stereo cable will do the trick.

A cable like this should do it (although it would be worth using thicker, multi-strand cable for acceptable sound quality):

googler

If the computer and HiFi are within reach of a USB cable, then you can achieve a good result with a Behringer UCA202, which is basically the entry-level USB DAC. Short cable is fitted to it, so get either a USB extension or long twin phono lead to go with it. This will give better results than the 3.5mm to twin phono audio lead pictured above as it bypasses the PC sound card

Less than £20 if you shop carefully on eBay or similar..... plus a couple of quid for the USB extension lead.

Lum

Why would you want a high quality piece of kit when your source is Youtube who encode their audio as 96kbps AAC. Spending loads on a hypothetical device from Denon to do this is an exercise in turd polishing.

That said, the way I do it is to have a computer in my hi-fi stack, self built in a Silverstone GD01MX case hooked up to the hifi via optical and to the TV via HDMI. It runs a program called Mediaportal that I control with either an MCE remote or an Android phone. There is a plugin for Mediaportal that lets you use youtube.

If you do go down this route however, expect it to be a bit of a project. It is a fun and rewarding project if you're into that sort of thing, however.

Fifer

Lum wrote: »

Why would you want a high quality piece of kit when your source is Youtube who encode their audio as 96kbps AAC.

The OP gave Youtube and Spotify as examples of services he wanted to stream. Spotify streams at up to 320 kbps - certainly lossy, but a darn sight better than 96kbps.

That aside, if investing in a solution, it;s always wise to consider what you might want to do with it in the reasonably near future. Better to have a slightly overspecced solution that might meet, or be expandable to meet future needs than to have to through kit away and start from scratch again. That's particularly true of music streaming. People have a tendency to suddenly realise how useful it is and want all their music available from the same system instead of switching between streaming sources, CD and others.

Lum

I was just trying to manage expectations as the OP appears to be a bit of an audio fan.

Your other comment is why I brought up the HTPC option.. once you start streaming audio, video comes next

Fifer

Lum wrote: »

I was just trying to manage expectations as the OP appears to be a bit of an audio fan.

Your other comment is why I brought up the HTPC option.. once you start streaming audio, video comes next

I agree. I've been using Slim Devices (now Logitech - [spits]) streaming products for over seven years and this year have started using them with the Vortexbox platform (running an HP Microserver). I couldn't contemplate going back to the inconvenience of CDs.

googler

Lum wrote: »

I was just trying to manage expectations as the OP appears to be a bit of an audio fan.

Your other comment is why I brought up the HTPC option.. once you start streaming audio, video comes next

Are you sure?

At a HiFi show, many years ago, a rep from Pioneer or somesuch suggested to a journalist that the new breed of Video CDs were much better than standard Audio CDs because they had "pictures as well as music" (or words to that effect).

The journalist's reply has always stuck with me - he responded that he'd "..rather listen to Montsarrat Caballe than look at her"