Can I connect an amp to my router's ethernet port?

I suppose you know that what you want is *a lot* more than an amplifier.

snipped-for-privacy@yesits.freeserve.co.uk hath wroth:

Which you didn't bother identifying so I have no clue to what you're referring.

Yes. These are essentially computahs that will decode streaming audio from the internet or from your computer. Some will also do video. For example:

"tuner" can be fed from wired ethernet or wireless. You can also build your own out of a small form factor PC such as EPIA or mini-ITX with 5.1 audio.

That depends on what you're time is worth. There's no magic "ethernet to audio" converter, which seems to be what your suggesting. There has to be a way to convert multiple encoded audio streams to 802.3 ethernet and back to analog audio. You also have to have some method of control. At this time, that means a computah which is not cheap or simple. Removing the wireless part of the puzzle doesn't save much money.

I didn't bother, because I thought it would muddy the waters, and the subject of this thread, in conjunction with the content, of my initial post, seemed pretty conclusive. I believed there was certainly enough info to establish what I'm trying to achieve, and therefore prompt a relevant response, regardless of the previous thread, to which I referred!

My reason for including the referrence, was for the benefit of those who'd read (responded to) my previous topic, and who may think I was being impatient for starting a new, related thread, such as this. Whereas I, having posed new questions, at the end of the above-mentioned thread, and having received no replies, thought it best to begin a new topic, thus!

Thanks for your reply... I get the jist that I should just go ahead with the 'consumer targetted' wireless solutions to networking home audio. I thought it just seemed to follow that a 'wired' solution was available that could utilise the same technologies as a 'wireless' device, and therefore remove the need for products such as the Airport Express, between amp and router. I've read articles about 'professional' needs for such devices and, indeed, they are available, with price tags to match. My need is very basic, and low-cost, just something to listen to while in the downstairs shower, or while cooking in the kitchen, other than whatever happens to be playing on the TV, in the lounge, to which these speaker zones are currently connected.

If @=A380 for an Airport Express and @=A350 for a small amp (for each or both of the zones) is the cheapest solution, then that's what I'll go for! I may even treat myself to a squeezebox after christmas, and when I'm really flush, perhaps the Sonos system....

cheerz deano.

snipped-for-privacy@yesits.freeserve.co.uk hath wroth:

It probably should exist, but I don't know of one. One of the dumbest design ideas is the way speaker are attached to audio hardware. It currently consists of a high power amplifier, driving huge peak currents, through very heavy wires, into speakers that invariably end up on the wrong side of the room. Meanwhile, everything else is running at 0dBm (600ohms) audio. What it should be are powered speakers, where the power amplifier is inside the speaker, and 0dBm audio going to the amplifier. However, that's not being done because there's always a possibility of noise pickup on the coax lines between the audio source and these speakers. The solution would be a fiber optic extension, such as Toslink, between all the boxes. Once the audio is digitized, it can be distributed to anywhere without any degradation in quality. The problem is that the protocols used to digitize this audio vary. The original source might be encoded on a music CD, re-encoded into streaming MP3, packetized into ethernet, encapsulated into 802.11, and eventually delivered to the speakers, which have to decode the various layers in order to recover the original music. That's why you don't see digital component systems for high end audio and why low end systems tend to be integrated conglomerations as doing it all in one box is easier.

Wireless FM broadcast transmitter? You carry the FM receiver with you. The only catch is that you have no control over what you're listening to unless you go to whatever is playing and punch buttons.

There are also wireless Bluetooth audio systems. Bluetooth 2.0 will do stereo hi-fi.

Slimdevices seems to be the top end. Fry's is now selling

has the advantage of being the only player with FLAC support.

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

According to the FLAC web pile, there's a rather large list of hardware that currently will play FLAC encoded audio:

Thanks. It looks like the market is now filling out. The Helios X5000 looks interesting. I noticed the Roku does FLAC only by converting first to a compressed format before hitting the network.

On 5 Dec 2006 23:34:11 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com wrote in :

Apple Airport Express uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), which is roughly comparable to FLAC.