recommendations for Airport Express knock offs?

[BLINGMW]

I want something that'll connect to the stereo and let me connect to it wirelessly to play music. Like Apple's Airport Express can, but it's also a wireless router and such. Anything significantly cheaper than $100 that'll get this done? I don't even know what such a thing would be called, so it's rather hard to search for!

(yes, I could probably take an old PC and dedicate it to do this, and I still might, but space is limited, and simple would be nice)

[John]

I have an "Airport" and honestly, the sound quality is atrocious. I wouldn't waste you money and I'd recommend you find a better means of hard wiring your stereo if possible.

[white_2kgt]

I have a PC hooked up to my surround sound playing MP3's sounds great I also have it hardwired w/ gig E . Wireless would work just fine though, except for when I wanted to stream HD video...

[Mike]

appletv might be the cheapest quality solution...

[Evan]

Ive been thinking about picking one of these up myself.
bunch of wireless media players from Buffalo, D-Link, and some other companies
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Id stay away from the d-link 320, it has gotten so so reviews.

ps- these have been around long before apple's variant

edit: or on the cheap for music only something like this
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[BLINGMW]

I have an "Airport" and honestly, the sound quality is atrocious. I wouldn't waste you money and I'd recommend you find a better means of hard wiring your stereo if possible.

That's surprising and disappointing! I guess I'll have to find one first and try it out. Did you compare it to just running RCAs off a headphone jack adapter and it sounds worse?

edit: or on the cheap for music only something like this

hmmm yeah, some of those are worth investigating, thanks!

[John]

It sounds like a weak FM signal that will fade in and out at random. In my truck my iPod is hard wired, and it sounds almost like CD quality with the exception of it not being loud enough (need an inline amplifier)...

[JohnC]

Not sure what kind of cable or satellite you've got, but I've got my DTV box wired into our router, and then Jess' laptop can send music / photos to the entertainment system over the wireless network... Its not great, but it works.

[.RJ]

Why dont you just plug it in?

[JackoliciousLegs]

It sounds like a weak FM signal that will fade in and out at random. In my truck my iPod is hard wired, and it sounds almost like CD quality with the exception of it not being loud enough (need an inline amplifier)...

I've neeeever had that issue.

[BLINGMW]

Why dont you just plug it in?

Well that's how it is now, draped across the floor, impermanent and inelegant. Besides, with wireless, I could send music from either the laptop or desktop machine.

Chapin... that's an interesting thought.... Our DVR has like one or two of every connector you can imagine, but I don't really know how to utilize any of it. I'll look into it.

I'm also finding out the people who have had sound quality issues found much better results using the optical output of the Airport Express, that's a thought if I go that way.

[.RJ]

Well that's how it is now, draped across the floor, impermanent and inelegant.

Cheap and easy, just like evan's sister :thumbup:

Running them on the floor has a certain "college dorm room" appeal that I'm sure Jess would love.

[BLINGMW]

Went ahead and just got the damn airport express since they had refurbs for $75. I don't know what was going on with yours John-- I'm no audiophile, but for 128k internet radio streams and MP3s, I'm not noticing any difference in sound quality vs. the cable I used to run straight to the computer. I haven't really cranked it up and done some side by side testing with a higher quality source though.

A side note though... unless I just haven't figured it out yet (I haven't spent much time on it), I didn't think of the problem that the laptop isn't going to connect to both the wireless router and the airport at the same time. I have a few other setups to try, and if nothing else, my desktop machine can feed it music fine since it's using ethernet for its network connection.

Anyway, overall, I'm happy. :thumbup:

[Apoc]

I know little about airport express but you can't put it on the same network?

[BLINGMW]

I know little about airport express but you can't put it on the same network?

um... yes! That was much simpler. :wink: