Help me to figure out best way: combine DVD/CD/USB/wireless

Steinberg Lounge
#1

Hi -

My CD player AND my DVD player just died in the last week or two. :frowning:

I would like to see about the least expensive decent quality way to combine the following:

  1. CD player - which I used to use to play my mixes in a “home stereo” environment, as well as commercial audio CDs, of course.
  2. DVD player
  3. “USB Stick Player” - so I could just plug the stick in and play my .wav or .mp3 mixes.
  4. Wireless from my mixer output (audio or S/PDIF), to the home stereo amplifier (the one the DVD and CD player is plugged into).

I don’t want to network my c. 2005 XP DAW. It told me one night that it will stand by me, unless I start doing stuff like that to it. :wink:


It’s been suggested I buy a Play Station 3, as it can play CDs and DVDs, USB Sticks, and it can take a wireless signal. I guess I will need some wireless transmitter to go from my mixer, 30 feet or so to the home amplifier. Does that sound like a good idea? Is “critical listening” over wireless OK to do? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

#2

My 4 year old LG Blu Ray player does DVD, CD, USB, and home networking media client. You should be able to pick up the latest version for $50-70. Not sure how you’d go from a mixer to a media server though. Many routers allow a USB drive to be plugged in and act as a media server so you wouldn’t need to network the PC. Just plug the drive into the daw then back into the router.

#3

My LG Blu-ray is plugged into my router and acts exactly the same as surfer describes. It also has “apps” that provide other video services like Hulu, Netflix, etc. It accesses my computer and NAS drive and sees other computers on our home network playing music or video files and devices (USB included) connected to them. This unit is around two years old and was about $120.00. I’m sure there has been some nice improvements since then and prices are lower.

One thing though, this is hard wired to my router…it’s faster

#4

post here

http://www.avforums.com/forums/audio-electronics/

#5

Thanks, guys. The LG Blu Ray line looks like it could have something good at the right price. The product comparison table seems a little confusing to me, but I think these are stocked in town so I can just go check them out.

I was looking at something wireless to connect my mixer to the LG, like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00713RSE0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1372511213&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

Any thoughts?

#6

Your mixer has Bluetooth?

#7

No, I would need to get the audio or S/PDIF signal in to the transmitter somehow. I am hoping that is a possibility, but I actually don’t know if that is the case … do you happen to know?

Thanks -

#8

According to the manual

http://www.miccus.com/uploads/products/downloads/Home%20RTX%20User%20Manual%20-RTM.pdf

you’ll need two of them, transmit and receive, and a cable that goes from your mixer out to a 3.5mm stereo male jack. Then from the bluetooth receiver to whatever your home theater expects.

It comes with an RCA to 3.5mm. So that may work.

#9

Thanks, surfer.

Not knowing a lot about Bluetooth, I took a look at the FAQs there. Apparently: tempo changes, skipping and other glitches are common enough in BT technology to merit that being on the list. “Especially near metal objects or EM-generating objects …”.

Makes me wonder if BT wireless technology isn’t the way to go to get reliable audio from a mixer/DAW environment.

#10

I don’t do Bluetooth either but it apparently has multiple issues.

#11

I’m OK with just burning a CD-RW, or putting a .wav on a USB stick if that’s what it takes to avoid signal degradation. Looks like that will save $150 or so anyway for a transmitter/receiver.

Someone else recommended a lo-power FM transmitter from the DAW to the home stereo amplifier, maybe I’ll look into that, but as something I have never even thought about once in my life, I’m a little concerned the learning curve will be steep enought that it will not be worth the time/effort of simply burning a disk and walking 30 feet to the CD player …

[Edit:] Like figuring out if the specs at the bottom of this page are important:
http://wholehousefmtransmitter.com/details/

#12

I have a set-up like this:

digital cable box/DVR
DVD/CD player
audio amplifier/receiver
streaming box
TV

and ALL of it can be easily operated from MY PHONE :laughing:

What a world

#13

Hi TS - I didn’t see “DAW” in your chain … are you using the wireless setup for mixing/critical listening?

And … has anyone ever heard of using a low-power “home” FM transmitter for that purpose?

Thanks -

#14

Regarding the low power FM transmitter ,not likely to be good if you’re in a city or area where the fm spectrum is populated.

#15

I think that will be OK, as I live in TX, so there is lots of empty space down at the bottom of the dial where public radio stations can usually be found in other locals. :smiley:

My main concern is whether the FM-transmitted signal that gets to the receiver 25 feet away will be close enough to the signal leaving my DAW to be able to make mixing decisions. It’s a home stereo set up, as one of the “listen on as many systems as possible” stops, but just because the room and speakers are different than a studio doesn’t mean I want to work on a signal that has been “transformed” somehow by being transmitted/received via an FM signal.

Has anyone even HEARD of someone mixing off an FM signal?

Thanks -

#16

I believe those transmitters are mainly for use in a car, so you can play songs from your phone/mp3 player on a car that has just a radio/cd player.
In other words, I doubt the signal will be very strong at 25 feet.

#17

Thanks, Stroph.
They are being marketed as guaranteed at 150 feet.

#18

Just to report back: I received the home FM transmitter today. So far it seems to work just fine, 89.5 FM is now “Alexis Radio”. I’ve played some of my stuff and some commercial stuff, and it sounds fine. Haven’t yet A/B’d it with a CD run through the same home amplifier, but so far, so good.

Also went out to the garage and tuned the car radio to the same station, sounds fine there too. I also played the same song through an .mp3 there, and it sounded pretty close if not identical for the few moments I A/B’d it.

Look Mom, no wires!

#19

Experiments I made with wireless proved definitely not good for critical listening, it seems the bandwidth is too narrow, so you need to compress a lot. It’s good for MP3s and streaming CD’s (w/compression) but not for mixing or mastering.
Test your system with a good Audio Test CD. I use Alan Parsons’ Sound Check 2 audio test and demo CD for these tests. This will quickly tell you where you stand.

#20

Thanks, BriHar. After what sounds like very detailed experimenting you did, what wireless technology do you think is appropriate for critical listening?

But really, I was thinking the value of this approach is ultimately not to reproduce the best studio listening environment, but rather to provide another test environment for mixes, alongside things like car, NS-10’s, Auratones, iPod earbuds, etc. For example, I’m using the FM transmitted mix to listen through my home “consumer” speakers, which of course would have horrible specs from an engineering point of view (not flat, frequency-dependent time smearing, etc.).

With that in mind, I wonder whether imperfections in signal transmission to those speakers are any more important than the fact that Auratones have no bass response?

Thanks for any thoughts -