Help me find an audio streaming device

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for a device that can stream audio from my PC or other shares on the network. Pretty easy, right? there are plenty of devices that can do that. However, I’d like to be able to do all the controlling (including browsing my library) from my iPhone or Android tablet. I don’t want to use the PC screen and keyboard, and I don’t want to have to use the TV. Oh, and I also don’t want to stream the music from the iPhone or tablet, which would require Bluetooth, whose sound quality isn’t the greatest. I’m not too concerned about 3rd party streaming services, although that would be a nice bonus.

It looks like the SONOS Connect can do this, but it costs $350, which is way over my budget (I’d like to stay around $100). This is not for any really serious listening, but I’d like it to be of decent (not audiophile) quality.

So far I’ve considered:

Logitech Squeezebox (discontinued, but still available online or used): it’s designed as a table radio, but it has a stereo headphone output which could be connected to my receiver. Disadvantage: many reviews say the firmware and app are buggy, and Logitech has a habit of not updating firmware for end-of-life devices.

Apple TV: meant for video streaming, but can do audio as well. Works with iPhone (but of course not Android). Disadvantage: requires media to be in iTunes

My system consists of a TV, an A/V receiver (no HDMI, but it has optical and digital coax inputs), Tivo HD, PS3 and Western Digital TV Live Hub. The Live Hub does have remote apps (both from WD and third-party), but they appear to just duplicate the WD remote, rather than give you the capability of browsing media.

So are there any devices that I’m overlooking? Anything that will allow me to use my existing hardware?

Alternatively, is there any audio playback software for Windows that can be controlled from an iPhone or tablet? If so, does Windows support multiple sound cards, so that I could route the music to my audio system, but not the Windows sounds (which I’d still want to get on my PC’s speakers)?

2

Did some more research, so I’m posting the results in case anyone else is interested.

Both Itunes and Windows Media Player have full-fledged apps on iPhone and Android, respectively. In addition, you can send the output of WMP to a specific device, so I’m going to go with a software solution first and see how that goes.

Discussion of this topic is still welcomed.

3

This might meet your needs - an Android ministick with 3.5mm audio out (as well as HDMI). Use Skifta on the stick and on your phone - you should be able to control the Skifta endpoint on the stick with your phone to stream media out of your Windows Media Player library (using DLNA). I’m thinking of giving it a try - I use DLNA to stream media to my TV, but it is a pain to have the TV on to play music.

The other option (for a more technical approach with a bit more fiddling) would be a Raspberry Pi - you would need a case and memory card, but a custom linux distro would make a great DLNA streaming endpoint.

4

If you have an unused computer, you could look into installing VortexBox on it. I did this to help in converting my CDs to mp3s (just pop the CD in, and it automatically rips it and finds cover art). It also acts as a media server. I used that feature some. I haven’t used it in a while, since the computer it was on died from some hardware failure.

Its not an application, it’s a Linux distribution based on Fedora, and will format and replace whatever is on the computer before you install it.

ETA: Here’s an article about it.

5

I’ve got a setup like you want that’s centered around an Airport Express. The output is a 1/8" headphone-style jack, which I just plug into a A/V amplifier using a headphone-to-RCA-plug cable I bought at Radio Shack. I can then control the music using the Remote app on my iPhone.

The one advantage of this setup over the Apple TV (I think) is that your iPhone can also connect directly to the Airport Express via Wi-Fi (802.11whatever), rather than Bluetooth. I haven’t noticed any sound quality issues the few times I’ve done this, presumably because the Wi-Fi connection is higher bandwidth than the Bluetooth. So you could conceivably stream directly from the iPhone under this setup if you wanted to.

Edit: I originally wrote that the Airport Express “is a good deal cheaper than the full-featured Apple TV”, but that doesn’t seem to be true any more; they’re both $99 these days.

6

Actually, given your want to come in under $100, just get a cheap 7" Android tablet (plenty of those under that price) and run Skifta on it - it doesn’t have to be the latest model, but it also gives you a touch screen for direct control and you can control it directly or remotely. I’m somewhat tempted to do that for in my kitchen as a foldaway under-cupboard screen for recipes and music and what-not.

7

Nope, the AppleTV connects via wifi.

8

This is an interesting idea. I’m not going to set it up in my bedroom (which is the room I had in mind when I started this thread) because I don’t want another PC in there. However, I may consider this for my listening room (which at the moment is CD-only).

9

This is interesting as well, since I could presumably stream music from my NAS or TV Live Hub without having to turn on the PC. However, I wonder what sort of sound quality I’d get from the headphone jack of a sub-$100 tablet. Same question applies to the Android ministick.

At least with the PC I can add a good quality soundcard.

10

Hmm. I was under the impression that one couldn’t stream directly from an iPhone to an Apple TV, but looking at Apple’s promotional materials, it appears that you can. In which case, the OP should know that it’s not necessary to use Bluetooth for this purpose with the Apple TV (At least when streaming from the iPhone. The Android tablet’s another story, probably.)

11

I’ll provide some feedback when my cheap tablet arrives sometime next week. I suspect it will be OK - I put my phone through an amp and it sounds fine. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Vortexbox concept, but a PC is generally a noisy thing, and a quiet one costs (my DAW is silent but the case/PSU/CPU cooler was expensive, my 24x7 server is passively cooled but not a powerful system). If they ported Vortexbox to Pi I could add a USB CDROM for ripping, and that could be fun to do, and there are tutorials on setting a Pi as a DLNA endpoint. Maybe I need to play next weekend (I have work this one).

12

I know you said it was out of your price range, but I endorse Sonos. I use it for my whole house sound system and works great.