Those of you who enjoy music probably want to have a rock-solid listening experience. I’ve somewhat over-engineered my setup at home, but I wanted to share what I use and the benefits of having everything connected and at your fingertips. In the spirit of Geek Week, this would be a great time investment for a rockin’ audio experience.
At my house, I have two little shelves underneath my TV I have filled will all sorts of geek goodies:
- Xbox 360
- Linksys WRT-350N wireless router (flashed with DD-WRT v24)
- Cable modem (for my 16Mb Internet connection)
- D-Link DNS-323 NAS server (1TB, RAID-0)
- Denon AVR-3308ci Receiver
- Mac Mini
- DirecTV Plus HR23 DVR
- Center channel speaker
“Does it all really need to be right there?” my wife asks. “Of course” I reply. You see, they all need to be plugged in together — with wires.
That’s right: wires. I hate wireless stuff. It’s slow, laggy and stops working altogether whenever I decide to make myself a Pop-Tart in the microwave. I’ll deal with the monthly blackout at my house in order to have my devices communicating in a pure unadulterated manner.
I believe I’ve discovered the nirvana of home digital audio management. Like many, I have a sizable collection of digital music. I want to play those songs through my entertainment center. Every other solution I’ve tried has failed for the similar reasons: clunky library browsing, poor search capability, terrible displays, and clunky on-the-fly playlist creation.
My home audio solution
The DNS-323 feeds my music to the Mac Mini through a wired gigabit network connection. Music is played on the Mac Mini using iTunes and the audio signal is sent from the Mac Mini to the Denon receiver through a mini-Toslink to optical adapter. I usually have the Denon upconvert the 2-channel stereo signal to 5.1-channel surround using Dolby ProLogic II.
And the crown jewel of this setup is… the iPhone. One of the first apps Apple released for the iPhone was a little gem called “Remote”. It allows you to control iTunes on a desktop computer from your iPhone, using a native iPod interface. This setup rocks for a number of reasons:
- Search and browsing are instantaneous
- The UI is slick and doesn’t require the TV to be on
- It operates over Wi-Fi, so you don’t have to point anything at anything (I can change the volume from upstairs)
- You can create playlists using Genius
- Multiple iPhones can co-create playlists on the fly with iTunes DJ
- You can browse your collection any way imaginable.
Until something better comes along, I’ll be sticking with my setup. And yes, if they made a 30-foot cable that would connect my Mini to my iPhone, I’d use it to avoid the wireless connection. …OK, maybe not.
