Low, or lower-end audio. Or middle. But not high.

[Tom Servo]

FRE:AC is the replacement.

Thanks!

[Jason]

For all my music needs I just have my pc plugged into the receiver and use my phone to control Spotify over WiFi. I can pick what I want from my pocket and the computer provides the sound.

Spotify to AppleTV that has a sound system connected, here hah. I do not miss the days of trying to manage a music library.

[Rare White Ape]

I deleted all off the music I’d “collected” over the years when I finally got a streaming sub. It was Apple Music for free for six months when I bought a phone.

I’ve switched to Spotify since then, but now I only keep the rare stuff from back then that fan sites shared.

[FaultyMario]

Can confirm that https://www.foobar2000.org/ and its https://www.foobar2000.org/encoderpack do a great job of transcoding FLAC to Apple lossless.

Sound quality improvement is noticeable, even for a gritty album like Nirvana's Incesticide. I've also tried it with one of Nina Simone's remasters and there's definitely more clarity and depth versus a MP3 via the Apple TV WiFi-Toslink bridge.

[George]

Can you guys stand another clueless old guy question from me? Probably not, but I'm going to post it anyway. Feel free to ignore it if I'm overstayed my welcome in this thread.

The short version: I want to pick up my iPhone while inside my house and connected to my home wifi network and be able to choose music stored on a USB flash drive that's plugged into a Windows 10 PC (or possibly Linux, more on that below) and stream that music to a bluetooth speaker from the phone.

I know I could do that easily from the bluetooth-equipped PC itself, but this is to be done in a part of the house where there are no PCs, which is why I thought the phone could act as a remote control for the PC.

Does anyone know of a website with instructions on how to do this? I have been searching for a while but am only finding instructions that end with "buy our software" or instructions of how to share USB drives via wired ethernet connections. I've actually searched for this information many times before but haven't ever gotten any useful information...not even "No, forget about it. It can't be done."

I called my ISP today, but it took a long time to get nowhere with them. I spoke to four different people (they kept transferring me to "someone who can help"), but I couldn't make anyone understand what I'm trying to do. Either that, or they're deliberately playing dumb because this is way more complicated than the questions they're supposed to be answering. I wish they'd just say, "you can't do this" or "we can't help you" if that's the case.

Anyway, here's what I'm trying to do...well, what I'm trying to set up for my wife, to be more accurate. If it was for me, I'd just use an mp3 player, but I haven't been able to get her to use the one I bought for her. Maybe the screen is too small or the buttons are confusing. I don't know.

I have:

1. Desktop computer that's powered on most of the time running Windows 10. I also have an older (but not old) computer I got free from work that I've been meaning to reformat to run UbuntuStudio or similar and I can do that if it will help with this. Edited to add: I actually have a few older PCs I got for free recently that I'm not using. They have i5 processors, so they aren't ancient (or are they?). I could dedicate an entire PC to this task if it makes sense to do so, and run any flavor of Linux if that would make this easier.

2. I have a USB flash drive full of mp3 files from CDs we own. They're organized in folders by band name and album name, just like how Windows Media Player saves them when I rip CDs to hard drive.

3. iPhone

4. Every intention of buying a good bluetooth wireless speaker (or two) once I know if this can be done

5. A Comcast/Xfinity wifi router that does not have a slot into which I can plug in a USB drive. Apparently that would make this very easy, according to websites I've found while searching.

6. An older router (ASUS, I think) that I purchased a couple years ago to use with a previous ISP. That one does have a USB slot (two, actually). I'm thinking if I plug the old router into the current router with an ethernet cable, it might work, but we would have to change wifi networks on the phone every time we wanted to stream music...and my PC would have to be on the "other" wifi network also, right? That might be too many steps to be practical, but if it's an option, I'd like to know.

Can this be done, and if so, can anyone suggest a link? I don't expect you guys to give me step-by-step instructions; I'm just hoping for a link to a website or video or something that doesn't end with "click here to purchase our product or service."

If I must pay, that might be okay. I just haven't found anything that says this can't be done with what I already own and it seems like it ought to be.

[Kchrpm]

I love that you're going this far in the weeds for something that could be easily done with any number of modern streaming services for $5/month. And if the music on your flash drive is so rare that it actually isn't on those services, some of them let you upload your own music.

Or, another question, why not just copy the music from the flash drive to the phone? They make phones with tons of memory and/or SD card slots.

I think you're overcomplicating this.

[Yw-slayer]

Why does it have to a a Bluetooth speaker? That appears to be the main issue.

The easiest solution, if you want portability and have WiFi in that area, appears to be to get a sonos move. You can achieve what you want over WiFi, from the sonos app on an iPhone, since the sonos server software on your pc will read and categorise your mp3 files on the drive. It also has a Bluetooth speaker mode (which operates separately from its normal WiFi mode but operates like a normal Bluetooth speaker).

If you want to save a bit of money and don't need as much volume, you could look at the cheaper Sonos Bluetooth speaker called the Roam which should also do the same (I don't know for sure as I don't have one, and only have the Move), or the lower end Denon HEOS-compatible speaker (Home 150) which allows you to do the same via Denon's HEOS route.

These all, I think, also have Airplay or Airplay 2 in case that's relevant (which it may be as you have an iPhone, but I don't know if it's relevant as I don't use it).

[George]

Yes, I'm sure I'm overcomplicating it. If it were up to me, I would (and do) use an mp3 player and I would (and do) stream internet radio such as www.classicdeepcuts.com.

I'm trying to do what I used to do with audio gear (guitars and mixers and recorders) - rig up a bunch of wires and adaptors to connect stuff that wasn't necessarily designed to work together. I just can't find any good instructions on how to do this. Here's the best site I've found so far:

https://www.linksys.com/us/support-a...icleNum=138002

But that's for Windows 7. Why can't I find anything more recent? I'm googling things such as "how to share usb drive in computer on wifi". The other thing I don't know is how to even browse network drives with an iPhone. So perhaps I'm like a guy trying to stuff an elephant into a shoebox. Maybe there's nothing on the web about this because nobody does it.

As far as $5/month goes, can I just dial up the full "Exile On Main Street" album by the Rolling Stones, just as an example, and have it play in its entirety without ads? If this is possible, that's something to consider.

Maybe I should just buy a bluetooth speaker and say, "Use this with your phone" and see what happens. The problem is she's even more behind with technology than I am. She would still prefer to load CDs into the tray and press play. Meanwhile, I'm over there holding up an mp3 player and saying, "There are a hundred of our CDs that I know you like on this thing." And, at the same time, you guys are looking at me like I'm looking at her and shaking your heads.

Years ago, and I mean several years ago, not just a couple, we were at a neighbor's house. Someone mentioned a movie and within seconds, the homeowner had it playing on his TV via the phone in his hand. He said that movie and a bunch of others were on his computer's hard drive. That's all I want to do here, only with music and a speaker rather than a movie on a monitor. I'd ask him, but he moved away long ago. If he could do that many years ago, why can't I do it now?

First world problems.


Edited to add this after reading YW's reply:

Sonos, eh? Thanks. I'll check 'em out.

And why bluetooth? I dunno - that's what everyone talks about, so I thought that's how you send a wireless signal to a speaker. I don't use bluetooth for anything now. If I can do it all with the wifi we have now and just buy a speaker (which I'd have to do anyway for this application), that's great.

Thanks to you both.

[Yw-slayer]

I just read the bit again about your routers. Sorry, it's around 645am here. You can plug the Asus router into your comcast router, turn off the WiFi function and DNS server on the Asus, and use the latter as a non-wifi wired router, which means no faffing around with other WiFi networks. IF, when in that state, the Asus can allow you to serve/access your USB drive (I don't know as I've never really rated the USB ports on Asus routers) then going by what you said, you should be alright be alright.

The sonos/denon gear will obviously cost more but, depending on your current Bluetooth speaker, you could look at new gear as an audio/experience upgrade. It's definitely smoother and less wonky and you can also easily use the apps (I have both systems, mainly Sonos around the house but for HEOS only a soundbar and sub) to play TuneIn and other free internet radio if you don't want to pay for streaming services and want to go beyond your flash drive. There may be a way of your currently doing that via the PC iPhone etc. Setup but I haven't looked into it.

Sorry I read your other stuff too. Yes you cna pay for Spotify Premium and stream a huge amount of classic rock Inc the Stones' catalogue ad-free (and also download it into your phone for on the go listening). Or you can use normal and put up with ads.

From what you say, I think Sonos/HEOS is the way forward for you. They're thr most flexible and the sound is actually quite good. If you don't need Bluetooth or portability, but would like stereo as an option, look at a Sonos One, 3 or 5 as you can upgrade to stereo later if you need it. I think the Sonos interface is slightly better than the heos interface, and their products are generally easier to find, but your mileage may vary and there are other matters which may cause issues (such as they last year announced that certain older 8+ year old Gen1 products wouldn't be upgraded any further or pairable on the network with their newer products which affects the ease of using multi-room audio, although you could still happily run them on their own if you want... Anyway this is an issue only if you dislike forced "obsolescence").

P.S. I find the Sonos sound to be genuinely quite good. Maybe even mid-to-higher-end audio. The Denon (as you would expect from a soundbar) is also great for movies, games, TV, and lively music as it makes everything sound very engaging. I haven't tried listening to classical or jazz on it as I think it may be a bit too lively for the former and I generally dislike the latter.

[FaultyMario]

I don't think the denon home line of standalone speaker boxes is a bad proposition. Not awesome value, but not bad. Might be worth it to put a flag on it to get notified of a price drop.

If, by principle, you oppose to those little boxes, there's also a line of HEOS receivers, but they don't look the price.