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Seems I can use VLC to put out an audio stream on the Lan. What do I need to look for in a cheap speaker that will receive the audio signal over wifi and transform and output acoustically. Or is it not that simple? Googling leads me to pricey devices or very difficult build your speaker type hacks, and I'd think this would be pretty straightforward and don't want (can't lol) spend a lot of money. Any guidance will be appreciated and I will write up my successes when I come out the other side.

Update:

So it seems that it isn't so simple -- sending audio data over the lan to a wifi speaker-- because that's only the half of it..the speaker has to be configured to accept and process the data stream, which means that some protocol needs to determine the format for the data packets for the server to serve and for the speaker node to process and output the acoustic signal. Therein lies the rub and the reason why everywhere you turn the talk is all about proprietary formats and hardware. So I guess my question is what server can I use to send audio data in what format to what type of speaker if I am looking to do this on the cheap.

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There are probably a few options. Two big ones I can think of.

1. DLNA

First the simple option. If the goal is just to play music from the network just setup a DLNA Server (install mediatomb) on your server and buy a player that can stream from a DLNA server. Almost any network media player you can buy from the local hifi shop.

2. Raspberry PI with PulseAudio

Now, if you're after something a bit more advanced. A project I've wanted to try is to get a raspberry pi (~$40 inc. case) and setup raspbian with pulse audio install on it. Plug the RPi into your amp or speakers and use pulseaudio's built in network support to stream the audio over the network.

A walkthrough that someone else has done that I will probably try out:

http://rootprompt.apatsch.net/2013/02/20/raspberry-pi-network-audio-player-pulseaudio-dlna-and-bluetooth-a2dp-part-1-pulseaudio/

Bear in mind the raspberry pi's audio isn't meant to be that good when using the analog output (3.5mm jack) but it's great if you use the HDMI output or usb sound.

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  • this was a great answer particularly the rasberry pi idea as it solves the problem perfectly. Namely, a cheap way to add a processor to standard speakers. I can see myself going with that in the future. I marked Takkat the answer as the answer because of the icecast suggestion which will suit my needs best for right now, but it was a tough call. Jul 30, 2013 at 13:05
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The audio streaming you can set up very much depends on the capabilities of your sound receiver. Of course we need to send our data using a supported audio protocol.

DLNA

In case your receiver supports DLNA this is quite an easy method to remotely access your audio library from the receiver. This then will be similar to accessing your files on your hard drive. I made best experience with MiniDLNA.

Pulseaudio RTP

In case we can run Pulseaudio on the receiver side we can directly stream audio files using the inbuilt RTP streaming protocol. This will lead to quite heavy network loads.

Icecast2

To be able to stream the audio output from our sound card to another device in the network setting up an Icecast radio server is quite a nice solution. Many devices capable of receiving an Internet Radio stream will be able to tune in.

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  • re: Icecast and the audio output from the soundcard, just to be clear, I would have to run the icecast on a separate machine taking input from the 3.5 mm jack output from the soundcard of the music serving machine? Aug 1, 2013 at 13:07
  • Icecast would have to run on the media server.
    – Takkat
    Aug 2, 2013 at 5:59
  • So why are we internetradio=digital streaming from the sound card output=analog? When the media data 'starts' out digital anyway? Aug 2, 2013 at 14:30
  • Icecast can take various inputs, of course you can broadcast your digital streams directly, or after resampling. Just a matter of settings. In case we always want the output of the sound card we will have to resample these audio data in order to generate a radio stream. Depends on what you want to achieve, really.
    – Takkat
    Aug 2, 2013 at 17:19
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I have successfully built ffmpeg on the Raspberry Pi 2 using the support site's instructions for building with Ubuntu. I successfully used ffmpeg and ffserver to play audio wirelessly with the RPI. I can store audio files on the RPI and use ssh to play the files from the RPI's audio jack and HDMI through any computer on my network. I can use either the ethernet port or an external Wifi Dongle. I am still in the process of streaming audio from a laptop soundcard to the RPI for playing audio wirelessly.

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