Wifi adapter for stereo

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CWeiser

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#77262 13-Feb-2011 16:47

Hello, not sure if this is the proper forum for my question. I am looking for a wifi adapter that I can use on my boat stereo (car stereo). I want to be able to play music from my laptop or my 3g phone to my boat stereo. Have ruled out bluetooth because of possible interference problems with wifi and/or 3g. Read about AudioEngine units but they supposedly interfere with 3g reception. Anybody out there doing this with a 3g connection and having it work? I am not using an iphone or apple stuff. Don't want to have to use itunes, fyi. Thanks for any help. Sorry if this has been covered. My attempts at searching here always yield zero.

hairy1

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#438897 13-Feb-2011 17:26

What issues are you having with Wifi / 3g interference?

I have a Sony bluetooth head unit and have music streaming from my phone, laptop and tablet (not all at the same time, but have done them all seperately). I have never had any interference.

I would recommend bluetooth. Your boat situation is exactly what bluetooth is designed for.

The one issue I did have was trying to stream music via bluetooth from my phone while using it as a wifi hotspot over 3g connected to my laptop. Bluetooth streaming stopped but I think the phone ran out of steam to do it all at once.

Cheers, Matt.

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CWeiser

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#438901 13-Feb-2011 17:38

Yes, we are using the phone daily as a wifi hotspot with 3g. We live aboard. We keep the phone/hotspot plugged into power--so it keeps chugging. That's why we're looking for a wifi solution. Also, I only need to buy one piece of gear. For bluetooth, we need adapters for 2 computers and the stereo and I read there could be distortion on the sound. Distance is so short we can hardwire but it is very untidy in a small space.

RunningMan

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#438918 13-Feb-2011 18:29

Dick Smith used to do a usb to FM transmitter to plug in to a PC. Looks like it is discontinued, but something along those lines may be of use?

mentalinc

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#438926 13-Feb-2011 18:47

Could do as suggested above but 3.5mm to FM. and just move it around as needed (I'm guessing between each of the devices will only be a few steps.
Something like the below ( i have never used this one just using as a suggestion.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip-universal

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webwat

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#441139 18-Feb-2011 13:05

RunningMan: Dick Smith used to do a usb to FM transmitter to plug in to a PC. Looks like it is discontinued, but something along those lines may be of use?

Check whether your phone has a FM transmitter. Mine does but never tried it since enough music fits in a flash card on the car stereo mp3 player. But thats another point -- lots of stereos already have USB ports to connect storage devices such as your phone, but you might prefer to manually choose what tracks it plays.

Time to find a new industry!

CWeiser

18 posts

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#441458 19-Feb-2011 11:33

Hello, well, I don't have an FM transmitter. After prowling the internet I am looking at getting something like the HTC Media Link Adapter (just recently available). I think I could hook it up to my stereo with an HDMI to RCA cable. I could also use this device to upgrade my LCD TV as well (to a DLNA device).

Any words of wisdom out there?

richms

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#443052 24-Feb-2011 14:28

I cant even use bluetooth audio from my phone to headphones over a meter when I have wifi in use without glitches. a2dp is just junk. The problem with wifi devices is that there is no standard for them. An airport express works great with some software on a pc but goodluck with your mobile etc..

Richard rich.ms

wellygary

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#443063 24-Feb-2011 14:55

CWeiser: something like the HTC Media Link Adapter
I think I could hook it up to my stereo with an HDMI to RCA cable.

Any words of wisdom out there?

What exactly are you trying to send the audio to?
your Original Post described it as a car stereo, what inputs does it have? 3.5mm aux, RCA?, is it CD or will it take a cassette adaptor ?

The more info we have the more we can help

CWeiser

18 posts

Geek

#443099 24-Feb-2011 16:18

wellygary: Our unit has a CD and tape and takes aux in 3.5mm mini stereo. I was figuring I could take HDMI to RCA, RCA to mini stereo to the aux in. since I've haven't seen any cables to go hdmi to mini stereo (probably for good reason!).

Since this post I've started to look at other options for more function.

Basically, what we want to do is get a way to use our smart phone to direct and select music from our computer (or NAS) to be played on our stereo unit (with decent quality and without wires).