our open-house party needs my perfectly calibrated MP3 mix
March 10, 2010 1:34 PM

How to play MP3s from my 2nd floor computer on my 1st floor stereo?

We are moving, and now for the first time my computer is going to be in a 2nd floor office, and our stereo system will be in the living room.

Is there some way I can play the MP3s on my computer on my stereo? I assume there's got to be *some* way, so I guess the real question is, what is the cheapest way that will not be too scary for someone who is not particularly knowledgeable/handy with electronics?
posted by the bricabrac man to Technology (10 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
Apple's Airport Express does this well.
posted by dance at 1:38 PM on March 10, 2010


A Roku Soundbridge or a Logitech Squeezebox would do this.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:44 PM on March 10, 2010


sonus, if you've got the cheddar.


posted by ranunculus at 2:08 PM on March 10, 2010


Depending on the size of the music collection, an iPod of correct girthiness could port your collection and get plugged into the aux port of most stereos, and then be taken with you where you go.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:33 PM on March 10, 2010


Size of the collection is about 67,000 MP3s.

We just bought a house, so there's not a whole lot of extra cheddar to spread around, although we have budgeted some for new entertainment stuff. More spent on this = less spent on new TV / stereo.

And it's a PC, if that's relevant. Don't own an iPod.
posted by the bricabrac man at 2:40 PM on March 10, 2010


XBMC [free] running on an original xbox [$30] will do this. There's some setup involved [not much though], and depending on the network situation this may not work [wireless will add about $100 for the adapter, wired comes for free].
posted by chazlarson at 4:35 PM on March 10, 2010


One of these will probably work for you. I bought a set to send my music from my living room to my kitchen. It works really well. Since you're going from a computer to a stereo, I think that everything that you'll need is in the box. I had to supply another power supply since I'm sending from my stereo to some powered speakers. Audioengine provides really great customer service and I've been very happy with their products (I also own 2 sets of their speakers). And it's only $99.
posted by reddot at 4:48 PM on March 10, 2010


Second the Squeezebox.
posted by mikeand1 at 6:31 PM on March 10, 2010


I love my squeezebox, and even use the squeezebox server software to stream my music to my work PC (I'm listening right now, even.)
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:51 AM on March 11, 2010


I asked this question on superuser. I did the #2 solution and it's working great.
posted by feelinggood at 9:15 PM on March 12, 2010


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