[Ren]

I would appreciate your thoughts...

I have been ripping my collection of silvery disks into FLAC files and storing them on a RAID-1 NAS drive for playback through a 3-zone Sonos system.  The NAS is in the bedroom closet, cabled to a Linksys 802.11-n wired/wireless router.  I am enjoying my music more and my wife is happy listening to Sonos.  So far, so good.

I continue to listen to CDs and LPs on the "big system" in my listening room, which includes a USB DAC, the brand of which shall remain unknown.  I occasionally copy some FLAC files and a few 24/96 albums from HD Tracks onto a laptop and listen via USB input on the big system with the laptop perched on my lap.  Not ideal.  I've also successfully played FLAC files off the the remote NAS drive on the laptop via wi-fi.  The router produces plenty of wi-fi signal in the listening room. But I need a better, more comprehensive solution.  I want a BDP-1.

The question is this... assuming good wi-fi signal strength in my listening room, and assuming the lastest version of firmware in the BDP-1, can I expect a BDP-1 to play 24/96 FLAC files wirelessly from my remote NAS drive via a device like Linksys wireless-n wi-fi media bridge? 

http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/adapters/linksys-WES610N-bridge-switch_stcVVproductId136484981VVviewprod.htm

It is not practical to run network cable between the bedroom closet and the listening room, and I am very fond of the idea of storing all my music in one place on two mirrored disk drives, and accessing it directly from there.  I thought of shuffling an external USB SSD drive back and forth to the listening room, but I think it would become a barrier to listening.  Sonos and Rhapsody have spoiled me for that kind of inconvenience.

So, is the wireless bridge likely to work with the BDP-1, or am I overlooking another elegant solution?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Steven

[unincognito]

Hi Steven,

To connect your bdp to your home network I would recommend you look into powerline av kits.

http://reviews.cnet.com/bridges/d-link-dhp-501av/4505-3304_7-34668774.html

Cheers,
Chris

[kevin360]

It will work almost perfectly - at least, the same setup worked for me. I never experienced the first hiccup while the SONOS was in the cave - only played 16/44 (redbook rips) from the NAS. In my case, the NAS was in the living room, attached to the Cisco wireless router (out of site). The SONOS was attached to the Cisco entertainment bridge located in the garage - the cave is above the garage in a stand alone structure. The bridge is located as reasonably close to the router as possible. It worked fine. Likewise, I only had/have very occasional pauses while streaming netflix via that network setup and a cheap Sony Bluray player.

I bought the BDP-1 when NAS support was at the tail end of beta. I have absolutely no regrets. I'm finding it a remarkably stable device. I did run into trouble once in about a half-dozen listening sessions with hi-rez FLACs - resulting in an offensive 'snap'. I've discovered that Bryston had it right to begin with (I can say that because I was one of the NAS holdouts ). USB 3.0 disks are dirt cheap, dead quiet, darn quick, energy efficient, and they have been flawless performers in my experience. Since switching to the little USB drives, I haven't had one single misstep. Yeah, it's a little more to manage, but it's a minor inconvenience, in my opinion.

The NAS is no longer in the living room and it is no longer always on. I use it for backup purposes only. Even the SONOS system (which is in the house) now sources music files from a USB drive - there's a port for that on the Cisco router (yeah, another drive - six 1TB USB drives added up to what the populated NAS cost me). If there's a sonic penalty extracted by the switch, I'm happily deaf (which I don't think I am). 

My honest opinion - time for a paradigm shift 

[Ren]

Thanks, Kevin & Chris!