Pandora Audio


chuckr

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Does anyone know if it is possible to be able to link the Pandoras's audio to my main music amplifier wirelessly, bluetooth or wifi? My amp has wired audio and toslink (fiber) inputs, is 6+1, and I already know where to buy an adapter to link spdif to toslink cheaply. Understand I have disabilities which make using a wired connection difficult for me, hence the question. Either stereo or multichannel answers would be ok, but try to either give me a link or something I can search for, thanks.
 
If you to do it through wireless your best best is probably pulseaudio. I believe the Linux version shipped with the Pandora will use it. If you configure it properly you should be able to route the audio to another device running pulseaudio.

Check pulseaudio out on wikipedia or the off site: http://www.pulseaudio.org/
 
marshal said:
If you to do it through wireless your best best is probably pulseaudio. I believe the Linux version shipped with the Pandora will use it. If you configure it properly you should be able to route the audio to another device running pulseaudio.

Check pulseaudio out on wikipedia or the off site: http://www.pulseaudio.org/
I was looking for a more hardwareish set of answers, so let me try again. I only just now realized that on the Pandora side, it's not going to need any of the audio circuitry, so maybe this next question is a bit offtopic, but do you know if its possible to convert either bluetooth or wifi to either toslink or spdif (so I could do the far, amp end of the connection)? This is supposing I do the Pandora side as if it were pure data.

I will keep the pulseaudio suggestion in mind, tho.
 
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I think it would be possible to use an old computer with a toslink/spdif soundcard, running linux+pulseaudio as a kind of converter, but obviously that might be a bit unwieldy for what you need.

There are also various media streaming boxes available that could presumably take an audio stream from the pandora.
One of those with a digital audio connection would also fit what you want I think?
 
There exists several bluetooth stereo receivers with 3.5 jack for plugging in to stereo. Just google it.
 
There are also various media streaming boxes available that could presumably take an audio stream from the pandora.
One of those with a digital audio connection would also fit what you want I think?
I don't *think* so ... I need to leave the Pandora via bluetooth or wifi (the need is to make the link wireless, not just have it traverse a wireless section). The idea of using the old pc+good sound card combo would but I think be too massive at the amp end. Best at the amp end is Toslink (fiber) but since a spdif to toslink converter is only about $25 at a place I know
 
just like macke said, there exist bluetooth to sterojack reciever (something, like cellphone or pandora sends audio over bluetooth, and it sends it out to a stereo jack).
I don't know if any digital ones exist, such as spdif/toslink or optical or whatever, for that, you'll have to use a usb soundcard.
Use a usb extension cord with that maybe?

Or if you have a wii, set up linux on it to recieve the audio via wifi with pulseaudio or something.


Sorry if i'm not much help.
I hope you'll find a good solution to your problem
 
I assume you already have wifi in your home and a PC connected to your amplifier? If not, just attach any pc to your amp, and your network. It doesn't need to be powerful or anything, just have a toslink/spdif-out. You can buy some really tiny pc's. OS doesn't really matter.

Then, install JACK on that PC, and on your Pandora. Jack allows you to attach any app's output to any app's input, including over the network. I've not done anything with this myself, and I've heard it can be a crime to set up, but it's basically made for your situation.
 
It seems like you're just interested in a wire-less audio connection, not something over wifi.

If so, this might work for you:
http://www.audioengineusa.com/w1_home.php

It has received good reviews for sound quality and ease of use. It basically is a pair of USB powered gizmos that stream stereo audio from one to the other. They use a 3.5" stereo jack. It's possible to have one source and a number of targets, although you can connect to only one target at a time. It seems like it would work pretty well on the Pandora end -- just plug it into the USB port and the audio port. On the target end, you can get a USB adapter and maybe a USB extension.

AFAIK, there is no wireless optical solution, except for maybe wireless HDMI, which is probably overkill and not very convenient on the Pandora end, unless you really want surround sound. (I don't even know if the Pandora is surround audio capable.)

This should give you better audio quality and/or better range than Bluetooth audio. However, I can't say for sure, since I don't own a set. I do own the company's speakers, which give surprisingly good audio quality for the price. In my experience, they're a good company.

Hope that helps.
 
I use this hands free, should not be a problem to connect to a stereo via 3.5 jacks.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/accessories/overview/hbh-ds200?lc=en&cc=se
 
chuckr said:
I don't *think* so ... I need to leave the Pandora via bluetooth or wifi (the need is to make the link wireless, not just have it traverse a wireless section). The idea of using the old pc+good sound card combo would but I think be too massive at the amp end. Best at the amp end is Toslink (fiber) but since a spdif to toslink converter is only about $25 at a place I know
Well I meant, you could hook up a media streaming box into your amp, and stream from the Pandora to that.
I'm not sure how that's different to a PC in physical terms? Apart from being smaller.

The other difference is, it would be a media stream instead of a Pulseaudio connection, which should be easier to set up.

Also I don't think bluetooth would be practical, especially if you want lots of audio channels.
The bandwidth wouldn't be enough to carry 6.1 audio losslessly.
 
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Aninhumer said:
Also I don't think bluetooth would be practical, especially if you want lots of audio channels.
The bandwidth wouldn't be enough to carry 6.1 audio losslessly.
I don't think that there are that many applications in existence for the Pandora that actually provide 6.1 sound...
 
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