Ethernet Wireless Hard Drive Music Server

The Airport Express is 802.11g.

If you are planning to use the Lacie as a USB 2.0 anyway, then it is probably worth a try as a wireless ethernet drive. Please report back with your results. Just keep in mind that it will be dramatically slower than a USB 2.0 hard drive connection. If you are ok with this, then it may work for you. Sorry, I haven't tried any of this out. Hopefully, someone else out there can help.

In my research, I found the discussion board on www.infrant.com helpful as well as the information on www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Check out slimdevices. Both the squeezebox and the Transporter are built for wireless music.

Check out slimdevices. Both the squeezebox and the Transporter are built for wireless music.

Thanks, but I don't think either of those are storage devices (which is primarily what I'm looking for here). I don't need a DAC nor a wireless base station. I'm looking for a network server (storage device that holds the actual music files) that I can access wirelessly via laptop. I don't want to have my music library always tethered to my computer, and it's too big to store on the laptop's hard drive (currently my library is 300gb). The Airport Base Station does a fine job at streaming the wireless signal, and iTunes is a great interface (I don't mind using the laptop). I love my DAC, and the Waveterminal U24 does a fine job at reclocking and converting the signal. I don't need a remote (though the modern Macs all have one - my Wife's iMac has one). I don't think either device you suggested is capable of streaming at a higher rate than the Mac Airport stuff. They are all using 802.11G technology so none will move the digits any faster, right?

Anyway, good idea if you're looking for what those devices are capable of. I have no experience with either, but haven't heard much to recommend the Squeezbox as being anything more than adequate as a DAC (that's been at least two audiophile friend's experience with them). I have heard nothing good or bad about the Transporter. It's $2k so I hope it's a very fine DAC. Do you have experience with it? Please correct me if I'm missing a significant detail here that these devices offer, or if your experience has been vastly different. Thanks for the input!

Marco

I purchased the Infrant Technologies ReadyNas NV+ running Linux and SlimServer Shareware to organize my library recorded with FLAC. Unit is raid level 5 and has 4x250gb leaving 750gb usable after redundancy. Runs totally independent of my home pc's via the network. The unit is whisper quiet. I then send music to SlimDevices Transporter in a wired mode, and then wireless to a Squeezebox elsewhere. All the Slim products have digi outputs.

My WiFi setup is basically $200 all in and I routinely get ~38MB/s. 

That's roughly 40 24/192 concurrent streams.