[Tfug] Audio client

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Steve,

> Gimme a yell if you need any help on the HW side.

Thanks, but I should be all set.  The digital stuff is
a lead pipe cinch.  Even much of the analog (layout is
more important than selecting component values, etc.).
I'll have to look to see which of my schematic capture 
tools will require me to build the least number of
symbols.  Ditto with the PCB layout tool and footprints
(though the design is small enough that I might just
opt to use "etch-a-sketch" mode instead of dealing with
all the "preliminaries"... OTOH, it might be worth the
effort just to gain the benefits of DRC...)

> Will trade knowledge for blank PCB's...if the drivers 
> will build on FreeBSD; might be a good argument for 
> *not* making it a driver-based implementation.  An
> interesting alternative (which would be pricier,
> no doubt) would be to go the WAP54-L route, and have an
> embedded linux SBC that serves it's config page out port 
> 80, and you basically just point it at a streaming server,
> which may or may not be your home computer...you could 
> easily connect a usb-audio chip from the embedded

*My* implementation won't be using any of these "heavy" OS's.
I'll leave it to others how *they*& want to design their
server side of things (I prefer something lean and *very*
low power and none of the UN*X-class implementations seem
geared to that)  :<

> cpu to the D/A's.  So, obviously, I'm afraid of software... 

Aw, c'mon... it won't BYTE!  :>

> and no doubt all the WAP hacks for mp3 players make this idea a
> bit redundant, but just throwing it out there...

The problem with all the "hacks" is they don't deal with the
whole problem.  And, in my case, a huge design criteria is
"consume *zero* space".

E.g., I could put a COTS *PC* in each room.  Wire an audio
amp to the sound card's outputs.  Plus a network drop.
Then, snake cables across the floor to the speakers.

How is this *better* than just leaving a CD player in the room?
(i.e., now you've got a PC instead of a 5W CD player)