Ethernet Wireless Hard Drive Music Server


Is anyone using an ethernet hard drive connected to their Airport Base Station to act as a wireless music server? I'm thinking of doing just that but wondered if the speed of the Airport interface delivering an ethernet connection wirelessly is going to be fast enough to provide uninterrupted music? I'm pretty sure I have the most recent Airport Base Station, or at least know it's 802.11g compatible. Not sure of the actual transfer rate though. I'd be using an ethernet hard drive such as this Lacie ethernet hard drive. With ethernet the transfer is limited to 100mb/s. I'm not sure what the minimum streaming rate for itunes files are, and whether or not that rate varies with the file type (I use WAV and Apple Lossless). I would think that the critical, limiting link would be the wireless streaming rate. Is there somewhere in the Mac OSX.4 operating system to check the actual rate your Airport is streaming data?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Marco
jax2
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.