Streaming to my Hi-Fi

[caseydoug]

I have a Lansonic digital audio server that connects to my ethernet network, reads MP3 and Wave files, and plugs into my hi-fi. I have no problem playing music from my hard drive or MP3s streamed from the internet (provided I have the url and port number). However, I would also like to play certain other streams, including Rhapsody from Listen.com, which I believe is WMA.

To accomplish this, I have been using WinAmp and SHOUTcast, setting the source as "sound card input." It occurs to me that this method must degrade the sound quality quite a lot: music is compressed and sent over the internet, played through the WMA or Rhapsody client, processed by the sound card, and then converted to MP3 by the SHOUTcast server before being sent to my Lansonic, where it is converted to analog and fed into the hi-fi.

Can somebody suggest a more direct way to get this music through my LAN and into my hi-fi? Is there a way to simply relay the wave stream to the Lansonic rather than converting it to MP3? Is there a software product that will bypass my sound card and stream the wave file over my network? I don't want to string more wires. Any help would be appreciated.

Doug