Airply or Hi-Fi speakers for multi-room listening
Discussion
I posted this on a thread in the computers forum, but thought I would raise it as a question here as it seems more appropriate:
Multi-room setup - Airplay speakers or Hi-Fi?
I have an Apple-centric setup at with a desktop (PC) running itunes and an Apple TV connected to the surround sound & TV in the living room. Works great, and all controlled from the various iphones/ipads/ipods in the house.
Now I need to add the speakers to the other rooms. With this setup it is no problem to zone and control speakers independently around the house. So for me there are two options - Airplay speakers, or Airports with speakers attached. I'm not considering Sonos (see below).
For the Airplay speakers, I listened to some back-to-back. The Sonos were OK, but they tend to sound very compressed, bordering on distorted if you've got a big room to fill and you push them. I much preferred a couple of the B&W airplay speakers they had, namely the A7 (good, strong clean sound) and Zeppelin Air (big bass and LOUD) however they were £700 and £500 respectively!
The Airplays, although good, are essentially one-box solutions though and I'd like to go for a more Hi-Fi quality setup in at least the main rooms downstairs - which means decent quality speakers plugged into an Airport.
So - a question out to the PH audiophiles - If I wanted to go the Airport & powered speakers route, does anyone have any recommendations for speakers or manufacturers to check out?
Thanks!
Multi-room setup - Airplay speakers or Hi-Fi?
I have an Apple-centric setup at with a desktop (PC) running itunes and an Apple TV connected to the surround sound & TV in the living room. Works great, and all controlled from the various iphones/ipads/ipods in the house.
Now I need to add the speakers to the other rooms. With this setup it is no problem to zone and control speakers independently around the house. So for me there are two options - Airplay speakers, or Airports with speakers attached. I'm not considering Sonos (see below).
For the Airplay speakers, I listened to some back-to-back. The Sonos were OK, but they tend to sound very compressed, bordering on distorted if you've got a big room to fill and you push them. I much preferred a couple of the B&W airplay speakers they had, namely the A7 (good, strong clean sound) and Zeppelin Air (big bass and LOUD) however they were £700 and £500 respectively!
The Airplays, although good, are essentially one-box solutions though and I'd like to go for a more Hi-Fi quality setup in at least the main rooms downstairs - which means decent quality speakers plugged into an Airport.
So - a question out to the PH audiophiles - If I wanted to go the Airport & powered speakers route, does anyone have any recommendations for speakers or manufacturers to check out?
Thanks!
I'm going down this route for smaller rooms but it's only BT, not airplay. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1238747394/the...
There is a new system due out, I should be seeing it this week, which is like SONOS for use and control, but with BT to its bases and plays uncompressed files so should sound better.
No Play:3, 5 or bar alternatives at the moment but playing to book shelf speakers or in-ceiling's I should be a good alternative.
It comes from a respected Multi Room music manufacturer who has a range of good systems available to us custom installers.
Hth.
V.
No Play:3, 5 or bar alternatives at the moment but playing to book shelf speakers or in-ceiling's I should be a good alternative.
It comes from a respected Multi Room music manufacturer who has a range of good systems available to us custom installers.
Hth.
V.
If you are worried about sound quality, I'd go for an Airport Express plugged into a proper Hifi or even an AV amp that can handle Airplay natively. That way you get a true stereo set up. The B&W A7 is brilliant for what it is, but spend £700 on a traditional amp and speakers and you'd get a much better sounding system (if not so compact).
I have gone with Sonos, primarily because of the multiple room functionality. I can never seem to get Airplay to play to more than one room simultaneously. The Play 3/5 units start to sound a lot better if you use them as a stereo pair, but again the cost is high. You can also get the Sonos Connect which will line in to proper Hifi.
If you don't want simulataneous multi room, I'd stick with AirPlay.
I have gone with Sonos, primarily because of the multiple room functionality. I can never seem to get Airplay to play to more than one room simultaneously. The Play 3/5 units start to sound a lot better if you use them as a stereo pair, but again the cost is high. You can also get the Sonos Connect which will line in to proper Hifi.
If you don't want simulataneous multi room, I'd stick with AirPlay.
eastsider said:
This. Go sonos, cost is worth it.
I have six of them, the work faultlessly and connected to decent speaks give a proper stero image and much better sound than a Sonos for the same money.On the odd occasion I wan the same music in more than one room I use airfoil.
Sonos is brilliant at what it does, but don't be fooled into thinking the sound quality is all that.
eastsider said:
This. Go sonos, cost is worth it.
I have six of them, the work faultlessly and connected to decent speaks give a proper stero image and much better sound than a Sonos for the same money.On the odd occasion I wan the same music in more than one room I use airfoil.
Sonos is brilliant at what it does, but don't be fooled into thinking the sound quality is all that.
Thanks for the responses all.
Thanks!
kingston12 said:
If you are worried about sound quality, I'd go for an Airport Express plugged into a proper Hifi or even an AV amp that can handle Airplay natively. That way you get a true stereo set up. The B&W A7 is brilliant for what it is, but spend £700 on a traditional amp and speakers and you'd get a much better sounding system (if not so compact).
This is exactly the route I want to go, but ideally I don't want a separate amp. That means powered speakers, but would that also mean compromise on quality? I haven't found any decent powered speakers that aren't just glorified PC speakers - can anyone recommend anything to look at?Thanks!
deevee said:
This is exactly the route I want to go, but ideally I don't want a separate amp. That means powered speakers, but would that also mean compromise on quality? I haven't found any decent powered speakers that aren't just glorified PC speakers - can anyone recommend anything to look at?
Thanks!
It depends on how much you want to spend. KEF X300 and an Airport Express will cost you the same as an A7 and I'd expect them to blow it away.Thanks!
The more convenience and smaller size you want, the more you will pay for the same sound quality, so at the same price level amp and speakers will be better than active speakers and active speakers will be better than a dock.
VEX said:
There is a new system due out, I should be seeing it this week, which is like SONOS for use and control, but with BT to its bases and plays uncompressed files so should sound better.
No Play:3, 5 or bar alternatives at the moment but playing to book shelf speakers or in-ceiling's I should be a good alternative.
It comes from a respected Multi Room music manufacturer who has a range of good systems available to us custom installers.
Hth.
V.
Any further news on this?No Play:3, 5 or bar alternatives at the moment but playing to book shelf speakers or in-ceiling's I should be a good alternative.
It comes from a respected Multi Room music manufacturer who has a range of good systems available to us custom installers.
Hth.
V.
I use Airplay and suffer zero dropout issues with music. Occasionaly (particularly when mucking around with different outputs on my macbook) OS X seems to get confused and refuse to output via anything other than its inbuilt speakers. A restart solves this.
The only niggly one is mirroring over Airplay but that's always been slightly patchy
The only niggly one is mirroring over Airplay but that's always been slightly patchy
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