HiFi advice please

[IanA2]

I'm way out of touch with current technology so be gentle.

What I would like is a couple of decent floor standing speakers to play stereo, and controlled wirelessly from my mac devices. I've tried researching this a bit but not getting very far. What I think I need is a NAC, however it's the wireless speakers that I can't quite get sorted. It seems there are "converters" but that they are not very powerful and won't run decent speakers.

The kind of music I'd like to listen on this theoretical system is mixed, classical, jazz & folk. I wouldn't say I'm a great audiophile, but I'd like to get a reasonable sound when listening to classical music in particular..

The room the system will be going in is 19' x19' (with lowish ceiling) and is tiled (main reason I don't want cables).

I'd be grateful for advice from those who know more about it than me, as to whether this set up, with reasonable sound reproduction is possible.

Budget wise I was thinking around 1500, but could go to 2ish if necessary.

Thanks.

[megaphone]

Just buy normal speakers and a stereo amp. Then add an Apple Airport Express to allow Airplay from your Apple devices. Express has a line out which can plug straight into the Aux in on the amp.

Or, if the amp has an optical input then you could use an Apple TV, gives you a TV interface as well for similar money.

Edited by megaphone on Monday 29th February 12:15

[IanA2]

megaphone said:

Just buy normal speakers and a stereo amp. Then add an Apple Airport Express to allow Airplay from your Apple devices. Express has a line out which can plug straight into the Aux in on the amp.

Or, if the amp has an optical input then you could use an Apple TV, gives you a TV interface as well for similar money.

Edited by megaphone on Monday 29th February 12:15

Thanks for that, I'm not sure how the speakers would work with that set up. Confused.

[Tony1963]

OP,

You'll need cables, even with wireless speakers. They need power, so they plug into the mains. Your choice!

[megaphone]

IanA2 said:

megaphone said:

Just buy normal speakers and a stereo amp. Then add an Apple Airport Express to allow Airplay from your Apple devices. Express has a line out which can plug straight into the Aux in on the amp.

Or, if the amp has an optical input then you could use an Apple TV, gives you a TV interface as well for similar money.

Edited by megaphone on Monday 29th February 12:15

Thanks for that, I'm not sure how the speakers would work with that set up. Confused.

Not clear in your OP. Are you looking for wireless speakers? Floor standers? Good luck! As said you'll need to power them anyway. A stereo amp will have wires going to the speakers.


If you want a 'wireless' system then look at Sonos, Play 5s aren't bad. Still need power.

[anonymous-user]

IanA2 said:

megaphone said:

Just buy normal speakers and a stereo amp. Then add an Apple Airport Express to allow Airplay from your Apple devices. Express has a line out which can plug straight into the Aux in on the amp.

Or, if the amp has an optical input then you could use an Apple TV, gives you a TV interface as well for similar money.

Edited by megaphone on Monday 29th February 12:15

Thanks for that, I'm not sure how the speakers would work with that set up. Confused.

The speakers connect to the amp. Rather than controlling the speakers from your wireless device, you control the amp via the Apple Airport Express which in turn drives the speakers.

Alternatively get a Sonos Connect Amp and connect your speakers to that. No need for anything else and you can control wirelessly. I've got this setup wth a pair of Tannoy speakers and it works great and only one mains socket required

[anonymous-user]

The minimum amount of wires is probably going to be a stereo pair of Sonos Play 5s. That would just be two power plugs.

Not really "floor standing" though

Everything else I can think of would involve power to an amp then speaker cables.

If it were me I would *probably* go for sonos connect amp, hidden as best you can, then run cable to 2 x decent bookshelf speakers on nice speaker stands.

That should fill a room well.

Or there is the Naim Muso, but I havent tried that.

[anonymous-user]

desolate said:

Or there is the Naim Muso, but I havent tried that.

That is a big bugger!

[IanA2]

Thanks for all the advice.

The one thing I don't want to compromise on is the speakers, I really do want a couple of decent floor standing boxes so it looks like compromises will be needed elsewhere.

As I said in my OP, I way way out of date in these things so when I have the time I'll spend a hour in Richer sounds and see what can be sorted out.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

[anonymous-user]

IanA2 said:

Thanks for all the advice.

The one thing I don't want to compromise on is the speakers, I really do want a couple of decent floor standing boxes so it looks like compromises will be needed elsewhere.

A Sonos Connect Amp will power floor standing speakers. I think it sounds better than OK on the set up I have with some decent Mission bookshelf speakers.

There will be a wire to each speaker from the amp though and I cant think of any floor standing speakers that will work wirelessly and without an amp.

[Digitalize]

A pair of decent floorstanders, and then a decent amp. All will need to be wired obviously.

Then either the amp has AirPlay built in, or you buy an AirPort express.

As a word of warning, if wanting to play ALAC (lossless) files you'll need a strong wifi network as the bitrate is quite high. It might not be an issue on an N network or above, I think my older APE was G only. Use a Chromecast audio now which is better but not as simple to play to using iOS/iTunes

[blindspot]

You're not looking to do anything all that difficult.

Assuming you already have the Mac, and want wireless control of music playing then you need:

Amp with DAC and probably bluetooth.

Speakers to suit you taste in music.

I would buy a second hand Naim Unitiqute (around £650) or a new Unitiqute 2 and spend the balance on the speakers.

Options for getting music from the Mac to the Unitiqute are streamed over your network, or optical. If you stream, the Naim apps are fine to use for control.

[blindspot]

Other options might include a pair of Devialet Phantoms (£2.5+).

[VEX]

Have a chat with Paul at (Viper of this parish) at the Hifi Lounge. He has an excellent range of knowledge, experience and products.

I have just (today) collected a Chord DAC and Naim Amp from him to drive a pair of these little beauties! (Triton Ones)

http://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-series?gk...

They sound amashing even with a sonos box and analogue amp, so looking forward to setting that little triplet up tomorrow.

V.

[dvshannow]

Am running a sonus into a naim dac and amp and it sounds great dont think there is much upside in adding a naim digital streamer and the economies of scale in the sonus interface/support make it the ideal setup in my opinion.

The money i would have spent on the high end digital source i spent on a really good sub a b&w ddb1.

[AC43]

As others have said get a decent amp + floorstanders. To hide speaker cables either chase them into the plaster or pop your skirting boards off and run the cables behind.

If you use Spotify (Premium) as your source you don't need Sonos or Airplay. Just get a Chromecast Audio for £30 or less, connect it via optical and you have 320 Kb/s streaming.

I do this with CA 640R I got from Richer Sounds for £600 a good few years ago, a pair of wall-mounted Monitor Audio Golds from Sevenoaks that were £800-ish and a Tannoy sub for £100 or so (OH didn't want floorstanders).

[MTech535]

Dali Sensor 5 AX would mean no separate amp, but would still need power and would have a cable joining the two speakers.

2x Sonos Play 5s would be the least amount of cables.

What is your budget? I am sure if you spend enough there is something out there.