Home Audio question - Airwave / Sonos / Apple TV
Discussion
After a little help here and probabaly a fair few questions answering.
I'm looking to buy a device to play my music through for the dining room / kitchen- now most of my music is now stored on an Iphone / itunes so a dock of some sort sounds ideal.
Howeever I also have a home cinema set up and it'd be great if I could somehow play it all through that as well if I wanted. Its a few years old so isn't set up for Airplay or anything like that.
Would an Apple TV be my best solution - I assume I could then play my music through the tv and therefore the home cinema set up?
If I then also bought a second device for the dining room / kitchen area that was airplay compatible I could then play the same music through that - or even just use it as a dock?
I know I could use a sonos to play around the house but I don't think it would work with my home cinema set up?
Gratefull for any suggestions or help!
oh and where i've mentioned airwave i meant air play!
I'm looking to buy a device to play my music through for the dining room / kitchen- now most of my music is now stored on an Iphone / itunes so a dock of some sort sounds ideal.
Howeever I also have a home cinema set up and it'd be great if I could somehow play it all through that as well if I wanted. Its a few years old so isn't set up for Airplay or anything like that.
Would an Apple TV be my best solution - I assume I could then play my music through the tv and therefore the home cinema set up?
If I then also bought a second device for the dining room / kitchen area that was airplay compatible I could then play the same music through that - or even just use it as a dock?
I know I could use a sonos to play around the house but I don't think it would work with my home cinema set up?
Gratefull for any suggestions or help!
oh and where i've mentioned airwave i meant air play!
Well, an apple TV for the front room, (it has digital out for 5.1 stuff), and an airport express wherever you need sound around the house, (can also be used to extend wifi, add a network printer, external drives, etc). You, and anyone using an I device will be able to send music wherever.
(The good thing about AirPlay is that when someone is watching a movie, you can rick roll them from another room)
(The good thing about AirPlay is that when someone is watching a movie, you can rick roll them from another room)
Thats OK then. So Apple TV in the lounge, which will plug into the AV amp via either optical or HDMI I guess.
An airport express - from my understanding is a receiver type of thingy - which i'd then plug into any existing system via an aux cable?
So if we didn't have an existing system in a room I could either buy an Airplay equiped device or a normal device and use it along with the express?
If all of that is correct - next question - do they do Air play equipped mini systems? - pretty much all i'm seeing is single speaker type systems - not much different to a dock. It'd be useful if we could have a mini system with CD, DAB and Airplay functionality.
An airport express - from my understanding is a receiver type of thingy - which i'd then plug into any existing system via an aux cable?
So if we didn't have an existing system in a room I could either buy an Airplay equiped device or a normal device and use it along with the express?
If all of that is correct - next question - do they do Air play equipped mini systems? - pretty much all i'm seeing is single speaker type systems - not much different to a dock. It'd be useful if we could have a mini system with CD, DAB and Airplay functionality.
I've no idea about full systems with AirPlay. You'll have to go have a peek for those.
So the rest you have pretty much spot on. Apple Tv to TV amp, or whatever, and the express wherever you need remote sound, (they are also handy for travelling, expect ally those hotels with just a wired connection. Plug in and you've got wifi). You just run a headphone jack from the unit to the aux on the device, or you can just buy speaker sets, rather than full on systems.
So the rest you have pretty much spot on. Apple Tv to TV amp, or whatever, and the express wherever you need remote sound, (they are also handy for travelling, expect ally those hotels with just a wired connection. Plug in and you've got wifi). You just run a headphone jack from the unit to the aux on the device, or you can just buy speaker sets, rather than full on systems.
TheHeretic said:
I've no idea about full systems with AirPlay. You'll have to go have a peek for those.
A little bit of searching later and it appears that they are available, but they're not cheap. It would appear that best bet would be to buy cheaper system that does everything I require and add Airport express thingy.
Dan_1981 said:
A little bit of searching later and it appears that they are available, but they're not cheap.
It would appear that best bet would be to buy cheaper system that does everything I require and add Airport express thingy.
That's what I would do... At least you aren't limited to a single system.It would appear that best bet would be to buy cheaper system that does everything I require and add Airport express thingy.
Was faced with a similar decision a while ago - in the end, I found it unwise to go with a "fixed" system such as Sonos etc. where you have to rely on one manufacturer if you wish to expand. With Airport, I never managed to get a transmission that didn't break off fairly often.
In the end I went for a NAS System (mines from QNap, theres others) which now stores all my multimedia (it includes an Apple application server for Itunes). I just have docking stations for Iphon/ipod in the various locations and use Apple TV for playing Multimedia on the TV.
I can now also record from any TV onto the same server, which is nice.
Works a treat, loads of storage space and no compatibility problems whatsoever. Not that expensive either.
In the end I went for a NAS System (mines from QNap, theres others) which now stores all my multimedia (it includes an Apple application server for Itunes). I just have docking stations for Iphon/ipod in the various locations and use Apple TV for playing Multimedia on the TV.
I can now also record from any TV onto the same server, which is nice.
Works a treat, loads of storage space and no compatibility problems whatsoever. Not that expensive either.
I currently have three Apple TV's in my house, running off a network of one airport extreme and two airport express's
One Apple TV in the living room connected to the TV which in turn has surround sound.
One in the kitchen where the TV uses a sound system hidden behind it to beef up the quality of sound from the TV.
One in the games room which is connected by HDMI to the AV system, so it can play music or a film etc. through the projector.
That means in any of the three rooms the Apple TV's can all individually access my iTunes on the iMac and all the kids are happy.
When they have TV's in their rooms I'll get them plugged as well in so they can play music in peace and away from me!
It all works very well and as we're all 'Apple'd up' it made sense to have proprietary equipment rather than a mismatch.
One Apple TV in the living room connected to the TV which in turn has surround sound.
One in the kitchen where the TV uses a sound system hidden behind it to beef up the quality of sound from the TV.
One in the games room which is connected by HDMI to the AV system, so it can play music or a film etc. through the projector.
That means in any of the three rooms the Apple TV's can all individually access my iTunes on the iMac and all the kids are happy.
When they have TV's in their rooms I'll get them plugged as well in so they can play music in peace and away from me!
It all works very well and as we're all 'Apple'd up' it made sense to have proprietary equipment rather than a mismatch.
I think i'm going to go down the route of Apple TV and then add in airports where needed as the Airwave equipped kit that i'm looking at is rather expensive (as we woudl like a mini sytem rather than a dock)
But of course now i've started looking at seperate rather than a cheapo minisytem.
I love shiny things.
But of course now i've started looking at seperate rather than a cheapo minisytem.
I love shiny things.
while you're looking at music streaming, dont discount the logitech squeezeboxes. i have several, and one of them even takes a battery pack so can be used in the garden and still stream music over wifi. http://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/wirel...
Dan_1981 said:
Howeever I also have a home cinema set up and it'd be great if I could somehow play it all through that as well if I wanted. Its a few years old so isn't set up for Airplay or anything like that.
For the room with the cinema setup, if you have an xbox, ps3, PC [or any other DNLA device] connected to your amp, you can just stream your music via an app called "AirMusic" on your iphone, for 2 quid!.. it works wellhttp://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/airmusic/id40978223...
StormLoaded said:
Dan_1981 said:
Howeever I also have a home cinema set up and it'd be great if I could somehow play it all through that as well if I wanted. Its a few years old so isn't set up for Airplay or anything like that.
For the room with the cinema setup, if you have an xbox, ps3, PC [or any other DNLA device] connected to your amp, you can just stream your music via an app called "AirMusic" on your iphone, for 2 quid!.. it works wellhttp://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/airmusic/id40978223...
I've only tried it myself on ps3,xbox and pc where it worked perfectly, as it says it should.. so i would hope it works just as well on DLNA TVs/BluRay players.
I'll try it out when i get home later as my TV in the lounge is DLNA - Ive not tried it before as that TV isnt connected to a decent sound system so pretty pointless, but will give it a whirl for test purposes.. its a cheapy LG (pk590) so if that works id say your panny would be ok
I'll try it out when i get home later as my TV in the lounge is DLNA - Ive not tried it before as that TV isnt connected to a decent sound system so pretty pointless, but will give it a whirl for test purposes.. its a cheapy LG (pk590) so if that works id say your panny would be ok
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