House music system
Discussion
Hi
I have been thinking about having some sort of system fitted to my house but as this is not a strong subject for me I need someone to tell it can be, it can't be done and, if it can, then point me at a product group.
We often have friends round and end up playing music through the tv via the lap top and hdmi cable. I have no other way of playing music other than my TEAC dock in my study.
I was wondering is there a way to connect your laptop via Bluetooth and have Bluetooth speakers in each room that can be turned on or off separately for instance my wife is watching tv and I'm wanting to listen to music whilst I clean the kitchen or I'm cleaning the whole house avd have each room on.
Does any of that make sense?
I have been thinking about having some sort of system fitted to my house but as this is not a strong subject for me I need someone to tell it can be, it can't be done and, if it can, then point me at a product group.
We often have friends round and end up playing music through the tv via the lap top and hdmi cable. I have no other way of playing music other than my TEAC dock in my study.
I was wondering is there a way to connect your laptop via Bluetooth and have Bluetooth speakers in each room that can be turned on or off separately for instance my wife is watching tv and I'm wanting to listen to music whilst I clean the kitchen or I'm cleaning the whole house avd have each room on.
Does any of that make sense?
I use Apple airport express, around £80 per unit and fully controllable via an iphone
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=apple+a...
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=apple+a...
justin220 said:
Have you looked into Sonos?
I havent, I really am naive when it comes to this sort of thing so it really does need to be explained in very simple terms. I know if I go to PC world they will tell me that I need this in my life but really need someone to tell me what I need to meet my requirements.
I also know nothing about this type of thing, but recommend you give this recent topic a read-through:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Certainly has helped explain it better to me, as I'm now looking to go down the Sonos route in the next month or two...
ETA - may be overkill (and overspend) for what you actually want.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Certainly has helped explain it better to me, as I'm now looking to go down the Sonos route in the next month or two...
ETA - may be overkill (and overspend) for what you actually want.
Edited by SWAT78 on Friday 22 June 11:23
Depending on your budget it sounds like either a Sonus system will fit the bill or a Squeezebox.
I was in a similar sort of predicament but as a hi fi buff was just happy to have seperate systems in different rooms.
Has to be said the flexibility of the Sonus system has changed how we now listen to music and when we have people round its pretty cool just having exactly the same music piped through the Front Room, Dining Room and Kitchen.
I just need to get our existing stuff moved over to lossless and then on to a NAS.
Then it's mission complete
I was in a similar sort of predicament but as a hi fi buff was just happy to have seperate systems in different rooms.
Has to be said the flexibility of the Sonus system has changed how we now listen to music and when we have people round its pretty cool just having exactly the same music piped through the Front Room, Dining Room and Kitchen.
I just need to get our existing stuff moved over to lossless and then on to a NAS.
Then it's mission complete
Timed nicely.
Along the same lines I'm looking to wire a couple of rooms in the house with ceiling speakers and I've figured that using a combination of a couple of airport expresses, a multichannel power amplifier, my IMAC (where my music is stored) and the use of Iphone/Ipad devices I've got lying about the house I should be good to provide easily selectible music for the house.
Along the same lines I'm looking to wire a couple of rooms in the house with ceiling speakers and I've figured that using a combination of a couple of airport expresses, a multichannel power amplifier, my IMAC (where my music is stored) and the use of Iphone/Ipad devices I've got lying about the house I should be good to provide easily selectible music for the house.
I have a NAS serving 3 Squeezebox devices and the sound quality from the 2 Squeezebox Booms is perfectly acceptable. The Radio is bearable but its portability evens that out!
I am intrigued enough to want to understand what a comparable Sonos system has to offer over and above my Squeezes!
The main drawback IMO is the relatively technical nature of the setup, as well as should you ever decide to update the Squeezebox Server software on the NAS which can occasionally throw up a wobbly or two.
Anyone compared the two together, specifically sound quality and ease of setup etc?
I am intrigued enough to want to understand what a comparable Sonos system has to offer over and above my Squeezes!
The main drawback IMO is the relatively technical nature of the setup, as well as should you ever decide to update the Squeezebox Server software on the NAS which can occasionally throw up a wobbly or two.
Anyone compared the two together, specifically sound quality and ease of setup etc?
crmcatee said:
Timed nicely.
Along the same lines I'm looking to wire a couple of rooms in the house with ceiling speakers and I've figured that using a combination of a couple of airport expresses, a multichannel power amplifier, my IMAC (where my music is stored) and the use of Iphone/Ipad devices I've got lying about the house I should be good to provide easily selectible music for the house.
Just some advice if you go the apple route, if you use airport express then you can't have different music to different rooms at the same time as the computer is the player. If you use apple tv then you can have different music/films all playing at the same time streamed from one computer as the apple tv acts like a device. For the small price difference and the added bits apple tv does it is a no-brainer to me, we have three Appletv's around the house and the setup works very well.Along the same lines I'm looking to wire a couple of rooms in the house with ceiling speakers and I've figured that using a combination of a couple of airport expresses, a multichannel power amplifier, my IMAC (where my music is stored) and the use of Iphone/Ipad devices I've got lying about the house I should be good to provide easily selectible music for the house.
Good call.
I had a couple of airports doing nothing in the house so was going to use them and my testing had already confirmed it was one stream only.
I was looking to use Remote on the phone/ipads to control the selections so if I went down the AppleTV route I can use different remotes to stream music all from the same source to different destinations if I've got that right.
I had a couple of airports doing nothing in the house so was going to use them and my testing had already confirmed it was one stream only.
I was looking to use Remote on the phone/ipads to control the selections so if I went down the AppleTV route I can use different remotes to stream music all from the same source to different destinations if I've got that right.
I'd love to recommend a separates system in each room, connected using Apple Airport express units.
When it works, it's a great system. Can stream music from my Mac to the separate systems, and use my iPhone or iPad as a remote control. Can also stream music directly from iPhone or iPad to the separate systems.
Unfortunately, the Airport Expresses are hopelessly unreliable. They constantly 'drop out', I had to restart them every day. I've spent hours on the phone to Apple and with their 'Geniuses' in store trying to sort the issues. I live in a small flat, so they should work fine, but they're just completely disastrous. Apple have just given up, citing 'Architectural interference issues' Completely useless. I've just turned the damn things off.
I know a few people who run Apple Airport Express systems with no trouble, but I'd definatly looking at Sonos or a different dedicated solution.
When it works, it's a great system. Can stream music from my Mac to the separate systems, and use my iPhone or iPad as a remote control. Can also stream music directly from iPhone or iPad to the separate systems.
Unfortunately, the Airport Expresses are hopelessly unreliable. They constantly 'drop out', I had to restart them every day. I've spent hours on the phone to Apple and with their 'Geniuses' in store trying to sort the issues. I live in a small flat, so they should work fine, but they're just completely disastrous. Apple have just given up, citing 'Architectural interference issues' Completely useless. I've just turned the damn things off.
I know a few people who run Apple Airport Express systems with no trouble, but I'd definatly looking at Sonos or a different dedicated solution.
Okay there may be a slight change of tac here from me and apologies again for hijacking the thread.
My original thoughts was along the lines of a couple of airport expresses feeding a multichannel power amp which will then drive seperate stereo speakers in different rooms.
However having looked at the SONOS stuff I think it would do the job and I wouldn't need to mess about with bits and pieces.
I'm planning on two sets of speakers feeding two seperate rooms. So I figures that's two separate CONNECT:AMP boxes. These would be located in the cupboard beside the wireless router so no need for wireless.
I'm guessing that one of these CONNECT boxes has the ability (through the Ethernet port) to access the media stream (or do they all do that). It doesn't appear to be clear how they gain access to my Itunes on my Mac.
I planned to put on in the dining room which has it's own stereo - although the price of the CONNECT seems excessive just for an audio output when the Airport could do that for a third of the price.
Couple of questions :
Do I need a Bridge - can't the CONNECT:AMP boxes do the same thing if I'm hardwired to the router (with the exception of the one Connect box in the dining room which would need to be wireless).
Which device actually accesses the Itunes folder - or do they all do it ?
My original thoughts was along the lines of a couple of airport expresses feeding a multichannel power amp which will then drive seperate stereo speakers in different rooms.
However having looked at the SONOS stuff I think it would do the job and I wouldn't need to mess about with bits and pieces.
I'm planning on two sets of speakers feeding two seperate rooms. So I figures that's two separate CONNECT:AMP boxes. These would be located in the cupboard beside the wireless router so no need for wireless.
I'm guessing that one of these CONNECT boxes has the ability (through the Ethernet port) to access the media stream (or do they all do that). It doesn't appear to be clear how they gain access to my Itunes on my Mac.
I planned to put on in the dining room which has it's own stereo - although the price of the CONNECT seems excessive just for an audio output when the Airport could do that for a third of the price.
Couple of questions :
Do I need a Bridge - can't the CONNECT:AMP boxes do the same thing if I'm hardwired to the router (with the exception of the one Connect box in the dining room which would need to be wireless).
Which device actually accesses the Itunes folder - or do they all do it ?
Cheers Mr Toxic.
1. Gotcha.
2. I'm going to have three zones - two amplified and one just audio out so it plugs into my valve amp in the dining room. I did say above that I was going to use a CONNECT for the amp connection - still balking at the price compared to a Airport though
3. Gotcha.
4. So with one of the :AMP units acting as a bridge, the CONNECT unit downstairs will be able to connect wirelessly with it to get onto the network and find the Itunes folder.
Mucho gracias, I can see a shopping trip coming up
1. Gotcha.
2. I'm going to have three zones - two amplified and one just audio out so it plugs into my valve amp in the dining room. I did say above that I was going to use a CONNECT for the amp connection - still balking at the price compared to a Airport though
3. Gotcha.
4. So with one of the :AMP units acting as a bridge, the CONNECT unit downstairs will be able to connect wirelessly with it to get onto the network and find the Itunes folder.
Mucho gracias, I can see a shopping trip coming up
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