Music around the home

[The Moose]

Am wondering about putting piped music around the house. I don't want a central music store, I'd like to stream from iPad/iPhone/MacBook etc.

I've come across the Apple AirPort Express which seem to be an easy solution. The only issue I can see with it is that I think the speakers need to have an amplifier between the AirPort Express and the speakers meaning there'll be a bunch of energy wasted on amplifiers.

Any suggestions/recommendations?

[dave123456]

how will you get a sound with no amplifier? surely it needs to be somewhere?

[The Moose]

dave123456 said:

how will you get a sound with no amplifier? surely it needs to be somewhere?

Auto on/auto off amp?! I dunno - hence the question!!

[Harry Flashman]

Sonos and similar solutions. If you just want remote music in any single given room, and are not overly fussy about getting ultimate sound quality, a cheap bluetooth receiver plugged into your hifi allows you to play music from your phone.

[BorkFactor]

Another vote for Sonos, it is a fantastic system. You can play music from individual devices and have different stuff in each room. The station things are expensive but the sound quality is fantastic.

[The Moose]

Can you stream from all devices on sonos?

What sonos products do I need to be looking at?

[chockymonster]

pretty much, yes.

I have a macmini with all my music on it, a spotify subscription and a multitude of iphones/ipads.
All can play music through the sonos system.
I have a few play 1s, a 5 and a connect.

[paulrockliffe]

If you look at Sonos and wonder where on earth they get their prices from, I can highly recommend the Logitech Bluetooth receiver for about £25 and Lepai do some great amplifiers around the £17 mark.


I know you don't want a central store, but you can do some pretty cool stuff with a raspberry Pi running the OpenElec version of XBMC(Kodi)and the Yatse remote control on your phone.

[Muncher]

Another vote for Sonos, I have a simple £90 bridge hooked up to my sound bar and it's great, one of the best bits of kit I have bought.

[The Moose]

I'd like to build in the speakers.

Any reason not the AirPort Express?

[chockymonster]

In my experience, yes. It's not reliable.
I junked my setup of AE in each room I wanted music and went for the Sonos.
It's a neater install, I've had no tech issues with it, no audio breakup, no units disappearing for no reason, all issues I had with the AE stuff.

The sonos gear might be expensive compared to others but the user experience is worth it.

[pistolpedro]

Could you use a wi fi plug to power the amp on and off remotely from the device ?


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009SA9Z6S/ref=...

Edited by pistolpedro on Wednesday 7th January 22:42

[SlidingSideways]

You can get stand-alone AirPlay speakers, rather than having to buy an Airport Express and amp & speakers.
We have three of these dotted around the house: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Fidelio-AD7000W-So...
Music is played from a central iTunes library, controlled via the Apple Remote app on iPhones & iPad.

If you're already a fully paid up Apple user, it's a quick and relatively cheap way to do it.
The only problems I've had with sound quality is when my somewhat gutless media PC is transcoding video, it can get a bit stuttery.

Having said all that, my brother has a Sonos setup and if I was starting from scratch I'd go that route instead.

[Kinky]

I can't believe I missed out on the Sonos bandwagon for so long

Kinda kicking myself but hey ho.

Since late last summer, I now have a Sonos setup all around the house, all linked/synced up with my Google Music, Amazon, SoundCloud and BandCamp accounts and the TuneIn channel/app. Seriously awesome

[Renovation]

For the price of the Sonos you could simply have a stereo system in each room.

I prefer listening to the radio so my elegant solution is to move the radio with me - a radical idea. However it seems you can't buy decent portable ones so I built one using car components and a 12ah battery - it plays LOUD for 8+hrs and is rain proof.

[Yazar]

Renovation said:

For the price of the Sonos you could simply have a stereo system in each room.

+1 Prefer to plug phone/tablet in to a hifi.

I previously had multiple Sonos, but haven't bothered to take it out of boxes since last house move. It is very good for what it is but:

- Not 100% reliable. Good but sometimes app would crash etc, And if wifi plays up as mentioned above then stuffed. Wired is always better- current place is a renovation project so will be getting wired.
- Prefer a traditional multi-button remote control to pissing about with apps. With a remote control you have your many buttons and you press them with zero delay, a Logotech Harmony type will do custom sequences etc. With Sonos its a pain to turn on phone/pc/tablet, open app etc.
- If you are listening first thing in morning/at night then you don't want that backlight hitting your eyes neither. With a normal remote you memorise where the main buttons are so can simply fumblefor it in the dark.
- Floorstanders/2.1 is superior for music, Accept Sonos Play 5 sound is fine and mids are good but can't match the low frequencies of a decent speaker or a sub. I have a Sonos Connect too (feeds into hifi), but then you are messing about with both the hifi remote and the app.

If you don't want a central music store then not sure its worth the cost OP, as one of the main benefits of Sonos is having a hard drive/nas hooked up to it. It is good for the reason that many choose Apple- non techs who want a simple to setup and operate solutions that 'just works'.

Edited by Yazar on Thursday 8th January 00:17

[ecotec]

depending on how much DIY you want to do, this is my system:

Raspberry pi + running volumnio http://volumio.org/ - music connected via USB HDD (in .flac) but could just as well be on a NAS, spotify etc

pi dac connected to amp via rca phono cables. Then on any web browser (pc, laptop, phone, tablet) enter the ip of the pi to open the volumnio interface and play music/web radio. The Lepai amps mentioned earlier are great too (now called LVPIN).

Amp with multiple outputs can feed extra sets of speakers, likewise volumnio can be run on multiple pi's throughout the house.

Edited by ecotec on Thursday 8th January 07:58

[clockworks]

I'm using 2 Airport Expresses with Denon microsystems in the kitchen and study, and a Denon receiver with Airplay in the lounge. Sources are a Windows server running iTunes, and an iPod Touch for internet radio. ITunes on the server can be controlled using tablet or phone apps.

The Airports are wired, and act as WiFi access points too. Works fine for me.

[Ean218]

ecotec said:

depending on how much DIY you want to do, this is my system:

Raspberry pi + running volumnio http://volumio.org/ - music connected via USB HDD (in .flac) but could just as well be on a NAS, spotify etc

pi dac connected to amp via rca phono cables. Then on any web browser (pc, laptop, phone, tablet) enter the ip of the pi to open the volumnio interface and play music/web radio. The Lepai amps mentioned earlier are great too (now called LVPIN).

Amp with multiple outputs can feed extra sets of speakers, likewise volumnio can be run on multiple pi's throughout the house.

+1 to this. I have exactly the same, but also have an Open Home server (BubbleUPNP) so that any device can control them over DLNA. I have a Roberts Radio that sits on Open Home too and can stream anything to that as well.

[Troubleatmill]

Airport express is flaky. You will get buffering issues.
This is well documented.
And I have never been able to get it to work satisfactory.

Sonos is the answer.