Simple, Cost-Effective, Multiroom Audio? 438
jimicus writes "I'd like a multiroom audio system but I'm thoroughly confused by the options available — and the difference in prices is huge. For instance, Philips have a wireless system which starts at around £280 — and Russound have a product which comes in around £1,000. I've already got all my music as MP3s and it lives on a NAS box — I don't really want to repeat that process. I also have a perfectly capable amp and speakers in my living room, so I don't really need anything else there. Whatever I go for has to pass the wife test — so something which requires a separate amp, speakers and PC in each room and requires a keyboard to control is right out. I don't mind spending a little money but I don't really want to find that every little extra thing adds up to £thousands. Has anyone else dealt with a similar problem? How did you solve it?"
Re:The obvious solution (Score:2, Interesting)
Deliver the audio via FM-radio (Score:5, Interesting)
Any internet connected machine will control the audio programming, and any old FM-radio will do the trick of receiving the signal. Simple. Effective. _AND_ Wife-Friendly(TM) (at least, according to my wife ;)
Because of FM-modulation, this technique is not hi-fi. But a decent transmitter does an admirable job in retaining audio quality.
FM Broadcaster - simple, cheap, expandable, in syn (Score:5, Interesting)
C Crane sells an FM broadcaster which has a variable potentiometer which can be easily adjusted to boost the range beyond what the FCC allows.
If you attach this to your NAS as an audio output or your main stereo, you can relay what you're listening to in nice FM stereo throughout most of a large size house (goes well through my 3-story house and even our detached garage).
FM broadcast is cheap, it's easy to add new devices that are easy to use, and the music is perfectly in sync.
If you're broadcasting from a NAS, add a usb sound card to broadcast the music, and control it with MPD, which will allow you to change music via a lot of clients, including an iphone.
Re:iTunes + Airport Express (Score:5, Interesting)
Use your phone lines (Score:2, Interesting)
Just Multiroom, or Multizone? (Score:2, Interesting)
Rocketboost from Best Buy (Score:4, Interesting)
The Rocketboost system at best buy is a wireless solution that will work for you: http://www.bestbuy.com/rocketboost [bestbuy.com] gives a good summary of how it works.
You can add speakers and audio sources around your house, and the speakers have a "next source" button that lets you flip between your audio sources. It is modular, where you can buy as many units as you need and they all join together into one big network in your house. It isn't super-cheap, but it is cheaper than other products that are equally as flexible in how you set them up.
Disclaimer: I worked on this product (wrote the protocol stack for moving the audio data over the air), so you may want to take my recommendation with a grain of salt, but I am happy with how well the product turned out and I think it's pretty neat.
The "right" answer, rather than the geeky one... (Score:4, Interesting)
They don't cost all that much, which leaves you to spend your money on decent speakers. Depending on your home layout, you may want surface-mount, or recessed, or just cube-in-the-corner. As for wires - Keep in mind you either have signal, or power, or both going to them. So wireless doesn't really buy you all that much unless you absolutely positively cannot make discrete 1/8" holes hidden in the corner/wall/floor/ceiling/whatever. Personally, I consider speaker-wire easier to hide than power, so have chosen to just run an array of speaker wire through the basement up through small holes between the floorboards (old-style New England house with a decent gap between floorboards, so as close to invisible holes as you could ever want).
But yeah, you don't want a high-tech solution, you want an old-school distro amp. What you feed it with depends on what the wife will put up with, but you can find a huge number of digital car audio solutions that provide minimalist interfaces with decent functionality.
Re:Uhhh... (Score:0, Interesting)
I live by this setup (Score:5, Interesting)
I have 3 airport express', one in the bedroom, one in the dining room, and the other in the kitchen. They all work wonderfully and it has replaced our stereo to the point where we simply don't use anything else. That was great, but the thing that kicked it into overdrive was the remote control app; with the iphone or ipod touch, I can control everything wherever I am. Absolutely brilliant setup!
I assume there are other setups like this, but I don't know of them.
Re:Sonos (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't get why all you people are suggesting computer-based solutions.
Running wires to each room in the house would be both cheaper and have sound quality independent of network quality.
Re:Obligatory audiophile post (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry - my bad. Guilty as charged.
And there is also the issue - was the hypothetical 256 kilosample/second MP3 made from the analog original or resampling the sampled source.
If interested, my other post in this thread may be useful - http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1435342&cid=30018812 [slashdot.org]
I tried a number of sampling schemes with a number of program sources on my system. Then had the sources switched for me (electronics are in another room from my speakers, so it was blind). On some material, I could hear significant differences from the original - where the original was an audio CD - sampled in the first place.
That's not scientifically acceptable - but perhaps it's a probative anecdote.
Re:The obvious solution (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes ... but ... At least two problems. First, the AC power frequency -- 50 or 60Hz in most countries is in the audio range. Second, the US (and Canada?) wire houses with a sort of split 220 volt system where the house has two sets of circuits with the hot wire on one circuit set at 220 volts wrt the hot wire on the other set and ground half way in between. That allows stoves, driers, heaters to operate at 220 volts while most appliances and devices see 110 volts. The problem is that without some sort of coupling between the two hot wires, signals on one circuit set don't get to the other circuit set.
Re:Just Multiroom, or Multizone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hi, I'm the OP.
The reason I asked the question is that I've spent some hours digging around and I can't give you intelligent answers to most of those questions - because I don't fully understand the questions. I didn't know there was a difference between multiroom and multizone until I read your post.
What I had in mind was some sort of central unit which can stream my MP3s to the amplifier in the lounge and also to a number of units elsewhere in the house - preferably with the choice of "same thing in every room" or "different thing playing in the bedroom and the kitchen" so my wife can listen to something else. Ideally the units elsewhere in the house would be self-contained - I'm not really going to be in any position to tell the difference between 5.1 surround and just a basic output in the kitchen or bedroom so there's no point in going overboard.
So far I'm liking the sound of the Squeezebox solution but I'm wary of planned obsolescence - for instance, can a new Squeezebox boombox receive a stream from a 5-year old unit? Or have they messed around with the firmware to prevent that?
Re:iTunes + Airport Express (Score:3, Interesting)
Check out the T-Class amplifiers. Cheep, but with audio quality almost unmatched.
70 Volt Systems (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:iTunes + Airport Express (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're using a Mac, you could send the output of iTunes through Soundflower [cycling74.com] to a streaming server, and connect to it from other machines.
Re:Sonos (Score:2, Interesting)
Sonos just launched a new product that helps keep things affordable - the $399 ZP S5. It's really all you need to get started (assuming you have a home network) -- you don't even need an iPhone/iPod Touch. You can use the free Windows or OSX controllers. Once you get hooked, though, you're going to expand to every room in your house.
It's priced to compete with Bose, but frankly, it's better sound quality, easier to user, and more versatile.