Happy friday hifi/wifi geeks 🙂

I’ve been putting together a mulitroom media set up and have put together a home cinema. I’m now at the stage of trying to maximise what I can get out of it, so could do with some advice from knowledgable people to point out where things could be improved or added to.

LIVING ROOM

Already Linn speakers installed thoughout, but the Linn Movie Classik di was defunk, so I’ve replaced with a fairly budget Sony AV receiver to which my plasma and Xbox are connected.

I play Sky though the xbox (xbox is hard wired via homeplug).

I’ve noticed that lovefim is coming to xbox 360 by the end of the year. Any current streaming customers got feedback on lovefilm?

I play music either via the xbox (streaming from my desktop PC) or by hooking up an optical cable to my macbook for Spotify. I would LOVE a way of getting spotify to play wirelessly….jailbroken Apple TV with XBMC perhaps? Or is there an easier way?

CINEMA ROOM

I’ve now got a dedicated cinema room. HD projector, with built in Linn surround sound. I’ve got another xbox hooked up to serve as my media centre (again, it’s connected via homeplug). I’m currently streaming movies from my desktop or Sky. Lovefilm is obviously an option once it comes out on xbox.

Am I right in thinking that I’d need an Apple TV for both the projector and TV? Or is there some way to use one apple TV across 2 devices without moving it around?

REST OF HOUSE

OK, here’s the tricky bit. There is Linn surround speakers in bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms and kitchen. This is all hooked up to a couple of Room Amps in a cupboard, with half a dozen control units on walls around the house. Problem is, because the Classik Di is bust, it’s not possible to use them thanks to having no multiroom output source (I wouldn’t want it to the Classik anyway).

I’m not bothered about having control of all the rooms independently, or indeed music in all the rooms at the same time.

I also don’t want to have to reprogramme the control units, so replacing the Classik is not possible.

What device could I hook up to the individual speakers (which are all currently hooked up to the Room Amps in a cupboard) that would allow me to listen to and wirelessly control spotify/itunes in whatever room was hooked up?

I was thinking something along the times of the Squeezbox? Would that allow me to stick it in a cupboard, hook up a couple of speakers via speakwire and then control via my iphone? I looked at Sonos, but it just seems pricy for what I need it for.

THANKS!

Any other tips or suggestions as to things I could hook up would be much appreciated (e.g. even any good online media services or gadgets etc), my imagination has hit its limit.

you’ve got various sets of linn speakers throughout your house and you’re hesitant about spending money on a sonos streamer? 😕

you’ve got various sets of linn speakers throughout your house and you’re hesitant about spending money on a sonos streamer?

Rented accomodation. Was renovated as an executive let, but never used. So there’s a partially working £25k sound system. I didn’t pay for it 🙂

I’ve already spent a fair amount on various other things, so wasn’t keen on spending another £400+ so that I could listen to spotify whilst taking a dump 🙂

gotcha. very nice! get this: http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/special-offers/devices/7116

If the systems part of the rental, shouldn’t the landlord be sorting it out?

If the systems part of the rental, shouldn’t the landlord be sorting it out?

Long story, but it’s owned by a 5* hotel next door, I lived in the hotel for 7 months last year when away on business and when I moved back permanently they offered me the executive let/serviced apartment they had just finished. They’ve given me it for considerably less than its market value, but that’s on the basis that they don’t end up having to spend more on things like the multiroom set up (you’d be amazed what the Linn guys want to charge to come up and reprogramme the control units and fix various things).

So i’m “fixing” it myself, but not leaving myself with a system I can’t sell or take easily when i move out.

gotcha. very nice! get this: http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/special-offers/devices/7116

That looks ideal!

this may be a daft question though….but how do I connect up each individual room to that? Would I need to connect up the speaker cable to an amp first and then hook the receiver up to the amp?

(i don’t think i can hook it up to the Room Amps because they can only be controlled by Linn’s multiroom control units)

the squeezebox link i posted is just one streaming receiver that you would have to plug in to an amp and speaker setup. you would have to stream music to it over a network from your computer, though it will also play internet feeds. to have it in several rooms you’d need one of those for each room you wanted it to be in, basically, so it might not be the option to go for on that basis.

the squeezebox link i posted is just one streaming receiver that you would have to plug in to an amp and speaker setup. you would have to stream music to it over a network from your computer, though it will also play internet feeds. to have it in several rooms you’d need one of those for each room you wanted it to be in, basically, so it might not be the option to go for on that basis.

Thanks.

Presumably if I just get 2 or 3 old amps, hook up speaker cables into those as “zones” then I can just split the Squeezbox output into each amp?

I’ve tried getting the Room Amps to take an input directly, but the bloody things just won’t work without a Linn controller. PITA having them sat there completely useless.

If I can pick up a few 2nd hand amps, then I’ve effectively got 5 zones working in total (including the living room and cinema which already have their own media inputs). The squeezebox would just control the remaining zones, which is what I wanted really, music in the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen when i want it.

Have I missed anything obvious (like it not being possible to split the squeezebox output?)

err… not sure. if there’s a multiroom system already installed but not working, i’d have thought the easiest if not cheapest option would be to get it working!

beyond that, without knowing that much about the components you’re talking about i can’t help you, i’m afraid!

cheers flat boy 🙂

i’ve already had quotes for getting the system working, and it isn’t pretty. Spending a few hundred on stuff I can flog on ebay when I leave is preferable!

I have just started to set up a system based on apple stuff, not sure exactly how it will work out in the end, as I already have an iphone and all my music is in itunes ( I actually think is a good media program, especially when you have lots of media). I have about 20 gigs of music and have started ripping dvd’s into itunes.

I have bought an apple tv to go under the main television, and it streams from my PC, no problem with streaming over wireless (11g to be upgraded to 11n soon) that’s got a hmdi connection to my television and an optical out to my hifi. The hifi will be replaced with an amp and surround sound speakers over the coming months. The hifi will be moved into the bedroom with another apple tv.

I will move my itunes libary onto a nas with a built in itunes server, thats the bit I am unsure of, if the itunes server will work exactly the same as itunes on my pc in the way it organises the media libary.

apple are bringing out a service soon, linked to icloud, where media you have in your libary, isn’t actually uploaded for storage, but linked to the item in their store, so if its lost from your libary, you get the high quality downloaded from the store (of course I would always keep a backup anyway).