Whole house sound system

What is the easiest (and cheapest) way to be able to play radio (digital and normal) /cd/ipod etc around the whole house/zones. Simple explanations please I’m a Luddite. Oh and I have already considered the turn it up really loud/carry it around solutions.. 😀

Do you have an iPad/iPhone?

You can “send” music/videos/photos via AirPlay to various things.

Yep but I would rather it not be pc/tablet based….what I’d like is a fancy stereo type thing that will play stuff and send it magically to speakers around the house without me having to pull cables in all over the place but control which speakers it is coming out off without having to run around turning speakers off.

Yep but I would rather it not be pc/tablet based….what I’d like is a fancy stereo type thing that will play stuff and send it magically to speakers around the house without me having to pull cables in all over the place but control which speakers it is coming out off without having to run around turning speakers off

You know what you want, so have a look on the interweb for that. I have only seen this once and it was a Bang and Olufsen system. Could choose which rooms to have the music playing in. I’m sure other companies will make stuff that does the same. I suppose budget, audio quality and volume required will determine what you can use.

Budget? Unless you do it DIY (which is probably not for non-tech people), expect the bill to be pretty high.

I might know what I would like it to do but get lost quite quickly when I start reading the sales blurb…..thought someone might be able to point me in the right direction

Budget is small … Doesn’t need to be a rolls Royce standard thing, just something that stops me having multiple radios on at the same time or turning it up loud

Well I don’t really know so I should probably stop interfering. Budget and number of rooms are essential to any advise that can be offered though.

Edit: Ok you answered. I really am going to stop intefering now though.

Take a look at sonos. it’s very simple and a bit more hifi feeling than an airplay setup (although it is effectively very similar)

Logitech Squeezebox’s running from a NAS is a common Sonos Alternative.

Squeezebox plugged into standard amp etc in living room.
Squeezebox radio thing in the kitchen,
Squeezebox and active speakers in bedroom, study etc.

The Touch is now discontinued, but can still pick them up 2n hand.

I like Airplay as its so simple to use if you have a Tablet or Smart Phone 😳

B&W A5 are ace but other cheaper Airplay options exist.

I’m looking at the sonos as its pretty easy to set up and you can expand it easily, not exactly cheap but will let you run multiple sources and you can pick and choose which rooms are on at any one time (as far as i can tell anyway!!)

I went with the Sonos and NAS solution. Brilliant, easy to setup and use. Controlled from phone/tablet/pc and not that expensive.

You don’t need to buy all at once as its all modular.

What is NAS ? I did mention I’m a Luddite right? I have a smart phone but anything smart about it is switched off and it is a payg phone for emergencies, my computer is about 10 years old is a bit temprimental makes no sounds and I have no idea what windows system it is and has not been updated since it was bought.

NAS = Network Attached Storage

Basically a hard-drive (or similar) that can be seen on your network. You may not need extra hardware – many modern broadband/wireless routers can act as a NAS by plugging a USB key or hard-drive in the back.

I went around in circles with this before eventually choosing airplay.

Reasons for my choice

1. It works from iphone, ipad or any Android device (though not as seamlessly on Android in my experience)
2. There are various airplay speakers available.
3. An airport express can be plugged into any amp or set of amplified speakers to get music wherever.
4. An apple TV can also be used but adds video if connected to your TV
5. A raspberry PI running RASBBMC can also airplay sound and video for much less money.
6. With itunes running on a computer you can airplay to multiple sets of speakers (wish apple would add this to iphone airplay)
7. It’s apple so tends to work rather than be a constant hassle.

Cons as I see them are

1. It’s wifi, if you have signal problems it will not work.
2. Hmm, can’t think of anything else right now.

Songs is so good
Easy setup
Reliable
Sounds good enough for me
Expandable

Sonos is ok, but I found the wireless speakers to be poor compared with Airplay equivalents.

A half decent amp these days has wifi/networking capability either built in or via a separate dongle type device. With that you can wirelessly distribute audio to any comparable device within range from any source connected to the amp, which will most likely have iPod/iPhone/iPad connectivity. So whatever you have connected to you amp can be distributed.

However the advantage of something like Sonos is that you can play different content in different rooms. An advantage if like me you live with three girls and you want to listen to something other than 1D. Sonos looks good and had iTunes comparability so all you apple devices iTunes library can be shared, as well as other non-apple hardware.

Had Squeezebox
Have used Sonos quite a bit
Currently using DAB radios and Airplay to Apple TV.

Next house will rely on Airplay, DAB radios and a few amps with multiple sets of speakers. I found I didn’t want the same music in multiple rooms very often, and when I did it was usually the radio.

@lastuphills – these days the cheapest way to do it is iPhone/iPad/Mac based plus an Apple TV unit or an Airport Express. That’s the setup I have, there is an app called Remote which let’s you control the music library on your Mac from your iPhone and play it anywhere via AirPlay. I suspect their is an Android equivalent. I know of people who’ve spent £10,000’s on wiring additional speakers in various room/built into walls and ceilings to their HiFi. None of this is required now.

BTW you can just have a jackplug wire plugged into your iPhone/iPod and connect that to stereo / speakers in various rooms as required.