Be Excellent To Each Other

It's my Mum's birthday soon, and she wants an audio set up for her house.

What she wants:

"Something like an ipod in the dining room, plugged into good speakers, but then we can also play it in the front room too"

I know this tech exists, and shouldn't be crazy expensive, can anyone suggest an elegant solution that won't involve running wires between the rooms. There is a TV with good built in speakers in the front room if that helps. A PS3 with a big hard drive too I suppose.

Do they have anu Apple kit? A computer running iTunes, an iPhone or iPod Touch, and an Airport Express in "remote speakers" mode is a neat, though spendy, solution.

No apple stuff, and I think my mum doesn't like apples.

Have a google for 'Audio Streaming Devices'. I'm assuming the house has a wireless network, in which case one of these will sit in the living room and you can plug it into an amp (or an audio-in on the TV), and it'll wirelessly stream music from a PC in the house somewhere. There are loads of makes.

Denon do a lovely mini system. It will need wiring though for other rooms but worth it IMO.

Having realised that the lovely speakers on my Bravia shifted better sound than my speakers, and that I very rarely watched TV whilst listening to music, I ditched the speakers and just use iPod/iPhone or - favoured solution, laptop running itunes with remote on iPhone to control(although the sound can distort with laptop proximity to TV/V+ box) through the headphone jack into the side aux (Video camera) of the TV. Jobs a good'un. Could possibly extend the TV speakers through to the dining room with a home cinema, but thats going the gaywoods expensive airport route.

Which is actually what I'm planning for myself, incidentally. I already have a PC running iTunes, an iPhone, and an amp in my living room with buried speaker wires under the floor that run to a wall separating lounge from kitchen/diner. So:

I boot the PC in my office, that has it's own 5.1 setup. I use the iPhone screen and I can select tracks with album art etc on there, wirelessly. I listen. Then I move to the lounge.

I boot the iPhone's remote app and select "speakers". I untick "local" and select "living room". That turns off the 5.1 in the study and fires up an Airport Express (the only bit I need to buy) under my telly, wired to the amp over optical. I hit "listen to iTunes" on my Harmony remote and I'm rockin'. But then it's time to cook tea.

I hit "music to kitchen" on the Harmony, which powers down the living room speakers and turns on the "speaker b" outputs on my amp. They run through the underfloor cables, through the wall (to be drilled), and into the dining room/kitchen. Then I want to change tracks, so I just fire the iPhone up and use the full GUI remote control. I lied; I need to buy a new pair of bookshelf speakers.

This isn't a cheap solution -- unless you already own most of the bits like I do -- but it is very slick.

This particular solution tiger probably falls into the spike pit of expensiveness:

http://www.sonos.com/whattobuy/bundles/ ... gType=2057

It looks like lovely kit though.

I'd just run the wires. Having the TV or Xbox on for something like that is ridiculously hacky.

However if you can afford it, wireless speakers seem like the answer: http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/ishop/923/ ... 4wodCEAvoA

They should work through to the next room at least.

Back in the day, when I lived in a real house, I always wanted to do this. Nothing around 5 years ago seemed as flexible as your option (iPhone remote is the real kicker for me, as you can achieve control without adding additional controllers to your life) so it didn't get beyond the ideas stage. And then I left the bitch with all my stuff there, so on reflection, few long term benefits

When I finally do out the spare room in our shoebox flat then I might consider something similar, but time, plans and money issues mean that its almost certainly going to be a nursery/bedroom before I get a den. Unless I buy a new house, which is a bit extreme for a home entertainment system.

I forgot about this - liked the idea of it a while back. No display on the controller though http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hdd-audio

I also seem to remember that Sony Audio files (assuming you have to use that format) are evil shit though.

Same here. I had this idea sketched out in my head over five years ago -- its not like any of the bits are revolutionary. It just seems to have taken this long for someone to put all the pieces together.

See also: the Sonos music system, which is similar but also adds in streaming access to anything in the Napster (I think) subscription music facility. So, essentially, several million tracks in the palm of your hand.

More information might be helpful, LewieP.

Are you local to setup/maintain a system? How techy is is the 'rent?

If an iPod based system seems reasonable (obvious benefit of a portable player if desired) then the Klipsch RoomGroove is pretty slick. just buy two and a Pod of yr choice.

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Klipsch-RoomGroove/

Might be simpler than dicking about with home servers, mixing and matching speakers to amps, running wires all over the place, etc.

Or one of these:

http://faktorial.com/thejunk/uploaded_i ... 727500.jpg

PS: thanx for the many gaming bargains you've put out over the last while or so; much appreciated.

THREAD HIJACK:

Spotify through a proxy? Anyone?