Wireless home audio system

As pervious poster said, the sonos can be wired or wireless whichever you want (or dont want for that matter). One of the big advantages I find with the Sonos is that it is completely modular. 1 player for 1 room, 2 players for 2 rooms etc, and the storage point and controllers are also seperate. My previous system was an all in one multiroom system, where everything was in one box. It went bang, so everything was gone, and very expensive to repair.

With a modular system like Sonos, if you are unlucky enough to break or damage something, your system still works, its cheaper and easier to get it fixed also if you want to.

I would say any system that is modular in this way is the way to go, and being a Sonos user now for the best part of a year, it gets my thumbs up over any other system I know.

Regards,
Wexfordman
 
boskonay said:
For NAS I use - http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1188672&productID=183179

Works really well, and the RAID means it can lose a disk without losing my music :)
Click to expand...

Nice but pricey - I was looking at the 500GB Western Digital version which is much more reasonable - [broken link removed].

In the end, as I needed a USB drive as well, I bought a 250GB USB external hard disk first - a steal at [broken link removed] (excluding postage but I usually buy a few things together to take this pain away). I plan to buy another one of these (possibly a bigger one) and plug the two of them into one of [broken link removed] to share them on my wireless LAN.

You can do software RAID, but I will probably just back one up to the other using Ghost or something similar on a regular basis.
 
MonsieurBond said:
In the end, as I needed a USB drive as well, I bought a 250GB USB external hard disk first - a steal at [broken link removed] (excluding postage but I usually buy a few things together to take this pain away). I plan to buy another one of these (possibly a bigger one) and plug the two of them into one of [broken link removed] to share them on my wireless LAN.
.
Click to expand...
I already own a 250GB external USB hard drive. Can I just buy that €95 thing you linked to there and then I can access the music on the external hard drive even when the pc is off ?
 
Yes, it will work, just remember your speed will be limited by the USB transfer rate (will still work fine tho)
 
boskonay said:
Yes, it will work, just remember your speed will be limited by the USB transfer rate (will still work fine tho)
Click to expand...
If you buy one of these and plug the external hard disk into it, then connect it to your router either wired or wirelessly, then you will be able to access your music even when the PC is off.

If you use a Ethernet link to a USB drive, the speed will be slowerthan when you access it via USB from your PC (Ethernet is 100 MB per second as opposed to USB 2.0 at 480 MB per second).

Thus, you can connect your existing external USB drive to an Ethernet hub, and plug this into your router, and access the music or video files or whatever from the hard disk at Fast Ethernet speeds IF USING A LAN CABLE.

If you are connecting to your router wirelessly, you will most likely get a much slower read speed of (in theory) 56MB/s but in practice you will probably get around 20MB/s. Fast enough to stream compressed audio (as this is what we are discussing) but possibly not fast enough for lossless audio and most likely not fast enough for video, for example.
 
Now I'm not sure whether to go for that €95 thing or get that functionality plus another 300gb hd for an extra €140

[broken link removed]
 
Has anyone used the Noxon 2 from Terratec? a (possibly OTT) review. Seems like a decent piece of kit for €178 (on komplett.ie).

I'm thinking about using one for my kitchen/dining room when my extension is complete.

Wexfordman - can you recommend a decent budget priced set of ceiling speakers, and what cabling should I run in for these?

Thanks
 
Hi all

Fantastic thread with some informed and emotive debate going on, which to be fair is exactly what this thing is all about. I'm in the planning stage of a new house and would love to have a central data base of music which any1 in the house can tap into. It is my intention to wire the house with cat 5 cable to every room (you can never have too much of the stuff) so won't particularlly have to rely on a wireless system (all concrete walls and floors in the house so wireless will be limited any how). My ideal system would have the following

1)Kitchen/Living/Hallway and Deck Zone 1
2) dining/sitting room Zone 2
3) bedrooms Zone 3-6

This would give every one in the house the option to play whatever music they want in their own room. This is obviously not going to be cheap but I presume there are systems out there that would allow one to start small and add on to them as they go on!

Q1. What are my options regarding systems?
Q2. What sort of budget am I looking at? 5K?
Q3. I will need a controller unit in every room but will I also need a central database location?

This is obviously comming from a planning point of view and i realise I'm in hte lucky position of being able to pre wire a house for this. Any help will be much appreciated.

tks
ibi

PS won't be installing for a while so perhaps future systems will be more suitable!
 
Inchy,


By the sounds of it you are going for 6 zones. My Sonos setup is also for 6 zones, and the cost (excluding speakers) for 6 zones plus 2 controllers was about 3.5k. Again, having first had a different multiroom system whcih consisted of hardwired keypads mounted into the walls, I would sya they are a bad idea.
The controlers for the sonos are extremly functional, and one of the best I have see. Far superior in my opinion to any system utilising a wired keypad set up.The zones can also be controlled from any pc connected to your home network (As I type this on my laptop, I am selecting music to play also)
I find 2 controllers is more than enough for my 6 zones, I keep one in the living room, and the other in the kitchen.

Also, as you mentioned the sonos is expandable, so you can start small and work your way up. The wireless zoneplayers are exceptional, as they act as repeaters for each other and the contorller, so for my house (single story 2100sq ft block construction) I have no problem with the wireless setup, although as you say, with a new build, you would be better off wiring your zoneplayers (some of mine are as I already had some cabling in place)

I would suggest if you do plan to use a sonos, cat5 them bact to eachother, but spread them about the house to give you good wireless coverage for your controllers.


Someone asked earlier about what type of cabling and speakers to recommend. I have ceiling mounted speakers that I bought about 5 years ago in Waterford, so cant really remember price etc, but they are good quality. You dont have to go for ceiling mount if you dont want, in fact I would be in two minds about it if I had to do it again (would probably ceiling mount the bathroom, kitcehn and bedrooms though). Speakers are a personal thing, I would shop around and listen to the quality of them, especially ceiling mounts as you are going to have to live with the quality of the sound, and the look of them for a long time (its not easy to fill in a big f$%k off speaker hole should you ever want to).

Speake wire, just go for a good quality cable reasonably priced (dont fall for this gold plated oxygen free stuff that will be spouted at you and is really pricy for the lengths of wire you will need to be running). That sort of stuff is for real audiophiles who would not listen to an MP3 if you tied them down and stapled thier ears to the speakers!!
Wexfordman
 
Having started this thread many months ago I have recently purchased two sonos ZP100 bundle packs. Once setup i was amazed and delighted with product. Itis very easy to use and I like the fact that you can configure alot of the settings songlists etc directly from the PC program.Whilst some people say it is a bit expensive the great strength of the product is its adaptability and flexibility. Quite easily I can move a zone player to another room and connect it again quickly. We had ceiling mounted speakers installed and the quality is excellent. I would highly recommend this product for anyone. I must also thank all the contributors to this thread for the help and good advice that I have received.
 
In a similar position to inchbyinch, have recently started building a house and really want to install a multi room audio system. Got a couple of quotes from different companies for a 6 zone system but they came in ridiculously expensive.

A Sonos system seems to be the way to go, judging by the previous posts, was wondering if such a system would be difficult to install as am not much of a techie - if I buy the stuff and hand it all to my electrician will he be able to set it up for me?

Is a networked hard drive different from a standard external hard drive?

Are wall mounted keypads a better method of control than a remote control?

(apologies for the newbie questions..)
 
HWI

A networked hardrive is different from a standard external harddrive, they cost around 200 yoyo's for 160Gb, so not too dear, and a doddle to set up. I currently just use my desktop for storing my sonos music, but a networked hard drive is the way to go really.

As far as install of the sonos, it lliterally is plug and play, takes about 5 mins to set up a zone. If you are a new build, the only thiing you will need to consider is prewire for speakers if you want, and prewire for lan cable ideally. THis will be based on how you want to distribute your zone players, but the more distributed they are the better as you will get better coverage for the wireless handheld remote. We are talking about cable runs here, nothing more, if you cant do it yourself, your electrician shold be able to do it (ask him if he can terminate cat5 cables). The important thing here is you plan your layout properly, which is not a big deal to be honest.

With regards in wall keypads versus handheld controllers (like the sonos), my personal opinion is the handheld controller is better for a number of reasons, and I say this as I have expeereince of both in my current house:-

1) Every piece of technology has a limited lifespan, no matter how much you pay for it. A wall mounted keypad will eventuall fail, or become defunct or redundant, and you are left with a nice hole in your wall in a very obvious spot to cover, or else lumbered trying to get a replacement system that is the same size as the older one. This is what happened to me when my first multroom system got damaged. I now have 6 funny looking keypads distributed about the house which are no longer used.

2) Keypads are generally not as user friendly as handhelds, and you will not find any keypad anywhere that is as friendly as the sonos one.

3) Handhelds are generally not required in the same numbers as wall mounted keypads. For example, my older multiroom had 6 keypads for 6 zones. I now have a 6 zone sonos system using 2 handheld controllers, and find that it is perfectly suffeceint. You generally only use 2 or 3 rooms on a regular basis for multiroom, with any other rooms on a rarer basis, hence 2 keypads for me is perfect. Also, with the sonos, desktop/laptop controller software is available (free), so you can use any pc anywhere in the hous as a controller also.

Where are you based ?

Regards,
Wexfordman
 
I have 2 zones and 1 controller. I find Sonos great. I switched from holding the music on my PC to holding it on a 500GB Network drive I got from Komplett. My PC is in a room off the sitting room and I found the sound from the PC fan too loud, so now I only have the PC on when I use it but Sonos works all the time.

Wexfordman,
You sparked my interest when you mentioned controlling from a laptop. At the moment I can control it from the desktop that is connected to the 1st Zone. I have a wireless laptop that I use around the house. Can I use that as a controller aswell ?

Where abouts in wexford are you based ?
 
i wired a new house for 3 zones on sunday, i'll hold the music on a mac mini in my cinema and i'll run the master bathroom, the master bedroom and the decking area outside from it.

i ordered the wall cradle to charge and hold it, i'm really looking forward to seeing it in action, i'm housing 2 of the zone boxes in my attic so it looks great with just the controller in view at any time.
 
walls still have to be plastered so i have to get into it myself. Myself and my mate laid over 500 meters of cable at the weekend for phone, network, sonos and sky/sky+.
 
Mission Cube Speakers

Pioneer reciever

NEC 42" Plasma

NEC LT20 projector

Mac Mini ( with bluetooth mouse and keyboard )

XBox 360

Pioneer hard drive dvd recorder

Electric Remote control screen

Sky + box

Sonos wireless music system

thats about all i can think of, i'll put up the spec of the receiver and the dvd later when i'm home.

in the rest of the house i have wired 5 network points for computers, sky + and sky multiroom for 4 lcd screens and sonos as i said.
 
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