Best setup for Multi Room with Airplay sub £500

[admin_exported]

Hi All,

A friend has asked me to help him out with his new sound system. He has just knocked his dining room, living room, kitchen and tv room into a huge room with the help of a big RSJ and would like a sound system for it.

He would like to have it running from Airplay with his iPhone and to have sound in the 4 rooms but with the option of muting the sound in any one of the rooms. The budget is around £500 all in. When he said he wanted help with something to play his iPhone wirelessly for sub £500 I thought B&W zeppelin air but this is not what he wanted. It seems that a separate amp and speaker combo is needed. The house is currently being redecorated so the cables could be hidden. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[bigboss]

Sonos is the best option to suit your friend's needs. It can also connect to AirPort Express to make it AirPlay enabled, besides having its own mesh network to make it one of the best (the best according to me) multiroom options currently available.

Obviously, £500 is not enough to cover 4 rooms (2 at the most), but your friend can always add Sonos components to cover remaining rooms when funds allow in the future.

http://www.sonos.com/system/

 

[Anonymous]

Sonos is the best option to suit your friend's needs. It can also connect to AirPort Express to make it AirPlay enabled, besides having its own mesh network to make it one of the best (the best according to me) multiroom options currently available.

Obviously, £500 is not enough to cover 4 rooms (2 at the most), but your friend can always add Sonos components to cover remaining rooms when funds allow in the future.

http://www.sonos.com/system/

Hey thanks for the reply. I have had a look at the Sonos system and it looks very good. However, because the entire house is being redecorated right now, I thought it might be a good idea to havea more standard amplifier and standard speaker setup as they can all be hard wired in.

 

[bigboss]

Ah, but how will he then have the option of muting or changing volume in any 1 room? You can connect a Sonos Connect (no pun intended) to any standard amplifier.

Alternatively, look at this:

http://www.richersounds.com/information/systemline

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, but how will he then have the option of muting or changing volume in any 1 room? You can connect a Sonos Connect (no pun intended) to any standard amplifier.

Alternatively, look at this:

http://www.richersounds.com/information/systemline

Thank you again for the reply.

I was thinking of something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Hi-Fi-Speaker-Selector-Junction/dp/B000KGVXF0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1336558867&sr=8-3

But that Richer Sound multi room looks good. However there seem to be no details on their site.

I have found this

http://www.smarthomeshop.co.uk/hpm-16-systemline-bronze-package.html

But that looks like I need to source my own speakers.

 

[BenLaw]

I'm a bit confused as to what your friend is trying to achieve - he wants four different sets of speakers but in what is essentially now one big room? He wouldn't be able to have four different bits of music playing as it will sound a mess. So he just needs something that'll be loud enough for the whole room? If 4 sources are playing one bit of music then muting one is just going to make it a bit quieter in one bit of the room.

If that really is what your friend wants to do I'd also recommend Sonos, I believe they still have an advantage when it comes to true simultaneous playback from multiple devices. But for £500 you're not even going to get 2 items let alone 4, because he will have to buy (say) Sonos:Connect Amp + Speakers, or Sonos: Connect + active speakers, or Sonos: Connect + amp + speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit confused as to what your friend is trying to achieve - he wants four different sets of speakers but in what is essentially now one big room? He wouldn't be able to have four different bits of music playing as it will sound a mess. So he just needs something that'll be loud enough for the whole room? If 4 sources are playing one bit of music then muting one is just going to make it a bit quieter in one bit of the room.

If that really is what your friend wants to do I'd also recommend Sonos, I believe they still have an advantage when it comes to true simultaneous playback from multiple devices. But for £500 you're not even going to get 2 items let alone 4, because he will have to buy (say) Sonos:Connect Amp + Speakers, or Sonos: Connect + active speakers, or Sonos: Connect + amp + speakers.

Hi thank you very much for the response. However he wants to have the same music playing everywhere, just mutable in different areas. He won't play it loud and have it muted in one bit, just moderate volume while its being muted in one bit. There are still some supporting walls so while you can just walk between the rooms it feels a little separated. Just kind of like having friends round with background music (he has a big extended family that are round a lot) so maybe have moderate music in 3 of the rooms and mute it in one where some of the harder of hearing people are sat or perhaps people that just want quiet. Are there any solutions that I could hard wire in? With the option of Airplay for the amp.

Thanks again!

 

[bigboss]

You could try the Amazon link you posted. Of course, that would mean having to walk to it to mute certain areas. It's far easier to be able to control the volume & mute via remote from anywhere. I'm not aware of any system at the budget. Perhaps other members could help.

You could install ceiling speakers & leave all terminals in one place while an ideal solution is found.

 

[BenLaw]

I'm a bit confused as to what your friend is trying to achieve - he wants four different sets of speakers but in what is essentially now one big room? He wouldn't be able to have four different bits of music playing as it will sound a mess. So he just needs something that'll be loud enough for the whole room? If 4 sources are playing one bit of music then muting one is just going to make it a bit quieter in one bit of the room.

If that really is what your friend wants to do I'd also recommend Sonos, I believe they still have an advantage when it comes to true simultaneous playback from multiple devices. But for £500 you're not even going to get 2 items let alone 4, because he will have to buy (say) Sonos:Connect Amp + Speakers, or Sonos: Connect + active speakers, or Sonos: Connect + amp + speakers.

Hi thank you very much for the response. However he wants to have the same music playing everywhere, just mutable in different areas. He won't play it loud and have it muted in one bit, just moderate volume while its being muted in one bit. There are still some supporting walls so while you can just walk between the rooms it feels a little separated. Just kind of like having friends round with background music (he has a big extended family that are round a lot) so maybe have moderate music in 3 of the rooms and mute it in one where some of the harder of hearing people are sat or perhaps people that just want quiet. Are there any solutions that I could hard wire in? With the option of Airplay for the amp.

Thanks again!

In which case, I would advise that in whatever he considers his main listening room he has one of the Sonos setups I described, ie with full size speakers, and in the other three rooms has Play:3s or Play:5s. This will obviously blow the budget, and lead to a whole load more choices re amp and speakers, but as BB says can be done over time.