is sonos the only way?

[bartlett23]

i am in the process of setting up a wireless music system using a power mac. the mac won't be based in the room where the speakers will be so i was thinking of getting a sonos zone player to power my wharfedale diamond 9.1s. is this the simplest/best way to do it? and would the sound quality be as good using sonos when compared to my current denon pma250se integrated amp? and does a sonos zone players also act as a DAC?

cheers.

 

[pwiles1968]

If you are running an Mac and iTunes already you can go along the Airport Express Route or Apple TV route, lots of posts here about both of those. If you have a DAC you can have optical out to the DAC From Either, the analogue out of the Express is not bad but a DAC may improve matters.

If you have an iPhone/Touch or Pad these can be used to control your iTunes.

 

[bartlett23]

ok, cool, thanks. so the DAC hooks up to the mac and the music then gets streamed to amp/speakers via airport express?

 

[The_Lhc]

bartlett23:i am in the process of setting up a wireless music system using a power mac. the mac won't be based in the room where the speakers will be so i was thinking of getting a sonos zone player to power my wharfedale diamond 9.1s. is this the simplest/best way to do it?

If it's just the one room then no, possibly not. With Sonos one of your Zoneplayers MUST be wired to your wireless router, so depending on where that is, this may not be possible. If it isn't then you'd also need to buy a Sonos Zonebridge BR100, which is another 80 quid or so.

and would the sound quality be as good using sonos when compared to my current denon pma250se integrated amp?

Are your Diamonds connected to this amp? The ZP90 is an un-amplified player, so you'd connect it to the amp you already have, rather than replacing it.

and does a sonos zone players also act as a DAC?

The zoneplayer contains a DAC, it has to, otherwise it couldn't offer analogue outputs, it's not practical to use it as a DAC for other sources however.

Depending on some of the answers to my questions above, you might be better off going with Squeezebox or and Airport Extreme, I don't really know anything about those though.

 

[bartlett23]

it'll just be the one room and my diamonds are connected to the denon, yeah. from what the other fella said, airport express seems like the best bet as i can control it all with my iphone. will 2 airport base stations be needed, one at source and one at amplification? and does the DAC connect to the amp or to the mac? and would the airport allow me to access my BT Home Hub for internet use? please excuse the stupid questions!

thanks all.

 

[The_Lhc]

bartlett23:ok, cool, thanks. so the DAC hooks up to the mac and the music then gets streamed to amp/speakers via airport express?

Other way round I think, the MAC streams wirelessly to the AE and that is plugged into DAC, which is connected (wired) to the amp.

 

[kinda]

Hello,

The Sonos will actually play the files from the network, and your Mac in this case would just be a Sonos controller, running the Sonos controller software, but you could also use a PC, iPhone / Touch, or one of their dedicated controllers.

The Sonos will play files froma NAS on the network, or your PC if you leave it on.

The Sonos ZonePlayer ZP90 will output the files in digital or analogue versions, (after DAC), but would still need to feed that output into an appropriate amp. You need a more expensive ZonePlayer, (I think ZP120), if you want it to amplify as well. the ZP90 does a good job of DAC.

 

[The_Lhc]

bartlett23:it'll just be the one room and my diamonds are connected to the denon, yeah. from what the other fella said, airport express seems like the best bet as i can control it all with my iphone.

Correct, although there's an iPhone app for Sonos as well but that's by-the-by.

will 2 airport base stations be needed, one at source and one at amplification?

No, see above, the MAC streams directly to the AE.

and does the DAC connect to the amp or to the mac?

Again, see previous post, it connects between the AE and the amp.

and would the airport allow me to access my BT Home Hub for internet use?

Ummm, sorry don't follow you, access it with what? You'll still need the laptop or iPhone to browse the net.

 

[bartlett23]

it's starting to become clear

the mac isn't a laptop though so isn't wireless at the moment. would a wirless nano USB adapter be enough to get it going or any old wirelsss router?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0035FVL4G/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A11SYZJUO55DE2

 

[The_Lhc]

kinda:The Sonos will play files froma NAS on the network, or your PC if you leave it on.

The OP hasn't mentioned owning a NAS or a PC. He could pull the audio directly from the Mac though, using a Sonos ZP but it seems to be overkill to me for a single room to be honest.

 

[The_Lhc]

bartlett23:
it's starting to become clear

the mac isn't a laptop though so isn't wireless at the moment. would a wirless nano USB adapter be enough to get it going or any old wirelsss router?

Oh, right.

Where's your BT Home Hub and can you wire the Mac to that directly using an ethernet cable?

 

[bartlett23]

the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

 

[nads]

bartlett23:
the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

will you be connecting to the internet with the mac?

does the router you have now have wireless ability?

 

[The_Lhc]

You've already got a router, what do you want another one for?

 

[bartlett23]

nads:bartlett23:
the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

will you be connecting to the internet with the mac?

does the router you have now have wireless ability?

i need to connect to the internet with the mac, yes. need to do this
wirelessly as can't connect to the BT home hub directly. just trying
to work out how this connection is made and whether it'll be the same
for connecting to the airport extreme.

 

[bartlett23]

the_lhc:You've already got a router, what do you want another one for?

i have a bog standard netgear router somewhere, yes. just trying to establish whether this is sufficient to get the mac connected wirelessly to both my BT Home hub and then an airport extreme also. cheers.

 

[The_Lhc]

bartlett23:
the_lhc:You've already got a router, what do you want another one for?

i have a bog standard netgear router somewhere, yes. just trying to establish whether this is sufficient to get the mac connected wirelessly to both my BT Home hub and then an airport extreme also. cheers.

I might be wrong, but I'm not, the BT Home Hub IS a wireless router. Having another one isn't going to help you much.

You need a wireless dongle for the mac, as you yourself suggested sometime ago.

 

[bartlett23]

the_lhc:bartlett23:
the_lhc:You've already got a router, what do you want another one for?

i have a bog standard netgear router somewhere, yes. just trying to establish whether this is sufficient to get the mac connected wirelessly to both my BT Home hub and then an airport extreme also. cheers.

I might be wrong, but I'm not, the BT Home Hub IS a wireless router. Having another one isn't going to help you much.

You need a wireless dongle for the mac, as you yourself suggested sometime ago.

great, thanks, was just using the wrong terminology then! i know the home hub's a router, just thought the mac would need to be plugged into another one to make it wireless. no-one commented on the dongle so i thought i must be going mad! dongle/airport express/DAC it is then, sorry sonos.

 

[nads]

bartlett23:nads:bartlett23:
the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

will you be connecting to the internet with the mac?

does the router you have now have wireless ability?

i need to connect to the internet with the mac, yes. need to do this
wirelessly as can't connect to the BT home hub directly. just trying
to work out how this connection is made and whether it'll be the same
for connecting to the airport extreme.

you will need to get a nice long patch cable to set up the net work as you will need a wired connection for that. you then should be able to sort out a wireless connection with a dongle.

But i would get a Squeeze box touch and put your music on a USB hard drive and turn the Mac off.

plug the touch into some powered speakers and away you go. your music or the internet radio etc.

 

[The_Lhc]

nads:bartlett23:nads:bartlett23:
the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

will you be connecting to the internet with the mac?

does the router you have now have wireless ability?

i need to connect to the internet with the mac, yes. need to do this
wirelessly as can't connect to the BT home hub directly. just trying
to work out how this connection is made and whether it'll be the same
for connecting to the airport extreme.

you will need to get a nice long patch cable to set up the net work as you will need a wired connection for that. you then should be able to sort out a wireless connection with a dongle.

But i would get a Squeeze box touch and put your music on a USB hard drive and turn the Mac off.

plug the touch into some powered speakers and away you go. your music or the internet radio etc.

Yeah I think that's probably the simplest solution in the long run.

 

[pwiles1968]

When the Wireless network is set up you plug the Airport Express ina socket close to your AV kit and connect the output of the Expresseither optically to a DAC then to the HiFi, alternatively to can godirect from the Express to the HiFi utilising the DAC on the express.

Youwould initially need to connect the AE to your MAC to set it up butafter that it will sit on the wireless network, the wireless is notquite as reliable as a hard wired ethernet connection but it prettygood, in iTunes you will see the express as a remote speaker justselect it and away you go, another benefit of the Express is you beable stream directly to it from a iPhone/ Touch/ Pad once iOS 4.2 isavaliable (Possibly Later Today) in the same way you can fron iTunes, Ihave done this with a Beta of 4.2 from a Pad and an iTouch and itworked really well.

 

[bartlett23]

nads:bartlett23:nads:bartlett23:
the home hub is in another room entirely so i can't really hook the mac up to it directly. basically i've just moved into a victorian flat and i'm trying to work out how to do this without re-wiring the whole place! getting a BT engineer round might solve the wireless issue though and then i'd just need a DAC and aiport extreme by the sound of things...until then will any old router work to make the mac wireless?

cheers

will you be connecting to the internet with the mac?

does the router you have now have wireless ability?

i need to connect to the internet with the mac, yes. need to do this
wirelessly as can't connect to the BT home hub directly. just trying
to work out how this connection is made and whether it'll be the same
for connecting to the airport extreme.

you will need to get a nice long patch cable to set up the net work as you will need a wired connection for that. you then should be able to sort out a wireless connection with a dongle.

But i would get a Squeeze box touch and put your music on a USB hard drive and turn the Mac off.

plug the touch into some powered speakers and away you go. your music or the internet radio etc.

***, which part of the network will need to be wired up? (assuming i
don't go down the squeeze box route, which i may well do). getting confused now!