Wireless home audio.

KidKomet

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I'm new to the concept and it sounds wonderfully convenient. I was just wondering which products people on here have used and can specifically recommend (Or tell me to avoid). I'm particularly interested in products that can connect to my home internet wirelessly and then also allow me to stream through them wirelessly (As it'll initially be for my bedroom setup where there is no ethernet connection available).

Many thanks.
 

professorhat

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Yes, bit more info will help - do you have any existing computer based media you'd like to stream, or is this completely new? What sort of things do you want to listen to e.g. would it purely be your own music collection, or would you also want access to internet streaming services like Spotify and internet radio?
 

KidKomet

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My apologies for not including more details, I typed up it real quick during my break. It'll mostly be used to stream from my PC/Smartphone. I currently have a Pioneer A676 running in to some KEF Reference 103/4's. I'll be upgrading the amp in due course but for now I'd really like a good stream solution.

Thanks.
 

professorhat

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So, just to confirm, £250 for music playback in the bedroom (where presumably there's nothing at the moment)?

Sonos is possible at that price with the Play:1 unit available for £169 thereabouts, and the Play:3 unit available at £249, but you'd also currently need to buy the Bridge as well (currently about £35 - £40) which would connect to your internet router and allow streaming to the Play:1 or Play:3 in the bedroom. However, quite often various retailers will do offers whereby the Bridge is thrown in free when you buy one of the other units. Richer Sounds are doing some kind of promotion at the moment, but don't quote any prices so you'd need to call (link).
 

KidKomet

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Would one of those connect to my amp so I can wirelessly stream music to my existing system? Bearing in mind, I'd like the unit that I stream music to, to also be connected to my Internet wirelessly. Thank you for the help so far.
 

paulmc103

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Apple Airport Expess should do the trick. It connects to your amp using an rca lead and you can use Airplay to stream from iTunes or Airfoil from the rest of your PC. Airport Express costs about £80 and Airfoil £25.
 

professorhat

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KidKomet said:
Would one of those connect to my amp so I can wirelessly stream music to my existing system?

No, but there are ways of achieving this depending on what you're after. The Play:3 is a self contained speaker unit which can stream music from your computer / NAS / Spotify / internet radio etc. (suggest you click on the links I added to the original post to see more). You can get a Sonos Connect which would plug into your existing system to do the same and this would be another £280 ish. If your existing system is anywhere near your computer though, there are cheaper ways of doing this, but they wouldn't necessarily be as easy / seamless to control.

KidKomet said:
Bearing in mind, I'd like the unit that I stream music to, to also be connected to my Internet wirelessly. Thank you for the help so far.

For the Sonos system, this is what the Bridge is for which I pointed out earlier. This connects to your router and allows all other Sonos devices to stream from the internet wirelessly. Is streaming music from the internet a must? If so, what are you looking to stream?

The main benefit of the Sonos is it's a true multi-room system, allowing you to stream the same music to all the Sonos devices in every room, or have different music / radio in different rooms. It's generally controlled through an app, either on your PC / Mac or on your tablet / smart phone. However, it's quite expensive when compared with something like the Apple Airport Express mentioned just now. If you're only looking to stream your own music to your main system, then the Airport Express will do this - ideally, if you use iTunes, you can control this via an app on your iPhone / iPad. If you don't use iTunes, you can get round this using Airfoil, but it becomes a bit more of a faff to control what's playing where. I also found the Sonos system a bit more reliable when it comes to streaming wirelessly - not to say the Airport Express was bad, just that the Sonos was better.

I think the best bet would be to have a think about what you want your wireless streaming system to do, where you want to do it, and then let us know what music systems you have available already in those areas. Also, let us know if the budget you've mentioned is just for the bedroom system, or whether it's for everything. Once you've decided all that, it will be easier to advise on best solution for your budget.
 

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