Wireless music buying advice ?

[sev112]

Am thinking about some more modern music playing capability

We have most our our CDs digitally burned into iTunes or something like that, with the library on our old laptop computer
We have played with sitting the laptop next to the Amp in the front room and connecting with the jack cable

But our laptop is soooo old and 90%full up of winsys files that it is sooooo slow

We don't really need a new laptop as we both have iPads (and work laptops if we have to do any real computering)

S am exploring some other form of playing our music - digital storage into wireless speakers , that sort of thing.
Anyone any experience ? Was looking around the £500 mark ish.

Currently have an external hard drive where all our photos and music are stored if that's of any relevance

 

[Ethan]

Sonos devices are good. You can buy them singly or in pairs and they plug in to the mains somewhere where you have a wifi connection, and stream music from iTunes, as well as internet radio. I use my iPhone as a remote, Androids work too.

 

[CliveW]

Funnily, we've just seen the Sonos system whilst looking for a new surround system for our TV. I was amazed at how it works and the quality, so much so that my old brain couldn't take it all in.

http://www.sonos.com/

 

[zlinuk]

+1 for Sonos, it's not what you might call cheap, but the quality is very good.

 

[palindromicbob]

How much disk space does the music collection take up?

 

[sev112]

How much disk space does the music collection take up?

About 6 or 7 Gb I guess

 

[Vice]

Sonos is expensive, a sub alone can cost £500, but worth every penny

 

[CliveW]

Sonos is expensive, a sub alone can cost £500, but worth every penny

Cheaper than Bose!

 

[CliveW]

How much disk space does the music collection take up?

You download from your pc, iphone or use napster.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

To be honest most of my music is now played on the PC, I pad or I phone via Spotify. I have a playlist of 800+ songs I like but it has a radio function where you can specify a specific genre or create your own station based on a favourite artist which will then play tunes by similar artists. Much easier although if I want to listen to a CD I stick it in the pc and put headphones in

 

[BTatHome]

For such a small amount of music, would it not be worth picking up a cheap (even one of the older generations) iPod touch, and then getting a nice dock for it.

 

[sev112]

For such a small amount of music, would it not be worth picking up a cheap (even one of the older generations) iPod touch, and then getting a nice dock for it.

We have a couple of iPods, both 4gb, and I have another 4gb MP3 player.
The prob is that we need to have a PC to load the CDs onto, so that they go into iTunes or something sim, so that they can be transferred to the iPods
Which is a massive gaff, so what I am looking for is a digital music store, which is the equivalent of the PC purely to hold the music.

 

[Vice]

Look at synology nas box, top notch

We have a couple of iPods, both 4gb, and I have another 4gb MP3 player.
The prob is that we need to have a PC to load the CDs onto, so that they go into iTunes or something sim, so that they can be transferred to the iPods
Which is a massive gaff, so what I am looking for is a digital music store, which is the equivalent of the PC purely to hold the music.

 

[Scrindle]

I have a Sonos system and can't recommend them highly enough. Built to last, easy to use and setup. I control mine with my iPhone but you can use a computer/laptop, etc... if you want. Hugely expandable, etc...

Well worth a look.

 

[sev112]

When you guys say you control your Sonos with your iPhones etc, where is the music stored ?

 

[IanG]

When you guys say you control your Sonos with your iPhones etc, where is the music stored ?

Another thumbs up for Sonos, not cheap but good quality hardware and industry leading software. Most sonos installations will have the music stored on either s PC/mac or on an network attached NAS. You can also play music directly from your iphone if that floats your boat.

If you only need to play music in one room sonos is a bit of overkill but the expandabilty of the sonos system makes it perfect for evolving to a multi room setup. The software and controllers are easy enough for non-tech heads to use with no problem.

You can also control the Sonos music from a PC or a mac.

'Quality remains once the price is forgotten' applies in spades.

 

[sev112]

M issue is I don't want to have music on a computer as our computer us dying and I don't want to have to buy another one just to play music from, and if I use the ipad I am limited by the memory

S what I am looking for is a system that wil, say, read the music from an external hard drive and play it through wireless speakers.

What I am not seeing is the music storage aspect being discussed - what is the "NAS" you mention?

 

[Vice]

http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS213j

 

[IanG]

M issue is I don't want to have music on a computer as our computer us dying and I don't want to have to buy another one just to play music from, and if I use the ipad I am limited by the memory

S what I am looking for is a system that wil, say, read the music from an external hard drive and play it through wireless speakers.

What I am not seeing is the music storage aspect being discussed - what is the "NAS" you mention?

ok Maybe a few questions to help understand what you are after.

Do you envisage having a computer at all in your house or only ipad/iphones ?

Do you think you will only ever download music, not buy new CDs for ripping?

Do you want to play the music through your existing amplifier/speakers or do you want a system separate from that ?

Do you envisage wanting to play the music (or even different music ) in more than that one room ?

The NAS is Network attached storage, which is like a wee computer and hard drive in a box. Once the NAS has the music on it, it can feed (serve) the files to devices on the network which play them. You don't need a computer to play the music but it would take some fiddling to populate the NAS without access to a computer.

You CAN play music directly onto a Sonos system from an IPAD so if you only have a few GB of Music that should be doable and easy to set up. ( I have 300GB of music on my synology NAS so not an option for me !)

cheers
Ian

 

[sev112]

Thanks Ian


Do you envisage having a computer at all in your house or only ipad/iphones ? We would prefer iPads only, but because cameras and Garmins need USBs to download, am thinking it may be necessary, but would prefer not

Do you think you will only ever download music, not buy new CDs for ripping? Will prefer CDs for the cars

Do you want to play the music through your existing amplifier/speakers or do you want a system separate from that ? Amp and speakers are in the front room, so ability to be mobile to kitchen, dining room, bedrooms is a real bonus

Do you envisage wanting to play the music (or even different music ) in more than that one room ? Yes

The NAS is Network attached storage, which is like a wee computer and hard drive in a box. Once the NAS has the music on it, it can feed (serve) the files to devices on the network which play them. You don't need a computer to play the music but it would take some fiddling to populate the NAS without access to a computer. - So, is it just a computer then ?

You CAN play music directly onto a Sonos system from an IPAD so if you only have a few GB of Music that should be doable and easy to set up. ( I have 300GB of music on my synology NAS so not an option for me !)