Wireless music buying advice ?

[sev112]

Sorry, missed off the last bit

I have my ipad nearly filled up, so does my wife, and my daughter has other music on her iPod. We have loads more CDs that are on ITunes / backup hard drive but no room on the I-things.
Hence it would be nice to just put them all in one single place

 

[IanG]

To answer your NAS comment - yes strictly speaking a NAS is a computer but not in the normal sense - unless you were a guru you never access it except via another computer - it does not run windows.

ok, Assuming you will have access to a 'normal' computer/laptop when you need it. I think the Sonos + NAS option is right for you. You can start small without the NAS bit and get used to the sonos first and expand at your own pace. take a look at their website and see if what they say makes sense.

Happy to answer any further questions you have.

Ian
PS I don't work for SONOS !

 

[sev112]

Thanks - I see some research needed this week
Appreciate it

 

[IanG]

ok, to get you started the bare minimum would be one of the Play ( 1, 3, or 5) boxes and the bridge unit that comes with it. Plug the bridge into your wireless router with the supplied ethernet cable and put the Play box wherever you want to listen to music. Using the controller software ( on PC,Mac,iphone etc ) you can play the music stored on your PC,Mac or ipad on your new Play box.

From there you can easily extend to multi room, stereo pairs etc etc by adding more Play boxes or Connect devices.

Then comes the NAS once your comfy with all that.

Hope this helps make the SONOS pages a bit more intelligible.

cheers
Ian

 

[palindromicbob]

How much disk space does the music collection take up?

How about bluetooth options?

Simply put the music on your Ipad.

Then get one of these http://exceptional-av.co.uk/yamaha-yba-11-bluetooth-adaptor.html?gclid=CIC24pL7zroCFcTLtAodVBsAlw or similar and connect that to your amp.

If you want portable then the BOSE soundlink bluetooth speakers are surprisingly good and cost about £200.

You could also consider use of a cloud music solution such as Google music or whatever the itunes equivalent is. This would allow you to centralise you music and access on any device with internet connection and the correct app. These usually allow you to transfer music to the device for offline play with ease as well.

 

[sawtooth]

I have a QNAP NAS 2 x 1TB running Logitech squeezecenter. This serves up my music collection (approx 30,000 tracks) to network music players in the house. I have 2 x squeezebox 3's and 2 x Squeeze radios. I can control everything from anywhere, synchronise the music in all rooms or play independently on each of them. I can even leave the house with a player and as long as I have an internet connection can listen to my music (at home) anywhere in the world. Inexpensive set up and you can connect the SB3's to your existing amp/sterero/2.1/etc

Not to mention the internet radio that is also on offer. Inexpensive to set up and supports lossless audio if you want it, most of my music is MP3 320K which is more than adequate for my needs.

 

[jimbob.someroo]

Just to throw in a curve ball. You could look at getting a Mac mini and an Apple TV. That way you can still load your music via CD, or buy via iTunes. You can then wirelessly stream them to the Apple TV which you can plug into your TV and play the music out of. If you haven't already, you could get some decent speakers for the TV and then you've got a full system on the go!

I know it sounds like a big step in a different direction but an Apple TV would allow you to wireless stream all music (and video) from any mac so you could keep your familiarity with iTunes. Whats more is that you could download / rent films either straight onto your Apple TV or through iTunes and watch YouTube etc on it if you so wish.

Like I say, more of an 'out of the box' sort of idea but for the same price (ish) as a Sonos you could get the whole set up ...

Then again, the Sonos' are niiiiiiice.