MySwag.org The Off-road Camper Trailer Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: WilSurf on February 10, 2014, 05:47:39 PM
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Now I have time to dream about what to do in our new house.
I would like to have audio indoor as well as outdoor. Basically in 3 rooms: kitchen/dining, front lounge and outdoor.
After searching on the web, t is very hard to see the trees through the forrest.
Has anyone experience with these kind of systems?
It would be nice to have a multi source system, but I guess that would make it more complicated.
How hard is to implement in an existing house, by using an existing stereo?
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hey WilSurf,
I have not personally installed or used these units in the link below, but have looked at a similar setup as you are describing
I know you can get amps that will accommodate multiple inputs to different speakers (ie kids watching TV on one set, adults listening to music out side). All depends on how much you want to spend.
Check out these units if you have not already
http://www.sonos.com/ (http://www.sonos.com/)
In the end, I decided on a much cheaper solution.
Streaming music from my phone / tablet device to a bluetooth portable speaker (the quality of these speakers are fantastic now, even battery operated ones). Best thing is this solution also travels with us on our camping trips.
I thought I was pretty up to date on technology, but only last month a mate of mine showed me pandora. WOW, how cool. now I stream music of my choice to my Bluetooth speakers for free without pirating or ripping mp3's.
implementing something like this into an existing stereo really depends on what connectivity features your stereo has.
sorry, probably not really any help, but hopefully may give you something to think about re other solutions
Justin
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Does your amp have A/B speaker option?
I have a Yamaha that can do a split or do it all at once.
The neighbours love it when my kids crank something up on the verandah at 8 oclock on a Sunday morning.....not but my neighbour is a turd so I don't care.
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I looked at doing this with my current set up due to it being 2 zone. After looking at various outdoor speakers I soon realised that to get the sound I wanted outside I'd need to spend about $500+ for 2 speakers. After some serious thought I ended up buying a Pioneer surround system for $400 including amp and 5 speakers. At first I was worried about moisture wrecking it even though it's undercover ( Tassie mornings with temps below zero ) It's now been there for over 12 months without an issue and sounds great
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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http://www.cleverhome.com.au/multi-room-audio-hi-fi.shtml (http://www.cleverhome.com.au/multi-room-audio-hi-fi.shtml)
I'm looking into this as well for my house at the moment. There are a variety of vendors with different systems, it all comes down to how many features you want and how much you are willing to shell out.
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The Sonos system is pretty damned good. Can recommend it.
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Really not a fan of wireless systems, so that rules out Sonos.
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Trust me on this, having had a succession of systems, receivers and media systems. Go the Sonos.
I have just bought a sonos after trying squeezebox, apple, media player etc etc over many years, user friendless is the goal. Bloody expensive but delivers, they even have amplified zones so just require a set if speakers.
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Really not a fan of wireless systems, so that rules out Sonos.
Symon all the sonos boxes have Ethernet ports for wired solution, but then also transmit there own wireless "mesh" so a daisy chain of wired solutions will support a wireless sonos outside of the wifi range! The only thing that governs this is the wifi range of your Andriod or apple controller. But you can also get or could a sonos controllers that then work on the sonos mesh network.
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Will surf. I have similar requirements to you. I have a front music room a open plan living area and the backyard.
I didn't go for any of these integrated solutions. In the front room I have a 20 year old stereo system that sounds really good. I have a Bluetooth device plugged into the p and stream music that way. Great sound.
In the open plan do the same but have an iPod Dock since haven't gotten around to getting another Bluetooth. For outside I open the French doors. For parties I set up the PA on the back verandah. All bases covered. IPhone and iPad have same music library on them.
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Does your amp have A/B speaker option?
I have a Yamaha that can do a split or do it all at once.
The neighbours love it when my kids crank something up on the verandah at 8 oclock on a Sunday morning.....not but my neighbour is a turd so I don't care.
Same as ours, works well. Have the 3.5 to stereo cable for the iPod.
Renno :cheers:
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My stereo supports multiple speakers. But that's not enough outside to do the job properly. PA with 800w powered speakers driven by the iDevice. You can annoy the crap out of the whole block if you like. For special occasions only.
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I set up a system at my old house.
I had 4 amps in 2 locations
Amp 1 was the surround sound system in the lounge.
1 set of speakers on A channel did the lounge on surround 5.1
1 set of speakers on B Channel in the kitchen (stereo)
Amp 2 in lounge
1 set of speakers in pool yard. (stereo)
Amp 3 in my workshop
1 set of speakers in my workshop on Channel A (stereo)
1 set of speakers in other end of pool yard on B channel
Amp 4 in my workshop
1 set of speakers in the other end of the workshop.
The system was connected to my PC that was set up as a server so it was running all the time in the Lounge with the other HiFi & TV gear via amp 2 & that fed Amps 3 & 4
The TV was set up on Amp 1
Amp 1 & 2 were set up on the others line out so depending what was happening the Surrond sound system could be switched in & out so it could play what Amp 2 was playing with either Radio, CD or PC or TV or the other way round so you could listen to TV from Amp 2
We mainly used the system to listen to the PC as we have about 40g of MP3 files. This was controlled via iTunes with the Remote app on our iPhones or iPads. This was great when having parties as you sat an iPad on the table & told people to choose what they wanted to listen to.
The only Amp I actually paid for was the surround one in the lounge the rest were picked up over a few years as friends updated their systems to surround etc.
I did buy 2 sets of Clipsal weather proof speakers for the pool yard but again I managed to pick up most of the others.
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but my neighbour is a turd so I don't care.
Love it! :cup:
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X2 for the Sonos. Expensive, but brilliant.
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X2 for the Sonos. Expensive, but brilliant.
Can you steam wirelessly from your iPad or I phone though?
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I,m a Sonos fan as well.
The wife sits outside Puffing away and watching MKR (TV is inside outdoor speakers controlled through a Sonos Amp), I sit inside listening to Music streamed through MOG and looking at Myswag!!!
If I decide to go out to the Garage and tinker on the CT, I simply unplug one of the speakers, take it into the garage plug it into a GPO stream some good old Rock & Roll from MOG crank it up, now that shakes up the street!!!!
Best system that we have had, very flexible and easy to use.
Rob
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Can you steam wirelessly from your iPad or I phone though?
We can stream music from our Phones, Ipad, IPod or our music collection on the computer or via Tunein, MOG, our TV all wirelessly
Very easy to use.
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Yes, you can stream direct from an iphone or ipad or just point the sonos to your music library on your PC or Mac. I've actually stopped buying music, I subscribe to spotify and stream it direct to the Sonos system
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X10 on the Sonos. No more cds. No more hours in front of a computer sorting out megabytes (or terabytes) of music (although Sonos supports this). 10-15$ per month with your streaming music site of choice - spotify at the moment. I'm listening to a heap of music I would never have been exposed to before. Different music in different areas etc etc. No doubt over the next few years this will become cheaper and there will be more competition, but I'm getting older and if I kept waiting I would keep racking up the days of no downtime or enjoyment. Considering I used to be ecstatic listening to a really crappy transistor radio in the 70s that could barely stay in tune to the station and also tape Countdown from the tv onto a cassette player (did anyone else do this?) I find the quality of sound and the lack of cables just awesome.
Shane
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk
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Don't Bose have a multi-room system (wired)
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I know Yamaha do a true audio & video 3 zone amp. $1800 approx though
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More reading to do.
I prefer wired systems, maybe I am old school. ;D
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DENON do some nice multi zone surround sound amps. Not cheap though.
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Anyone hard about Xantech? http://www.xantech.com/Audio/AVDistribution/AudioDistribution/MRAUDIO4X4CTL/ (http://www.xantech.com/Audio/AVDistribution/AudioDistribution/MRAUDIO4X4CTL/)
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We have a Yamaha Multi Zone receiver in the lounge with Zone 2 in the Family and Zone 3 outside with more than enough power to well and truly P everyone off if need be. Highly recommend Yamaha. Not cheap but you get what you pay for. The wired system is fantastic, but can be a real pain if your not keen on running wires everywhere, that's why the Sonos etc. are very popular now. Mine was fairly easy to wire as we have conduit in the walls and double brick everywhere else. Worth looking into the wiring side before you discount wireless.
Dave
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Trust me on this, having had a succession of systems, receivers and media systems. Go the Sonos.
I have just bought a sonos after trying squeezebox, apple, media player etc etc over many years, user friendless is the goal. Bloody expensive but delivers, they even have amplified zones so just require a set if speakers.
+1 SONOS
it just works, plus apps for iphone,ipad and Android. I have two of the connect boxes and they are fantastic
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With the Sonos, can you listen to your standard stereo or is it internet radio only?
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Yep I have a big arse Yamaha multi zone receiver. It works through iPhone iPad or home automation input. Works well but you still need a music source.
Please just look hard/get a demo on sonos, Before discounting it. I'm not joking when I state I tried/bought all of the others. as I mentioned all sonos devices have an Ethernet port if you are anti wireless.
The hardest part about any streaming music is ripping and organizing your files, take the time to get this right. A great simple rip and stream box can be made by getting a PC and installing an OS called vortexbox. You just open the disc tray, it rips CD or DVD to Flac, MP3 apple lose less etc then gets album art etc and catalogs it ready for you to stream, all without you doing a single thing other than loading the disc tray.
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With the Sonos, can you listen to your standard stereo or is it internet radio only?
What do you mean? The sonos just simply streams the music from a PC, NAS, iTunes, vortex box. Then depending what sonos you get. A zone 90 is connected to your stereo inputs and layer through that. A zone 120 is same but with amplification, so you just hook up a set of speakers and it plays , then there is a host of newer play series stuff that is self contained with speakers, so you just get a play 1 and put it on your desk then stream music through that.
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The questions is can I listen to my old trusted radio over the Sonos gear?
Listening to the radio in the back yard and have the iPod playing music in the dining.
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The questions is can I listen to my old trusted radio over the Sonos gear?
Listening to the radio in the back yard and have the iPod playing music in the dining.
There is a line input on the connect series so a tuner or cd can be fed in. you can also pick up all the local radio channels as well though the sonos as long as the radio station streams To the internet which is all of them I think. You can also listen to just about every radio station in the world that streams to the internet. I just discovered the " sports" genre. A heap of sports broadcasters from around the world.
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How does this work?
Do you need to leave you computer on/
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How does this work?
Do you need to leave you computer on/
If using a PC yes. Most use a NAS drives (network attached storage) , small box's containing HDDs. The vortex box works really well and is cheap to run if you use an "atom" based PC (like running a 60watt globe)
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Just did the exercise myself in decking out our new house.
I really like Sonos but thought that the best outcome was via a Yamaha amp/receiver, I went with a 2030 (about $2-2.5k) which gives me 3 zones (inc hdmi to two zones) and they can all run independently. I looked at the other brands of amps and whilst they all have a model that can do the job none of the others have an app that compares to the yamaha's (you can download and demo the different apps for yourself).
The Yamaha also includes all the on board apps for tuned-in, spotify etc and has about a thousand inputs on the back for all your old school sources. Personally I grab my music from a four bay NAS.
I think the Reciever/Amp is a better option because it can handle your home theatre requirements as well as the multi-room audio, it has much more grunt and depending on what speakers you run and the amp you pick it should come in a bit cheaper.
If you need more than three Zones or you don't really want to run cables the Sonos is probably a better option.
If you do go the Reciever/Amp option you can always incorporate sonos down the track by using a sonos connect as a source to the Receiver/Amp or using sonos amps to run the speakers and keeping your Reciever/Amp to run the surround sound in your lounge.
Jason.
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Personally I grab my music from a four bay NAS.
I am looking into this as well.
What are you using?
I read abouth the WD, Asustor, Synology etc.
Lot of money for only the casing and software as you still need to buy 1 or 2 hard drives.
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Lot of money for only the casing and software as you still need to buy 1 or 2 hard drives.
agree
I started looking into them too, bloke at work here has 2 - one for movies, and one for family photos.... I can get drives cheap, but they still don't seem *value* yet.
http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=32727.msg517865#msg517865 (http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=32727.msg517865#msg517865)
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I searched for NAS and Synology but nothing came up.
That while you had asked the question.....
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I am looking into this as well.
What are you using?
I read abouth the WD, Asustor, Synology etc.
Lot of money for only the casing and software as you still need to buy 1 or 2 hard drives.
Hey WilSurf, sorry for the late reply. I run a Netgear ReadyNas 104 - cost about $300 and will take 4 x 4tb giving you up to 12gb of redundant storage (4tb is used for parity info). I stream DVD quality video and music from it without an issue.
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Really not a fan of wireless systems, so that rules out Sonos.
Symon I was of the same view as you. Wireless can be hopeless for consistent quality and performance. I headed up the Asia wireless group for a large networking company starting with C so I have some experience in wifi.
After originally writing it off, I heard a demo and saw the unbelievable user interface that combines hardware with IOS, Android and Windows like nothing I have seen so I looked into the wireless.
It sets up an 802.11n MESH network for its exclusive use, usually reserved for wireless backbone networking. Being a full mesh network it has multipath and QoS. It's a seperate network and you can't use it for your other data. The more speakers you have, the better the mesh.
The result is that it gets reliable, quality audio in ares of my house that don't even get coverage from my router
Also the way it works with streaming you can set it up and then turn the phone or PC off and it keeps going.
You can even queue up songs from different devices like iphones, android and PC's and it will play them in order.
It really changes the way you listen to music in your home. I even have the adapter so I can connect my existing amp and speakers into it and treat them the same.
It is an unbelievable system. take a look at it.
Usual Disclaimer.....
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Boobook, that's sounds great.
How does it work if you want to play different music in different rooms?
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Wilsurf, go to Hardly normal or JB to see them. You have to see it to believe how simple the whole thing is.
On your Ipad, Iphone, Android or PC there is a free app. It's home page shows your speakers ont he left, and the music on the right. You can name the speakers bedroom, kitchen etc.
You select a speaker then select the music source, tuneinradio, your music files, JBonline, Mog etc. etc. Then for different music in another room just select the room then the music for that room. All the other devices will update themselves automatically to show what you just did. You can join the rooms so say the kitchen and lounge room play the same music. You select the room playing the music you want then join other rooms to it then they play together ( so you could have kitchen and lounge playing your ACDC and the bathroom playing Deep Purple). It's really cool when you join them, you can select the individual volumes of each speaker - say loud int he kitchen and louder in the lounge room, and as you turn the master volume up or down for that group they all stay relative the smae as you set unlessyou change it.
The set up is like no other tech product I have ever seen. This is the installation.
1)Plug at least one speaker into your hard wired ethernet to the router ( or use the bridge),
2)Download the app on the PC Iphone, android etc.
3)Turn speakers on.
4)press button on speaker and make sure app is on your device.
5)They find each other.
6)Play music.
There are no passwords, wifi keys, joining of networks - anything!!
You can go from unwrapping, to having 3 - 4 speakers going in less than 10 mins without touching a keyboard key.
And it sounds fantastic. Forget bluetooth, and if your phone rings during music, it keeps playing.
BUT it gets expensive, I've gone back to buy more and the sales guy said 60% of purchasers go back for more int he first 2 months.
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Thanks, will do.
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Wilsurf, go to Hardly normal or JB to see them. You have to see it to believe how simple the whole thing is.
On your Ipad, Iphone, Android or PC there is a free app. It's home page shows your speakers ont he left, and the music on the right. You can name the speakers bedroom, kitchen etc.
You select a speaker then select the music source, tuneinradio, your music files, JBonline, Mog etc. etc. Then for different music in another room just select the room then the music for that room. All the other devices will update themselves automatically to show what you just did. You can join the rooms so say the kitchen and lounge room play the same music. You select the room playing the music you want then join other rooms to it then they play together ( so you could have kitchen and lounge playing your ACDC and the bathroom playing Deep Purple). It's really cool when you join them, you can select the individual volumes of each speaker - say loud int he kitchen and louder in the lounge room, and as you turn the master volume up or down for that group they all stay relative the smae as you set unlessyou change it.
The set up is like no other tech product I have ever seen. This is the installation.
1)Plug at least one speaker into your hard wired ethernet to the router ( or use the bridge),
2)Download the app on the PC Iphone, android etc.
3)Turn speakers on.
4)press button on speaker and make sure app is on your device.
5)They find each other.
6)Play music.
There are no passwords, wifi keys, joining of networks - anything!!
You can go from unwrapping, to having 3 - 4 speakers going in less than 10 mins without touching a keyboard key.
And it sounds fantastic. Forget bluetooth, and if your phone rings during music, it keeps playing.
BUT it gets expensive, I've gone back to buy more and the sales guy said 60% of purchasers go back for more int he first 2 months.
Well explained Boobook and boy does it get exy? That's my only complaint. But the ease and simplicity at which you set up another sound zone makes up for it.
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You guys are making me drool!!!!! If you don't cut it out, your going to cost me serious $$$ !!!
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How does this sonos go with latency if listning to the same stream from 2 zones with overlap?
Oh and for a nas solution hp microserver, barebones 4 hdd capacity for round $300. Low power.
Or $420 for the newer gen8 celeron model.
40watts so at 30$kwh aboit $100/year to run.
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Koshari, they manage all that automatically.
If you group 2 or more rooms they are all 100% synchronised so the music has no relative latency or delay. It's like they are all on the same amplifier.
They have through of everything, but sheeze, load up your credit card. It is about 30% cheaper int he US and all the units are 110- 240V, but no retailer will ship to Australia. I squeezed Hardly Normal and got my initial set for $1130 instead of $1550. My mate went back and they met their own price that they gave me( !!!).
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looks a little more comprehensive than my holiday house solution,
of course this solution doesn’t let you stream different signals to multiple outputs, but that’s not a requirement of this simple setup.
2 of these,
(http://static.ozstock.com/QC3666_0.jpg)
the audio is picked up from the TVs line out and piped to the rear of the house.
for the record they work very well but you have to run the cat 5.
Out the back is a vintage akai 50 x 50 vintage amp and a pair of 80w kenwood speakers all picked up for a song at the flea market, $10 for the speakers and $20 for the amp.
inside all the music is stored on a Revo nettop PC
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMywTnTgrYAVAkQRsvowcBMzJOUrYiUA009eNVEjv9fhYM4REcfw)
and managed using http://www.clementine-player.org/ (http://www.clementine-player.org/) over the its android app.
The Revo cost me about $320 a while back and has a 320G HDD more than enough for my library., but given in the early 90s i paid $600 for a 6 stack cartridge CD player I suppose its comparatively well priced.
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Oh and for a nas solution hp microserver, barebones 4 hdd capacity for round $300. Low power.
Or $420 for the newer gen8 celeron model.
How does that work?
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its effectively a low power PC with specific case for removable HDD bays.
load an OS on it,plug up to 4 drives in and share away,
the advantage it has over a stock standard NAS server is you can run background stuff like torrents,
it also has enterprise system monitoring independent to the OS.
So with this sonos system the minimum requirements would be a PC to run the app on, a network , a sonos bridge and a sonos connect and/or sonos play?
(https://www.sonos.com/graphics/rn/FAQ1319/play3-1.png)
iam still not seeing where to pipe in additional analog audio streams?
Edit: the 2 stereo RCA jacks on the right on the connect are line in.
Note: You can listen to music from the external device in any zone, and use the Sonos Wireless HiFi System to control the volume settings. However you must control the playback (forward, pause, etc.) from the line-in source. If you have Compressed encoding selected, you will notice a delay before the music starts to play.
this suggests you would have to configure your amp to specifically use the signal from the sonos system or you could have lack of sync.
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My understanding is that the Connect needs to plugged in to the receiver for FM or CD player which linkes up to the other Sonos items.
I went to JB today and it sounds good.
But the sales person told me that he recommended a Bridge connection to the router and then a Play.
"For future proof" he said. Not sure if you really need a bridge.
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i suspect your correct will.
it would seem to me that the ethernet connection should suffice via the home network to allow the controller to access the "connect" box.
What if I already have a wireless Router?
SonosNet does not replace your existing home network but rather works along side of it. As per the Internet connection requirements, one Sonos component or BRIDGE must be wired into the router with an Ethernet cable. This provides access to the home network, ensuring that each device can access shared music and the Internet.
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My understanding is that the Connect needs to plugged in to the receiver for FM or CD player which linkes up to the other Sonos items.
I went to JB today and it sounds good.
But the sales person told me that he recommended a Bridge connection to the router and then a Play.
"For future proof" he said. Not sure if you really need a bridge.
eBay is full of sonos bridges for sale. I can only think they are people who listened to JB as well? Ethernet to connect, connect to reciever/amplifier if you don't have an Ethernet port within cable length of your reciever/amplifier then yes you may need a bridge.
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Can you get proper sub woofers for this Sonos system. Just looking at the speakers on their website, a little 3.5" midrange woofer just won't cut it in the bass department.
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I heard the sound coming out of them and they are pretty good.
But I am not a critical listener who needs gold plated connectors.
I found articles saying that Sonos will coe out soon with software where you don't need to be wired in.
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alternatively use a sonos unpowerd connect with your own subbie/stereo.
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I'll see if I can clear up a few issues raised.
1)You don't need a bridge...but somewhere in the sonos world you do need an ethernet connection to your router if you want to stream music and get updates. Usually speakers aren't near where the router is so the bridge provides that function. If you have one speaker near your router and can cable it, then the bridge does nothing. You can't connect into the Sonos wireless network. All your streaming and connections are wireless as usual to your router then wired into the sonos system via the wired connection.
2)You don't need a server or massive PC, I don't have one. You just need an Iphone/Ipad, android device or PC to select and stream your songs. Any or all or even your friends ones are ok when they come over.
3)I have a connnect. It has stereo and digital out, and stereo in. I use it to connect to my high end amplifier and my good speakers. I can also connect to sime audi input but can't find a reason to do that. You can't get these at JB. Harvey Norman have them.
4)you can get subwoofers, I don't know how good they are.
5)There is a bridge that also has an amplifier so you just connect to your old speakers, its exxy ( even in sonos terms.)
They are a hit. I often connect people's phone if they have music ( which is the app download, pressing one button on the sonos and you're away). Everyone is blown away. 3 people have bought some straight away straight after seeing it. I've only had it about 2 months.
It really changes how you listen to the radio and music.
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All these internet streaming sites like Pandora, are they free or do you have to pay for them?
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You have all your own music on your iphone, Android, PC etc for free of course.
Then there are a few radio type services, like tune in radio and Pandora ( both free). I use that most of the time. It gets something like 20000 internet radio stations around the world and about 1000 ( a guess) from Australia. There are radio stations dedicated to ACDC, the beetles, Pink Floyd, etc etc as well as the ABC across Australia and all the commercial stations as well as internet only stations, Jazz, country, rock etc. etc.
I regularly listen to ABC Gippsland and Kimberly.
Then there are about 25 subscription services like MOG, JBNow, etc usually about $10 per month for 20million odd songs. Google play was added in the latest update about a week ago.
I tried the 1 month free subscription and liek JB the best followed by Mog, but prefer my own music or internet radio.
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Thanks for your reply boobook.
Sounds like it will be the Sonos Play 1 for the first unit and see how that goes.
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You'll love it.
Just to be clear about the bridge, if you can run an ethernet cable from your Sonos Play 1 to your router then you don't need a bridge. However if it isn't practical then you will need the bridge so you can connect your devices to it through your normal wifi / router and so it can get to the internet.
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OK.
We have the router/modem in our living room, so that is no problem for connecting the Sonos.
No bridge needed.
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5)There is a bridge that also has an amplifier so you just connect to your old speakers, its exxy ( even in sonos terms.)
It used to be the ZP100 and then the ZP120 now "Connect Amp" it's quite good and the beauty is you control the on and off of the amplifier as well so for an out door area it's perfect.
I find the Sonos sound quality generally more than good enough for the source of the music today which is generally compressed. Sonos was never know as the best in terms of SQ that was always bettered by squeezebox and others but it's functionality and reliability is unequalled. You can add DACs and stuff to the sonos but why would you bother, it's good enough.
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Finally, after a long time I have bought a Sonos Play 1.
Set up was very easy and the sound is not bad at all.
Luckily I could buy it "second hand". Someone bought 3 but decided that 2 was enough and sold the third Play 1.
Box was still sealed.
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These systems can be quite sophisticated but you need to look at how you really listen to sound. What I realised was that there is typically a different person in each room and they want to hear different things - son wants the footy, wife listens to talkback, daughters want pop, I want to enjoy Pink Floyd - and people also change rooms. Bedroom might have a littel TV. Flooding the whole house with a single program isn't a lot of use. And people do a lot of listening from iphones etc. I found a better solution was to tailor the system to each room, so TV gets a surround sound directly connected, lounge has a plain but good stereo for music, others generally use ipods, portables etc. My mate got a bit carried away and ran expensive speaker cabling to every room, from two music centres with state of the art amps. After 5 years he hasn't hooked it up anywhere.
I made a similar mistake but saturated the house with Cat 5. None of it's used - it's all wifi. Apple TV, Airplay etc have changed the game. Do you really need HiFi in a busy kitchen?
Just my take on it - and the budget hasn't taken a hit either. After living through LP, tape, Beta, CD, Minidisc, DVD, USB, iPod and Streaming, I wouldn't commit to anything long term. (That's a way of admitting that all my good gear is somewhat obsolete in today's game, lacking optical, HDMI, Wifi and 7-channel inputs).
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Just to add my setup
For xmas I bought myself a Connect and a Play 1. The Play 1 was so good I bought another one to make it a stereo pair in my bedroom.
The Connect goes to my Denon Receiver via Toslink cable and has a 3.5mm analogue input also that I plug my old classic ipod into. (or any other analogue source)
I can:
play music to either or both (Bedroom or Lounge room Home Theatre setup). The same source or different
play music from my Nas, my HTPC, my laptop, my ipod, my phones, my tablet or the internet.
From the internet I can play from Tunein, Pandora or Deezer. My Sonos purchase came with 12 months subscription to Deezer which is an internet streaming music source.
I don't need a Bridge and didn't get one. They are really only required when you are setting up a 5.1 system to your TV with a Sonos soundbar, sub and plays as the rear speakers. I also believe they have done away with their proprietary wireless network and now use wireless N.
I setup my system within 10 minutes and didn't need to connect to a wired point, it all was done wirelessly. Once connected to the Wifi network the speakers and Connect downloaded automatic updates and were ready to go. Setup my account on the Sonos webpage and Go Go Go
I have the app on my tablet which I use the most but also have it on my laptop and phones.I have listened to more music since xmas than I have listened to in the past 20 years simply because I can access it so easily. The Deezer subscription is great as I can search for music that I don't already have on my Nas. When the free subscription finishes in 12 months I will probably sign up for Spotify. For 60yo old ears it sounds very good especially through my Denon system to my reasonably priced speakers (Soon to be upgraded) The music is compressed to play over the Sonos system but it does still sound very good. I am surprised how well the little Play 1's sound. If I play flac files from my HTPC to my Receiver and compare them to the same from Deezer to my Sonos i can't tell the difference.
My opinion is: Glad I did it and no going back. It just works (and sounds surprisingly good.) And there is so much goodness in music on the interwebs that is so easy to access. My biggest problem is what will I play next.
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So you can have the app on multiple devices to control it?
That sounds good.
I have it on my tablet which I took with me on a day trip last Saturday. My wife couldn't switch to a different music, She could only stop it. :-)
I will tell her to download the app to her apple thingy.