Music in home

Okay - forgive my lack of knowledge on this...

I am wanting to be able to play music on my computer and set up connections to speakers in 2 other areas of the house. I then want the option of choosing whether or not to hear the audio in a room or not, e.g. only have audio in lounge and comp room or lounge only etc...

What hardware do I need to accomplish this? I don't necessarily require high powered stuff...

Thanks in advance for any simplistic advice!

Depends if you want to have wires or not. If you would like to go the wireless routre there are quite a few devices think D-link has the cheapest opttion. Personally I use my psp to stream music to my hifi or a set of speakers in another room. Not the most elegant or easiest solution.

You can also get a wireless AV streamer (ellies model it think) connect it to your computer and the other one to the the speaker (You'll need amplified ones though). Downside would be that you will have to run to the computer to change the tune or connect the video output to your tv and access your computer via a wireless keyboard.

There are expensive options too... look at www.have2have.co.za.

You can also look at Apple's Airport express. Play on pc via iTunes, and you select which airport express unit to play to (Wireless with the speakers plugged into the airport express)

I bought a Pinnacle Systems Showcenter 200 last week. Love it to bits! They retail at R2200.00 and have a remote control to access your music files on the PC. In addition it does do Jpegs and mpg videos to your TV set.

The downside? If you use wireles the PC and Pinnacle should be within 10 metres of each other. See www.pinnaclesys.com

All good options, and here is another VERY cheap option.

1) Buy a audio plug that is a double adaptor (one male part, and two or three female parts).
2) Buy a few male audio plugs (one per female part of the adapter)
3) buy a few metres of "bell" wire (around 30cents a metre).
4) buy some toggle switches (on/off) - one per male audio jack.
5) wire the speakers up, and lay wire to the pc, connect the toggle switch and then the male jack.
6) plug the jacks into the adapter, and the adapter into the sound card.

done!

Yea - it's a complete bugger up.
I've bought an expensive amp that can provide power for like speakers allover the place and outside and has the ability to turn them on and off individually.

Now - the fsking remote control is Infra Red - what a stupid oversight - you have to point it at the amp to change something.

So - I have to actually walk into the house to put the outside speakers on. Grrrr.

The aim is to play the music from your PC though.
So - I then bought a cheap PC Speaker and amp set that has proper speaker left and right connectors, and ran cable from the PC room to the AMP and set that up ad the amp's "TAPE" connector.

Now I can have computer-supplied sound allover - but I cannot control it.

So - I purchase the cheapest PDA that is WI-FI capable and I configure it to be able to logon to my brand new WI-FI network and I browse a local website that runs on my computer that controls my playlists [and my pc-volume].

This is a simple plugin that you buy for windoze media player 9/10.

Now we're talking.

What a mission - but now that I have a PDA that can run a web site, I can control all the other stuff that my PC can control.

Moederloos - I like your solution as it is the most basic for my needs, but please tell me where on earth I can get bell wire or ripcord for 30c a metre???

Can anyone suggest a retailer in the Durban area selling it cheaply?

Moederloos said:

All good options, and here is another VERY cheap option.

1) Buy a audio plug that is a double adaptor (one male part, and two or three female parts).
2) Buy a few male audio plugs (one per female part of the adapter)
3) buy a few metres of "bell" wire (around 30cents a metre).
4) buy some toggle switches (on/off) - one per male audio jack.
5) wire the speakers up, and lay wire to the pc, connect the toggle switch and then the male jack.
6) plug the jacks into the adapter, and the adapter into the sound card.

done!

Click to expand...

The problem with connecting things up this way (no offence Moederloos) is that when you start putting more speakers on to a system in parallel, the ohm rating drops, hence you can blow your sound card. V=IR, therefore I=V/R. Your current through your card will increase the minute you toggle more than two speakers. Can't exactly remember the formula to use for that, its been a while. Go to http://www.nuvotechnologies.com/ for some other alternatives (check out the Simplese).

Also, when it comes to controlling your PC remotely, if you have a sony cell with bluetooth, do yourself a favour and download FMA (http://fma.sourceforge.net). As they say on the site, this software makes Sony the best phone out.

LandyMan said:

You can also look at Apple's Airport express. Play on pc via iTunes, and you select which airport express unit to play to (Wireless with the speakers plugged into the airport express)

Click to expand...

Thats my preferred option and it works great.

Also they've apparently changed it so you can play to more than one airport express at a time so I'm going to get a second one to replace the ancient airport base-station I have.