Networked music playback

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Ancalagon

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Hey everyone,

So, I'm making an offer on a loft apartment tomorrow, which will hopefully mean I have a house.

One of the things I am thinking of, is having speakers in different rooms playing the same sound - preferably without long cables between them! There is a loft lounge upstairs, and a kitchen/dining room downstairs. What I would really like, is a sound system that can play the same music in both locations.

I should also note, one thing that I want to buy at the end of this year is an Ouya games console. Since that can run XBMC, could XBMC function in networked mode? Like, use my Android phone as a remote control? And then maybe have the Ouya upstairs in the lounge for movie playback, and a cheap android TV stick downstairs to just mirror the sound? All across wifi of course.

Any ideas would be welcome.

EDIT: DLNA and Streaming? I have a DLNA enabled wireless N router.
 
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Well, if wires are the best solution, I'll go with wires (in terms of cost, ease of use etc).

My ideal solution would be one in which the music played on my desktop PC, kitchen speakers and lounge speakers was in sync. And where changing the song on the Ouya upstairs, changed it for the whole house.

How do I do this without spending like Zuma spent on Nkandla?

EDIT: There is also bluetooth.... So many options!
 
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Well XBMC can receive airplay content but unfortunately it doesn't synchronise the music. If that's not an issue then XBMC works fine in a wireless network - you can't however start a playlist on one machine and continue listening to it on another, although I believe that they are working on a solution to this in later releases. I often use iTunes as the music player and then simply select the XBMCs as speakers in the volume output - really easy to do, but again, it doesn't sync all that well...
 
Yeah, thats what I would want.

My ideal solution would be all speakers connected to all devices in the house playing the same music at the same time.
 
Logitech media server and clients or maybe an Onkyo with a couple of zones.
 
Easiest way to achieve this would be to use itunes and an apple airport express, but unfortunately then you have to buy into the apple ecosystem, I'm not sure if any decent airplay remote apps exist for android either. Going this route you can connect the airport expresses over wifi or lan to your network and you can control the volume and what songs they play, using an iphone you can either use the remote app to control your itunes library or alternatively stream music off your iphone, on android i'm not sure if this can be achieved.
 
Nduimiso said:
Easiest way to achieve this would be to use itunes and an apple airport express, but unfortunately then you have to buy into the apple ecosystem, I'm not sure if any decent airplay remote apps exist for android either. Going this route you can connect the airport expresses over wifi or lan to your network and you can control the volume and what songs they play, using an iphone you can either use the remote app to control your itunes library or alternatively stream music off your iphone, on android i'm not sure if this can be achieved.
Click to expand...

But cant you only stream to one Apple Airplay device at a time? So, I would not be able to stream to multiple devices and have them play the same song at the same time.
 
Ancalagon said:
But cant you only stream to one Apple Airplay device at a time? So, I would not be able to stream to multiple devices and have them play the same song at the same time.
Click to expand...
Nope you can do that, you can stream a song to one airplay device, to all of them or whichever you choose, and you can control the volume of each device independantly. It is the easiest way to achieve what you want but its not for everyone.
Watch this vid: [video=youtube;xFFH5X44-44]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFFH5X44-44[/video]
 
A few questions for you

What's your budget and how many speakers are needed for all the rooms in the house?

Do you own an amplifier, make and model?

Thanks
 
Budget is... flexible, but I'd want to keep it under R10k for the entire project. That has to cover speakers etc too.

So far, what I have is:
1 x TV for the lounge
1 x cheap 5.1 home theatre DVD player setup. I plan to retire this to the kitchen and buy something new for the TV.
1 x PC with all of my music and movies on it
1 x cheap logitech 5.1 speakers for the PC (not planning to upgrade those)
1 x Linksys dual band wireless N ADSL router, supports DLNA (cant remember model number)
1 x Samsung Galaxy S4 to use as an XBMC remote (well, not just that!)

What I am thinking of buying is:
1 x Ouya video games console to use for XBMC/Htpc playback connected to the TV
1 x MK808B android TV stick to use for streaming audio to the old 5.1 home theatre setup in the kitchen
1 x Sony 5.2 receiver/amplifier - the one that costs R3300 on Takealot
Speakers... not sure what to do here, but I see I can get the Wharfedale Diamon 10 HCP on bidorbuy.co.za for R3600. The only thing I dont like about it is that it has a single active subwoofer - not a passive one. It would just mean that the .2 part of my receiver would be wasted.
 
Sounds like a networked amplifier with multizones is your best solution. Most new networked amplifiers come with downloadable phone apps that makes controlling them from other rooms super easy. A multizone solution allows you to output music to all zones or independently watch a movie in zone 1 while listening to music in zone 2/3. Some of the amplifier apps come with a server side application to share your digital library or they'll support samba

Where you getting your MK808B and how much do they cost?
 
Um the first networked amplifier I came across, costs R28k. No thanks. Besides, I'd need two of them. Even if they were R3k each, I still need two, which leaves no room for speakers.

So, networked amplifiers are not an option, far too expensive. I'll do it with XBMC and squeezebox. Much cheaper.

I'll probably buy it from eBay, plus a wireless air mouse/keyboard.
 
Ancalagon said:
Um the first networked amplifier I came across, costs R28k. No thanks. Besides, I'd need two of them. Even if they were R3k each, I still need two, which leaves no room for speakers.

So, networked amplifiers are not an option, far too expensive. I'll do it with XBMC and squeezebox. Much cheaper.

I'll probably buy it from eBay, plus a wireless air mouse/keyboard.
Click to expand...

Why do you need 2, I thought you wanted music in the lounge and loft?

Hunt around for an Onkyo TX NR609, they're in the region of R7k

Also, how were you planning on putting music in the loft and lounge if the current amplifer is going into the kitchen?
 
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jacksback said:
Why do you need 2, I thought you wanted music in the lounge and loft?

Hunt around for an Onkyo TX NR609, they're in the region of R7k

Also, how were you planning on putting music in the loft and lounge if the current amplifer is going into the kitchen?
Click to expand...

How would you achieve multi room audio with only a single networked receiver?

Right, my thinking is:
Kitchen - 1 x MK808B powering the current home theatre setup.
Lounge/loft - 1 x Ouya games console driving a new amplifier/receiver and new speakers
bedroom - 1 x PC serving up content wirelessly to the two clients.
 
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