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I hope that this is posted in the right place...

I need music in two rooms, both have rubbish stereos so I'm starting from scratch. I'm looking at wifi as the way to go & probably using sonos. I have a squeezebox boom which I use in the kitchen but otherwise no real experience of this. Wifi to me is easy, but is it the best way quality wise? It's a present for my OH, so I want it to be great & needs to be decent across a wide range of music & radio.

My shopping list so far is the following from Sonos:-

S5 for the bedroom, ZP120 & CR200 for living room. 

Plus:-

Speakers-wanted some from B&W but can't afford them so found some from Q (1020) which he can upgrade later when he can afford it.

NAS probably 2TB from Buffalo. Music is currently either on my laptop or still on cds & I'd like to get rid of both.

We have a tv, but no cinema sound, it's just a little tv, not HD ready or anything. Should I be thinking about something to incorporate with that for when we do need a new tv? The reason I like the sonos stuff is that it looks easy & we could add it to other rooms in the future, but it's a lot of money, so I need to get this right.

The router is the BT thing. So, is this good, going to work & the best option? Or should I be looking at other options? I've been reading so much now I'm just getting more confused.

eatmyhat:

We have a tv, but no cinema sound, it's just a little tv, not HD ready or anything. Should I be thinking about something to incorporate with that for when we do need a new tv? The reason I like the sonos stuff is that it looks easy & we could add it to other rooms in the future, but it's a lot of money, so I need to get this right.

The Sonos has nothing to do with your TV and probably never will have, so ignore that side of things, Sonos just does two-channel music.

The router is the BT thing. So, is this good, going to work & the best option? Or should I be looking at other options? I've been reading so much now I'm just getting more confused.

Ah, is this the BT Homehub 2.0? I believe there are still issues with this router and Sonos (or there were last time I looked), you may want to head over to the Sonos forums (off the Sonos website) and ask there, there are plenty of very knowledgable people there that can help you with this part of your question.

Hi

Lucky other half. What's your budget? How hifi obsessed are you both?

Personally I'd suggest squeezebox duet or wait for new touch. Don't mix sonos and squeezebox. Either get sonos kit and sell the boom or stick with squeezebox devices.

Hifi wise, have you heard of avi adm9.1 active speakers? Potentially ideal with sb duet or touch.

Also second previous advice - deal with the tv totally seperately.

Ant

the_lhc:

The Sonos has nothing to do with your TV and probably never will have, so ignore that side of things, Sonos just does two-channel music.]

[Ah, is this the BT Homehub 2.0? I believe there are still issues with this router and Sonos (or there were last time I looked), you may want to head over to the Sonos forums (off the Sonos website) and ask there, there are plenty of very knowledgable people there that can help you with this part of your question.

OK that's great. We're not big tv watchers anyway, so I don't really want to get into anything about upgrading the tv too.

Not sure if it's the 2.0, it's the thing on the BT ads with that goofy guy. Anyway thanks for advice about the Sonos forums, I hadn't worked out that they had them, so I shall certainly have a look later.

amcluesent:

TBH a mixed Sonos and Squeezebox system will lose all the benefits such as multi-zone, synronisation, you'd have multiple remotes and two music servers. Total nightmare! Music streamers don't make good 'surprise' presents, you need to plan how to extend your current setup.

Thanks for your reply. I must admit I am a bit worried about doing this, as if he doesn't like it I'm stuffed! We don't have a current set-up to extend, that's the problem! I only bought the squeezebox a couple of weeks ago as a stop gap so that I could listen to internet radio not coming from (out of) my computer as I find it very distracting.

Ant8519:

Hi

Lucky other half. What's your budget? How hifi obsessed are you both?

Personally I'd suggest squeezebox duet or wait for new touch. Don't mix sonos and squeezebox. Either get sonos kit and sell the boom or stick with squeezebox devices.

Hifi wise, have you heard of avi adm9.1 active speakers? Potentially ideal with sb duet or touch.

Also second previous advice - deal with the tv totally seperately.

Ant

Hi thanks for your comments, I hope he thinks he's lucky too! As I just said I am slightly concerned about buying it for him. The budget is kind of fluid, well tbh I was thinking as close to £1K as poss, but it looks like it's could be closer to 1.5 depending on the variation I get especially as I hadn't considered the NAS either. We're not hifi obsessed, we have several ageing systems & I know it annoys him not having music, but the money's been tight so it's not been a priority.

Hadn't thought about using Squeezebox system before coming on here, as everything I've read seemed to point towards Sonos as being better, but maybe I'm wrong? If I took my Squeezebox out of the equation (which I was planning on doing) which would be the better system? Or would I be best to just put some of the money into a decent hifi & let him decide on the rest??? I just really wanted to give him a super birthday & an IOU just isn't the same thing!  

Not heard of those speakers, will look into them. Thanks

heystak:

As you already have a Squeezebox Boom a straight forward solution would be to get Squeezebox Duet and also buy an additional Squeezebox receiver. With the Duet controller you can then control the music in the 2 rooms but also control the Boom in the kitchen. You would need 2 pairs of active speakers for the 2 rooms or buy 2 new amps & passive speakers. Or more booms! To keep things simple I would get a 1TB HDD (approx £80) and rip all your music to this and with USB cable connect it to your laptop running Squeezecentre. I'd buy a second HDD drive to take regular copies of your ripped music. Not sure how you can integrate all this into a TV so I would keep the two systems separate.

Thanks for replying, I'm going to look into this, as I've just said I really hadn't thought of using squeezebox. The only thing is that I don't want to have the computer on all the time, which is why I was thinking of the NAS (is that right, the computer wont need to be on then?) He has about 1200 albums to put onto something...

Note that Squeezeboxes require a computer or NAS running slimserver on it somewhere to work, and that it is difficult to put slimserver on most NAS except NetGear and a couple of others.   NetGear ReadyNas are very nice, but more expensive than most NAS.

The other alternative is to have a low-powered headless netbox as a Server -- either get an Acer Aspire one mini PC, load linux on it and slimserver and run it headless, or go for an all in one solution such as VortexBox.org  that does it all for you and includes a cd drive for automatic ripping aswell check out: vortexbox.org.  

There may be other solutions too - but buying someone a squeezebox and then they have to get the rest to make it work right is an expensive surprise for them as others have said.

eatmyhat:

the_lhc:

Ah, is this the BT Homehub 2.0? I believe there are still issues with this router and Sonos (or there were last time I looked), you may want to head over to the Sonos forums (off the Sonos website) and ask there, there are plenty of very knowledgable people there that can help you with this part of your question.

Not sure if it's the 2.0, it's the thing on the BT ads with that goofy guy. Anyway thanks for advice about the Sonos forums, I hadn't worked out that they had them, so I shall certainly have a look later.

The black thing that stands upright? That's the 2.0 (the original was white).

Hi again

I am confused as to which 2 rooms you want music in. The sonos product you mention (s5) is similar in concept to the sb boom an amplified speaker with wireless streaming. The zp120 is a streaming device with an amp which requires speakers attached, this in the living room isn't a particularly hifi solution...

Sonos and squeezebox duet are 2 ways of achieving the same end - a nice hand held controller to browse all your tunes and stream them wirelessly to a stereo or to their own amplified speakers. The main difference is that current squeezebox products need a pc running to manage the software, whereas the sonos product has this built in (although the new squeezebox touch also has the software built in) and this allows them to run from a simple nas drive.

To complicate this slightly the current squeezebox products can run from a powerful (and more expensive!) nas drive but setting this up is not for those without good IT and home network savvy. This is how I run mine and the setup was a pain in the hole, although it runs flawlessly and has done for 18 months now...

The sonos is considerably more expensive than the squeezebox, but sound quality wise I do not think an enormous step up, esp. if using the zp120.

Personally I recommend the sb duet for the main room, the boom you already have for your kitchen and another for the bedroom, cost £230 duet and £176 for the boom. The duet controller can also control both booms.

Alternative is zp90, controller and two s5's which would come to £1150, which is a lot more for the benefit of not needing to have the computer on, or a zp120 for £100 more.

The rest you can use on a decent stereo. Bear in mind that once all the cd's are ripped a good cd player is pretty pointless, which is why I would suggest the avi adm9.1s. Although at £1150 a pair they may be a bit OTT?  I would highly recommend spending the bulk of the budget on the main listening room though. Cheaper active speakers exist which may be ideal with either sonos or squeezebox.

Alternatively the marantz pm6003 amp and cd6003 and wharfedale 10.1 combo at £600 is very reasonable and gives you an immediately playable system, while your partner rips all those cd's.

For £1k I would get the sb duet and marantz combo and another boom and save up for a good nas system to run it all, using the computer in the meantime.

Or for £1250 get the sonos zp120/cr200/s5/s5 system and a pair of wharfedale 10.1's (£200) and any decent nas (£100 - 200) to store your tunes. Total £1550 -1650. Personally I don't think this is as good as the above squeezebox and marantz combo.

Either way your partner will be absolutley thrilled...

Hi

I dont know if this can help, I am pretty new to Sonos myself. I run my system from a Home plug in my dining room ( Sonos and the people I purchased my system from were not sure if this would work). I get about 2mg connection in my house and it works perfectly for internet radio and streaming music. In my office, about 60 foot away I have BT Hub  where I have a Buffalo link station plugged into the router. In the home I have the zone player ZP90 plugged into the Home plug and then that is plugged into my Bose radio which is on the AUX setting and the music quality is great for the dining room.

In the kitchen I have another ZP90 plugged into my PURE Avanti radio, again set on AUX, again great sound.

The zone players are very discreet and cannot be seen. All that can be seen are the 2 radios. In my living room, connected up to my hifi sustem i have a ZP80 zone player which I got off ebay for £70. This has my ipod doc plugged into the analoge audio plug. The whole system works great. I do not have any zone bridges which I was told i would need to work the system from my office.

I am not technically knowledgeable or computer savvy but within a couple of hours I had set the whole thing up including making a couple of calls to sonos who were very helpful and patient.

Paul

purley:

Hi

I dont know if this can help, I am pretty new to Sonos myself. I run my system from a Home plug in my dining room ( Sonos and the people I purchased my system from were not sure if this would work). I get about 2mg connection in my house and it works perfectly for internet radio and streaming music. In my office, about 60 foot away I have BT Hub  where I have a Buffalo link station plugged into the router. In the home I have the zone player ZP90 plugged into the Home plug and then that is plugged into my Bose radio which is on the AUX setting and the music quality is great for the dining room.

In the kitchen I have another ZP90 plugged into my PURE Avanti radio, again set on AUX, again great sound.

The zone players are very discreet and cannot be seen. All that can be seen are the 2 radios. In my living room, connected up to my hifi sustem i have a ZP80 zone player which I got off ebay for £70. This has my ipod doc plugged into the analoge audio plug.

Errr, why's that then (the iPod dock)? Are you not streaming any of your music from your PC/NAS?

The whole system works great. I do not have any zone bridges which I was told i would need to work the system from my office.

You'd only need a zonebridge if the wireless range doesn't extend to the office. Not sure what you mean by "work the system from my office" to be honest.

Hi

I am streaming the music from my NAS but I also have my ipod plugged into the Zone player which plugs into my proper hi fi system. I personally think the sound is better from the ipod, (but this does stream it to the other zone players, which are controlled from the sonos remote)

As for the zone bridge, when I spoke to sonos they said i might need one to boost the signal from the office to the house. What's in my office is the router with the NAS plugged in it and that sends all the information to my home plug where I have my zone player plugged in

 Hope this makes things a bit clearer

Paul