Soundsytem for my home

[ImEmma]

Hi guys!

Im am looking for a sound system for my apartment. I am looking for something where i can have speakers in every room and i can connect my Macbook air and my iphone as well as my boyfriends android devices. 

do you bare any good advice or recommendations? 

[WackyGerman]

Look for the Beolink Multiroom system . But this would cost you some bucks  . B&O is not cheap but the quality is superb .

[Halcyon]

I would strongly recommend Sonos. They offer speakers in different sizes and more importantly they play well with Apple and Android products and you can stream directly from a NAS or a desktop computer. I think you can even play internet radio directly from the units themselves. Their Play:1 and Play:5 models are resistant to humid environments which makes them great for the bathroom or if you plan on bringing them outside at night for BBQ's or parties.

They support pretty much all the requisite file formats such as MP3, WMA (excluding DRM protected files), AAC, AAC+, OGG, FLAC, Wave, AIFF, iTunes Plus and Apple Lossless.

They utilise your existing Wi-Fi network, rather than Bluetooth connection to your phone, so wherever you have Wi-Fi coverage in your home (which is probably everywhere), you have music. If Ethernet is your thing, they have built-in Ethernet ports as well.

The sound quality is pretty darn good for the size of the speakers with surprisingly decent low-end frequency response. They are a bit on the pricey side, but out of all the various wireless speakers I've looked at and used, these offer some pretty good bang-for-buck.

The only negatives I've found with the Sonos gear are:

- If using Wi-Fi, Sonos devices support 802.11b/g 2.4GHz networks only. No 5Ghz support.

- The Play:5 model contains two built-in microphones. If you're security/privacy conscious, this is a bad thing. According to the Sonos website: "...two built-in microphones to enable future enhancements of Trueplay tuning. (Microphones are currently non-functional. Users will be alerted when microphones are functional and active)". Sonos haven't indicated whether there is going to be the option of disabling the microphones after the future software update enables them. The other models don't contain microphones.

[AndyC_772]

I'd be asking this sort of question on AVForums, not here.

We're nerds. We can help you if you want to build your own audio system, but probably aren't the most qualified group to know what the best available consumer products are this week. If you want to develop your own custom product from scratch, then stick around!

For what it's worth, I standardised on Logitech Squeezeboxes a few years ago, but they're probably not a good bet if you care about connecting to Apple or Android.

[NiHaoMike]

Are you after audiophile grade HD audio or would a decent soundbar be enough? It helps to know how many zones (rooms) you need and what are the quality expectations for each zone.

The Amazon Echo Dot is going for $50 each, even lower if you buy 6 or more. Main downside is that it only has 3.5mm output. (I actually ordered one to see if it can be hacked to add S/PDIF output.)

[ImEmma]

thanks for you reply everybody!
I guess a soundbar would be enough. I really like B&O's design thoug 
i was thinking about maybe getting alone at justmoney for the speakers.
have any of you ever used them for your projekts? 

[dannyf]

"I guess a soundbar would be enough"

To answer that, you should ask how important sound quality is to you.

If you care about sound quality, I would suggest that you get the best speakers you can afford to buy. And listen to the speakers, preferably in your environment, before you buy them.

For your hardware budget, put 70 percent into speakers, 20 percent into a decent amplifier, and 10 to the rest.

If you listen at moderate volume, look for amps rated 100wpc or more. Commercial / pro amps can be more economical there.

[Halcyon]

Perhaps if you give us an idea of what your budget is and what you hope to achieve, we might be able to give you some more specific recommendations.

For example, I bought a Sonos Play:1 for the bathroom and a Play:3 for the kitchen, both cost me around AUD$680. That said, I have different plans for my living room where I have my big, nice TV. There I plan to spend a few thousand on some good floor standing speakers and a decent sub-woofer for the room. Speakers can cost you anywhere from hardly anything for cheap crap to tens of thousands of dollars each and everything in between. Same with amplifiers. There are so many combinations of products so there is no one product or set up that is "good" for you. It depends on many things, including the size of your room and what material you have on the walls and floor.

You mentioned you want speakers in every room with good cross-platform compatibility, this is why I recommended the Sonos system (you'll actually be very impressed with the sound quality that comes out of those relatively small boxes). I use mine just about every day and stream most of my music (currently sitting as Wave files) from my NAS. I control this through my Windows 7 PC, my Android tablet and phone, plus my partner has an Apple iPhone. It all just works seamlessly.

If you can connect just one of the Sonos speakers using ethernet, that takes place of the "Boost" product (all other speakers will then access your home network via that one speaker using 'SonosNET' which is their proprietary 2.4/5GHz mesh network). Takes a lot of the burden off your WiFi network.

EDIT: The Sonos software even works on Windows XP.