Re: need to get audio to other rooms without additional wiring

[Bob Fish <rfish@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Barnes wrote:
> In comp.home.automation, Bob Fish wrote:
>> jim.griffin@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>> On Mar 20, 9:56 am, "Paul" <p...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> So I want to get whole house audio, or more precisely, whole condo audio.  I
>>>> can't run extra wiring in the place.   I tried a wireless speaker extender,
>>>> but reception was sketchy between opposite sides of the condo and through
>>>> walls.
>>>>
>>>> In my perfect world, I'd find an inexpensive way to extend the audio vi IP,
>>>> but that's proving hard to find as well.  I found references to a HomePlug
>>>> audio extender, but can't find it for sale anywhere.
>>>>
>>>> My big thing is that I want the original audio sources to be centrally
>>>> located, and just extend the audio to the other rooms.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have any suggestions?
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>  Go with Sonos.  It's a all wireless, and super simple to setup.
>>> While
>>> it may seem expensive, consider it in comparison to the other systems
>>> or to a hiring an installer for a professional wired install.  It's a
>>> great deal and it works great.   Highly recommended:  http://www.sonos.com/
>> I'd recommend Squeezebox
>> [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html]
>> and SqueezeCenter [http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html]
>> SqueezeCenter is open source and you can pickup a wireless Squeezebox
>> off of ebay for $100 or so.  Put one in each room and you can sync them
>> all to the same central music repository.
>
> Would either of those two devices stream the "original audio sources"
> that Paul mentioned, or just audio that they originate?
>
> Like Paul I've looked for the Homeplug audio extender but as he says it
> seems to have disappeared without trace.
>

If you mean will it stream from your 8-Track or Phono player via IP (or
other) to and end device, no.  You would convert your sources to a
suitable format [mp3, ogg, PCM,etc...]  and store it on the server, then
play it up at any time.  Someone recommended SONOS as a solution, I
suggested a cheaper and better solution.

A sling box [http://www.slingmedia.com/] does that for video [converts
to IP], might work for audio-to-ip, but you'd have to then convert it
back to audio from IP using a computer.

The homeplug audio extender and other devices like it (I've seen a USB
gizmo also) all suffer from degrading the quality of the sound.  You
would then depend on the DAC in the gizmo, and the quality of the AMP in
the gizmo to reproduce the sound, and in general the quality of both is
poor in cheap devices.

You have the same problem with wireless headphones and speakers.  You
push out the actual sound reproduction to the device ... it is difficult
to built a good DAC/Amplifier/Speaker all into a $200 product.

There are some expensive ones on the market that do a good job, but for
their price I'd just hire someone to run the wires in the ceiling and
use a distribution amp.