[Putta]

Hi all,

I am just about to buy my first house in london and essentially need to make some decisions about distributed audio.

I have looked at the Squeezebox and the Roku whatever-its -called and while I am very impressed with them, I have a couple of issues. Firstly, nothing plays protected AAC which is pretty displeasing. Secondly, while one of these will look good with the rest of my gear and amplifier in the living room, I really want small (hidden preferably) speakers in the bathroom and kitchen. Both these devices seem to require an amplifier which makes everything that much more bulky.

Also, I would really like a way to start music playing everywhere in the house when necessary, so that you can walk from one room to another and listen to the same song.

The only systems I can find that really do this are the Yamaha MusicCast and some other set up though both are really expensive as you are paying for the music server as well.

So, do you have any suggestions or am I going to have to leave my mac to do computer things and cough up serious money for a dedicated solution??

Cheers,

Rohan

[Freeflyer]

For more information that you can shake a really big stick at (and some very capable stick shaking people) visit

http://www.avsforum.com/

and look for the audio forum. there should be plenty of people there to offer you advice on what you want to do and the different ways to do it.

Cheers,

J.

[G4ME]

you can always run the wires to every room in the house and then get a speaker selector (one that keeps the impedance with in reasonable figures) and then just feed it the one signal from you Amp/Receiver.

[DAlex]

I've been looking at this, not sure but it may do what you want......

http://www.macsense.com/product/homepod/

Or you could look into wireless speakers, not sure of their range.

Let us know what you decide on/try as I'm sure that a lot of other people would like to do the same.

DAlex

[CambAngst]

Has anyone used one of the Macsense Homepods and would they care to offer observations or opinions? I'm a little leery of plopping down the $250 for a few reasons:

1) They don't seem to be shipping in any sort of quantity. Only three of the resellers shown on their "Buy here" page even list the item and none of those three show it in stock. ClubMac is the most optimistic, saying that the item "usually ships in 2-3 weeks."

2) There is nothing related to the Homepod on Macsense's support site. No FAQ. No support articles. No PDF manual. No drivers. Nada.

If anyone has used one, I would appreciate any insight you could offer on how well it integrates into an Airport network. Specifically:

a) Does it work with password-protected networks? How do you enter the password into the device?

b) Does it work with the new WPA security that Apple rolled out in the latest Airport update?

[cobra27]

You can probably get contractors to wire up the whole house with those small concealled speakers. Then have the speakers' input point from your livingroom amplifier, which takes input from an old mac loaded with music files. That's how it is traditionally done in office buildings and large homes....no need to go high tech (and wireless) at all.

If you go the wireless route, the technology is still very new and will be very expensive.