Multiroom audio for retrofit home

Looking into how I’m going to get audio into the different rooms of this house where there is no structured wiring in behind the walls to take advantage of.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1341706/any-alternate-product-just-like-sonos

http://www.musicmultiroom.com/

UPDATE: pricing out some components, and I think I will go the DIY route with a squeezebox backbone. I have a squeezebox classic and radio already. In each room that I just want some music that doesn’t need to be played at loud volumes I can put a squeezebox radio (they go for about CND$100). In the living room I can use a squeezebox classic or squeezebox receiver with some quality speakers and a small class T amp to drive them. As a reference, the Sonos Play:5 is $450. For that kind of money I can put together much better components (speakers, amp) that will be much louder.

For compact class t amps, read this: http://madgoat.hubpages.com/hub/High-quality-inexpensive-mini-power-amplifiers

More on what small amp to use with a squeezebox: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?91027-Stylish-tiny-amp-for-Touch/page1

100W Class T amp on ebay (w/ power supply): http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2-X-100W-Class-D-Audio-Amplifier-Combo-Kit-w-24V-350W-Power-Supply-TK2050-/350604100288?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item51a1a202c0#ht_4095wt_1080

A lot of the class D or class T amps seems to be based on the Tripath integrate amp chips. TA2020 is a 30W amp(@ 4 Ω), TK2050 is a 100W amp (@ 4 Ω) .

This also looks like an interesting option. In wall keypad to control with amp built in: http://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PVC8U/In-Wall-Background-Music-Amplifier-with-USB-And-SD-Card-Player-With-35mm-Input-Jack-For-iPodiPohne-and-Volume-Control

3 thoughts on “Multiroom audio for retrofit home

  1. Jez Merchant-Locke

    Adrian,

    Have you looked at using Raspi’s? At £25 a pop, they definately could be used for this application.

    Reply
  2. Jez Merchant-Locke

    Been looking into this as I have been thinking about this for a while now and it looks like this is possible with Raspi’s. You can add a wifi dongle:

    http://blog.modmypi.com/2012/09/installing-wireless-usb-11n-nano.html

    Then add xmbc to the raspi and denpendant on how you want to distribute the music… I am looking at using airplay. That way you can push music to each raspi individually usign a laptop or even iPhone. I think xbmc also uses DNLA so you can pretty much throw anything at it. you can power a raspi from usb or a apple charger.

    £7 for wifi
    £25 for Raspi
    £3-4 for charger

    That’s a total of £36/$56 per room/speaker (as you will ave stereo output from each pi). I imagine you can get this cheaper in Canada as the UK tends to be a bit more expensive than everywhere else at the mo!! You could even plug a powered usb hub into the pi and use a usb sound card to give you surround sound. I think I may be doing this as it looks to be the cheapest option out there at the moment!

    Good luck

    Jez

    Reply
  3. adrian Post author

    Jez,
    Thanks for that idea.
    I have seen that option and the geek in me finds it appealing, thought I have a couple of Logitech Squeezebox devices which I may end up using to start.
    I’ve seen that others have installed SqueezePlay (software implementation of sqeezebox device) on Raspi, and may do that at some point.

    Reply

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