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