Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and home

Where can I find attractive powered speakers?

bryanlacksfocus — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:13:21 -0800

Does anyone know of any attractive powered speakers? Ones that look like they belong on a bookshelf and not next to a PC? I'm looking for speakers to put in my living room that I would beam music to through an Airport Express. It could be one speaker or a pair, but they should be powered and stand-alone—I don't have room for a "system" with a separate amplifier. I don't need a radio, CD player, or iPod dock—just a power switch, a volume knob, and one audio input jack. The only powered speakers I'm finding are designed for use with a computer and are, in my opinion, unforgivably ugly—at least for use outside a computer workstation. I'm hoping to find something simple and modern with straight, clean lines—possibly a cousin to this Tivoli or this GenevaSound radio or the wooden-cased (non-powered) speakers our parents had in the 70s.

With everyone doing so much from their computers these days, it seems like these ought to exist! Have you come across any? Any ideas are appreciated!

My stubby amplifier...

rleamon — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:12:01 -0800

Home amp filter: Shallow cabinet, 5.1-channel, three-input-HDMI, two-zone, good-quality amplifier-receiver -- does it exist? The missus and I just moved into our remodeled house -- the custom bookshelves are only 12" deep, so my 16" deep Denon amp that does most of what I want juts out unacceptably.

Is there such thing as a 13" (or less) deep, 5.1 or better surround, three-input-HDMI amp/receiver, that can play to two or more zones (i.e., 5.1 in the living room and 2 only in the kitchen?).

Fried crossovers/voicecoils for Mission speaker towers

omidius — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:28:30 -0800

Audio Trust: I suspect the crossovers & voice coils on my Mission speaker towers (the 5 driver + tweeter rosewood cabinet ones) have fried. Where can I possibly find replacements or knowledgeable people to help me solder in new ones?

Receive me.

wordsmith — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:38:59 -0800

I'm looking for a home audio receiver + speakers to serve a few different purposes. Can you help me find a good one? I'm piecing together my home theater, and need to buy a decent receiver that will do the following:

1) At least 5.1 audio -- including support for a (powered?) sub.
2) Multiple speaker selection; I have outdoor speakers that I'd like to hook into this as well. Ideally, I'd be able to listen to whatever either indoors only, outdoors only, or both. Do receivers ever support three channels? Eventually, I'd like to hook up a third set of speakers in the basement, and be able to switch between all of them.

What brands should I be looking at? Links to specific receivers that do what I need it to do would be appreciated.

Budget: under $250.

Why is my home audio receiver still working after it burned?

Dave. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:42:21 -0800

Lightning strike! Home audio receiver got burned but it still works. I'm confused as to why this thing still operates. Advice? My Onkyo TX-SR803 home audio receiver got burned by lightning yesterday.

It was around noon when this happened and I was watching TV when the lightning struck. Nothing happened anywhere in the house (the lights did not flicker, etc). However, the speakers had some some static in them for a few seconds immediately after the strike.

"No worries!" ... or so I thought. But about 10 minutes after the strike, the Onkyo started flickering and lost sound. At the same time, I smelled the dreaded fried-circuit-smell. I shut it down and said a few words that I won't repeat here. I waited a few minutes, powered it up and still no sound so I shut it down again. I am absolutely positive that the receiver got burned. I say this because of the smell from the unit, loss of sound and the flickering that I saw in the display. I should mention that the fried-circuit-smell was significant enough to stay in my 14'x18' room for at least 2 hours.

Last night I powered it up again and it worked just fine. I watched soccer for about 3 hours with no problems. And again this morning, it is still working. But I'm wondering ... "Why is this receiver still working if it got burned?". And, since it got burned, will it fail in the next few days? I've always been under the impression that, if an electrical component gets overloaded, it will either not get damaged or it will die ... and that's there's no middle ground between the two.

Any thoughts appreciated ...

/and by the way, I posted this over to the AVSForum without much results. Also, I do have a surge suppressor on the system rated to about "1,200 joules".

How to control airfoil remotely, possibly on iphone?

joshgray — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:49:10 -0800

I know of only one app (remote buddy) that claims a plugin that would let you control airfoil on a mac remotely via an iphone but it does not work very well. Is anyone else doing this? Plan is to have a few airport express units in different rooms, and i would like a way to tell airfoil to switch between audio inputs (itunes, pandora, radioshark, etc) without going to the machine itself.

Modest home Linux server hardware selection

scruss — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:01:53 -0800

Looking for hardware recommendations for a very modest home Linux server. I used to run a Via SP13000 Mini-ITX box as a home server, but the motherboard recently died. While I could replace the mobo with something compatible like the Intel D945GCLF, mini-ITX cases get pretty warm, which might have been a cause of the last board's demise.

My needs are simple:

run Firefly (or some other DAAP server) to feed the Soundbridges;
generate my daily podcast, which realistically means a linux box with Perl, sqlite and the like;
have something to ssh into when ~~boredom strikes~~ the need arises. Perhaps unwise having an open machine sitting directly on the internet, but only the ssh port will be open.

I might want to double this machine up as a NAS box, as my trusty NSLU2 is deathly slow - but it's not really too smart to have personal files unfirewalled, is it?

Home Audio 101

10ch — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:49:09 -0800

What components do I need to buy to have a solid stereo system for my home? I know nothing about home audio and I want to buy a quality turntable for playing records (including 78s) as a gift for my one and only.

I took a look at other mefi questions about turntables and found some good resources, but I quickly realized that there's a lot of vocabulary and hip-bone-connected-to-the-assumptions going on that leave me clueless. I need someone that isn't trying to sell me something to help me figure out what I need.

Fer'instance... am I better going with separate parts (and if so, what are those parts specifically) or with a "home system" (I want to avoid crappy parts just to get the 78 feature, for example).

Here are the things I'd like the system to do, in priority:

- Cost around $500
- Sound good
- Play records (78s, 33s and 45s)
- Play cds
- Play cassettes
- Play FM/AM radio
- BONUS, BUT NOT REQUIRED: Record across the above (ideally on CD)
- BONUS, BUT NOT REQUIRED: Be aesthetically pleasing

Speak jargon as long as you provide clarification (parenthetically). Links and specific make/model recommendations are appreciated. I'll be happy to converse in thread if I'm leaving details out. Thanks for your help.

Was not an A/V Geek, but Need Help with my Home Equipment

bleucube — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:08:06 -0800

Is this an optimal setup for my A/V equipment? I'm a bit of noob when it comes to A/V setup. I was wondering if you could take a look at what I got and see if I have it setup properly.

Equipment
TV: Toshiba 364A
Receiver: Kenwood VR-606
DVD/CD: Onkyo DV-CP802
DRV: Tivo Philiphs HDR212
Cable: Motorola DCT2224/1661/ACDEG
Speakers: Kenwood type from HIB package 5.1

Video Current Setup
Coaxial from wall plugs into IN cable receiver
Coaxial from OUT cable receiver plugs into IN of Tivo
Tivo OUT S-Video plugs into Video1 source IN on TV
DVD OUT Component (3 cables) plugs IN Video2 component source on TV

Audio Current Setup
Audio OUT from TIVO plugs IN Video1 Receiver via RCA left and right connections
DVD Digital Coaxial OUT plugs IN DVD Receiver via digital coaxial
TV Audio OUT plugs IN AUX Receiver via RCA left and right connections

Does this seem right? Any changes you would make in connections? Also the receiver has video inputs, what would this do and why would I use it?

Thanks!

Home theater assistance

Nihility — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:14:30 -0800

What sort of speakers/setup should I go with for my home theater? I am looking to purchase a decent audio system for my home. It will be going in a relatively small area but the area is open to the living room below (it is an open upstairs landing above the living room).

I've been looking at some reviews on CNET Reviews and found this set to be highly recommended. I'm trying to keep it under $500.

I will primarily be using this for movie watching, playing video games, listening to music. I'm more than willing to consider a non HTIB set but I feel that it would be less of a hassle to stay with this sort of bundle. I'm certainly not limiting my options to Onkyo either, but I have heard good things about them from multiple sources.

Am I on the right track here or are there better options in my price range? Should I go with an HTIB or buy individual components? Is Onkyo really as good as I've been hearing?

Help me install speaker wire

Fidel Cashflow — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:13:55 -0800

Help me escape speaker wire installation-purgatory - So I went out and bought this Sony receiver and I'm having one hell of a time being able to attach the speaker wire. The connections on the back are not the "spring clip" type I'm accustomed to, but rather large plastic "screws" with what looks to be metal inside them (picture). I've stipped the wire (16 AWG) but every time I place the wire in the connector and "screw" it in, the wire falls out. This is driving me absolutely crazy.

What are the names of these damn things (binding posts? That's the closest I've come up with) and how do I get them to accept my speaker wire? Do I need some sort of termination part, or am I just an idiot?

What's cool to do in a house wired with RG-6 and Cat6?

Dave 9 — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:49:09 -0800

Home networking wizards: What cool stuff can be done when a house is wired with RG-6 and Cat6? Not just vanilla internet and file sharing. What wired activities and equipment do you love or covet? Living room and two bedrooms are already connected to ordinary cable TV, but the study is not. The living room CATV cable has a splitter > internet cable modem > wireless-capable router.

In addition, the bedrooms and the study each have one RG-6 and two Cat6 cables running from the living room. These are not yet connected to anything. (Should there have been a second RG-6 for each room?)

What cool things can be done with this? It's not my money. It’s my brother’s house. What equipment should I persuade him to buy?

Normalize My Audio

escher — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:53:42 -0800

I want to normalize the audio output of my DVD player within a certain range. Is this possible? I'm tired of having to turn up the volume when someone is whispering in a movie, only to turn the volume down when the next action scene comes along. I'd like to have it so that the movie isn't too loud or too quiet.

I know you can normalize audio on the computer - i've done it when making a mix cd from a variety of sources and i want the songs to all be relativley equal in volume.

Do any dvd players offer this functionality? I realize that to do it proper, it needs to analyze the audio of the entire dvd before playing so that it can determine the "gain" for that particular dvd. And that analyzing might take some time.

The "midnight" mode on my particular dvd player/receiver doesn't seem to do the trick, but sometimes having the DSP set to "vocal" helps bring out the talking but not the crash scenes.

Homemade multi-zone Muzak for home ideas?

pallen123 — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:11:20 -0800

What's the best and least expensive way to setup a zoned audio system for my house -- MUZAK for the home -- with up to five different music channels playing in different rooms of the house. Preferably without having to wire the place. So wireless. I've seen some of the wireless speaker systems, but hooked up to an ipod or computer streaming mp3's, you're still only able to listen to one channel at a time in different rooms.

Also have seen the Roku (something like that), that's a receiver/harddrive in one. But buying five of those isn't cheap.

There are some multi-zone home audio solutions for audiophiles willing to pay 3k-20k -- but that's not me.

No, I want to dedicate my old 60 gig desktop to music for the home, and figure out a way to play and wirelessly broadcast multiple channels of music to different wireless speakers on different frequencies. Or something like that.

Goal is to have one control terminal where I can download new tunes and setup playlists for different rooms -- master bathroom, guest room, bedroom, etc. etc. Five rooms.

My friend at Apple has to just buy five iPods and sync them periodically.

Any creative solutions? Any software that plays multi-channels simultaneously? Is there an inexpensive multi-channel wireless router?

Feedback from my amplifier's phono setting?

Ber — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:10:56 -0800

When I have my integrated amplifier set on "phono", I get an annoying 60 cycle hum buzzing out my speakers. I have eliminated the amplifier, turntable, power strip, and TV. BUT, when I take the inputs from the DVD player and VCR out from the amp, the hum vanishes. So my question is, how do I get to run my VCR and DVD through my stereo sytem and not have this annoying hum.

Can I add an audio/video source to my cable signal on coax?

gfroese — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:51:03 -0800

Short version: Want to piggy back the audio/video output of my receiver onto my cable TV signal. Long version: I want to take the output of my receiver which is in RCA plugs (2 audio, 1 video) and somehow put that onto coax that ALSO contains my basic cable channels. I'm sure I stumbled onto something like this while looking at home automation stuff months ago, but I'm not finding it now. Effectively what I want is to be able to put my receiver's output on channel 100 or something on my coax. This would allow me to split that coax and run it to other TV's in my house and have the output from the receiver available on any TV on channel 100, while still having the regular cable channels available as normal. This will allow me to play Xbox on any TV in my house with my wireless controller. I found this but it only puts the one signal onto coax, it doesn't add it to coax with an existing set of channels. Not what I want, but its the closest thing I've found. Is this even possible or am I dreaming that I have seen this before?

Pro Tools LE, use a PC or a Mac?

monsta coty scott — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:22:44 -0800

Home Studio Recording - My friend is looking into building a home studio and basing it around the ProTools LE Digi002 control surface. Should he go PC or Mac? I've worked with both PCs and Macs, but when it comes to audio recording I don't know which way is better. For those of you who have experiance, could you fill me in on the pros and cons of each system when dealing specifically with audio recording? Are what audio interface is best for each platform?

What sort of receiver/speakers to buy?

weretable and the undead chairs — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 16:49:42 -0800

I have a decent DVD player and television but now I need to get a new receiver and speaker system. The more I look, the more confused I am. Whatever I end up getting will be used for both DVDs and listening to CDs/radio.

I have a stereo system but it is at least 10 years old (maybe more, hard to recall) and takes up too much room, the two front speakers are four feet tall and over one foot deep and wide.

I bought this speaker system for my computer and it sounds tons better than my existing stereo system, but I don’t suppose I can use it for my home theater and computer both. Well, actually I guess since the optical input is not being used a 12 ft optical cable could work... only able to use one at a time of course. It might not be appropriate for a home theater system anyway.

I want to spend as little as possible right now. If that means getting a pretty good receiver and just the front speakers and adding later, or getting a good receiver and some so-so speakers that can be upgraded later, fine. But there are too many choices and I have no idea what to look for.

My stereo's not ready to come out of the closet

adamrice — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 07:29:10 -0800

Building a media closet in an existing home... The wife and I will be buying a new house soon, and we know we're going to move a couple of walls around. We are considering building a media closet. I've been reading up on structured wiring panels, multi-room amps, etc, but I'm still unsure what my best options are.

We want to distribute video to the living room and bedroom, and audio to those two rooms plus the office and backyard. Thanks to wifi and multi-extension cordless phones, it's not that important to distribute data or phone. The closet would be attached to the office. The house has stick framing, unfinished attic, and crawl-space underneath. I'm thinking of using a Mac mini as a media center. We want the whole thing out of sight and remote-controllable as much as possible.

So:

1. How hard would it be to do the installation myself? The distribution points will be on existing walls; the hub will be on new framing.
2. All the systems I've read about use coax for video, but this seems to be the lowest-quality option (compared to component/S-video/digital). Is there a more future-proof and high-quality option for video?
3. What's the best way to distribute audio to 4 points?

Any other advice much appreciated.