Sound system gonna bring me back up
August 29, 2012 1:54 PM Subscribe
Can you help me figure out the right sound system for my parents?
My parents have good speakers set up in their living room and kitchen, and all the wires lead to the living room. Back in the '90s, they had a receiver with the 5-disc CD player hooked up to the speakers, and could turn on and off each room's speakers (so the music would be playing in one or both rooms). They don't use this anymore. The speakers are still in place.
I'd like to set something up that would allow them to play music through their computers or ipods/iphones, preferably via bluetooth or wireless. I'm thinking of something hooked up to the speakers that would allow them to turn on and off the speakers but would accept wireless input.
Am I just looking for a receiver that accepts bluetooth connections? Are there other options out there? I've looked a little into Sonos, but they don't plan on being in the house for more than a couple of years and so I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
My parents have good speakers set up in their living room and kitchen, and all the wires lead to the living room. Back in the '90s, they had a receiver with the 5-disc CD player hooked up to the speakers, and could turn on and off each room's speakers (so the music would be playing in one or both rooms). They don't use this anymore. The speakers are still in place.
I'd like to set something up that would allow them to play music through their computers or ipods/iphones, preferably via bluetooth or wireless. I'm thinking of something hooked up to the speakers that would allow them to turn on and off the speakers but would accept wireless input.
Am I just looking for a receiver that accepts bluetooth connections? Are there other options out there? I've looked a little into Sonos, but they don't plan on being in the house for more than a couple of years and so I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
Sonos would be a good choice: it's very easy to move and reconfigure, you can choose whether to play the same or different content in each room and when it's the same the synchronization actually works well (You would need two players and could expand the system to incorporate more as needed.) It does a good job of integrating all the popular streaming services with your own music collection in a single interface. Each player also has a line-level input that allows you plug in one AirPort Express and stream via AirPlay to one or both rooms. Alternatively you could buy a two-zone receiver or use the existing one (if it's still present/functional) and plug in an Express, but then you would lose the ability to turn it on and off and manage which speakers are playing what from the phone/iPad.
posted by contraption at 3:02 PM on August 29, 2012
posted by contraption at 3:02 PM on August 29, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, get the Remote app for the iPhone.
posted by Madamina at 2:11 PM on August 29, 2012