Home Theater With AirPlay
September 13, 2015 6:02 PM Subscribe
I want to add a home theater surround system, but also want it to be able to play music wirelessly with the rest of the house via AirPlay.
I listen to a lot of music, and have finally gotten my house set up how I want it. I have wireless speakers in the living/dining room, and on the deck, and control them via AirPlay. It works, and is convenient, and was cheap because I'm re-using all my old components and speakers, and no I don't want Sonos.
Now I want to get good sound for the TV room, which is a converted garage. It's about 15'x15'.
The trick is I want it to not only work with the TV/AppleTV/PS4 but also be able to play music as the rest of the house does over AirPlay. It seems like there could be a lot of ways to handle and I am looking for any ideas. It doesn't necessarily have to be 5.1, I could go with a Soundbar with subwoofer if it's easier/cheaper. My budget is about $500.
I listen to a lot of music, and have finally gotten my house set up how I want it. I have wireless speakers in the living/dining room, and on the deck, and control them via AirPlay. It works, and is convenient, and was cheap because I'm re-using all my old components and speakers, and no I don't want Sonos.
Now I want to get good sound for the TV room, which is a converted garage. It's about 15'x15'.
The trick is I want it to not only work with the TV/AppleTV/PS4 but also be able to play music as the rest of the house does over AirPlay. It seems like there could be a lot of ways to handle and I am looking for any ideas. It doesn't necessarily have to be 5.1, I could go with a Soundbar with subwoofer if it's easier/cheaper. My budget is about $500.
i know that at least a couple of manufacturers (Yamaha for instance) have licensed AirPlay. But I'd just use an Apple device. The one 3rd party AirPlay device I tried was unreliable as hell, and I wouldn't trust anybody to get it right. But the midrange Yamaha amps that have AirPlay are pretty tidy anyway, so it might be worth trying.
posted by wotsac at 8:50 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by wotsac at 8:50 PM on September 13, 2015
Our Yamaha RX-V673 receiver does 7.2 surround sound and AirPlay. Looks like it is discontinued and replaced with a newer model RX-V677. It is $400 and therefore under your budget. When its networking is set up, it shows up as an AirPlay destination in iTunes and the iOS Music app, just like any AirPort Express, Apple TV or other AirPlay destination. It has worked okay for me, but I have only tested it with a wired (Ethernet) connection between the receiver and our network.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:16 PM on September 13, 2015
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:16 PM on September 13, 2015
Airport Express into a normal preamp or receiver?
posted by persona au gratin at 1:46 AM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by persona au gratin at 1:46 AM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My cheap ass, black friday sale pioneer receiver does all of this. It even lets me use an iOS app as a general remote for the receiver.
It's a variation on the vsx-823/824 series and was like $250 or something. Then buy something like these. They're good. Everybody likes them. Personally i waited for separate deals to pop up on a receiver+sub combo, and then tower speakers, and built up from there. It took time though.
Any name brand receiver that advertises airplay will work. Every good brand has one in this price range. Almost all of them have all the features described. If a costco is near you, this is legit. There will be cheaper stuff on sale though, and there's no particularly good sales going on right at this moment.
Good airplay support is worming it's way in to even basic receivers now though.
A good soundbar will not be cheaper. $4-500 is right where soundbars start getting decent(stuff like the pioneer "andrew jones" model, some of the beefier yamaha stuff, whatever polk is trying now will be ok). The cheaper stuff that gets good reviews gets them from people who are using them in smallish spaces, or just haven't ever had even an entry-level-ish decent receiver/speaker setup. I'd put the halfway-decent sony models in this category. I also dislike the non-modularity of those setups. If the sub fails, you have to buy their sub and often that kills the bar. If a speaker blows, the whole thing is junk. If the amp or logic board dies the whole thing is toast. A receiver will also have superior cooling and likely last longer(the only soundbar i ever owned, which was very well reviewed, killed itself from heat).
Ive swapped around my speakers and amp a few times now, and i would never give up being able to mix and match bits especially in a bigger space like that. You may very well decide you want tower speakers, or four tower speakers, and likely a second sub for a space that size. Those are cheap, easy upgrades in a modular setup like that.
On preview, try and pick an amp that comes with a microphone to slap on a tripod and let the software in the receiver tune the levels of the various channels for your room. Every brand has a different name for this now(pioneer calls it MCACC for example) and they all do it pretty much. You'll be shocked at how much of a difference it makes, and it really helps with stuff like your center channel being too quiet and making dialog hard to hear in certain movies. Another feature, which me and my partner agree falls under "holy shit how did i live without this" is gain control/auto level control. This is fucking magic. Most brands include this on the midlevel and up models, and basically it turns down the explosions and turns up the quiet dialog so you're not constantly either being blown away by loud shocker sounds that every movie seems to use as a cheap shot now, but also don't have to constantly turn it up to hear quiet dialog. It rules. It often has a cryptic name, and although i had heard the one i bought came with it, months went by before i figured how to turn it on since it only gets a non-descriptive two sentence blurb in the manual and has no menu option.
posted by emptythought at 4:07 AM on September 14, 2015
It's a variation on the vsx-823/824 series and was like $250 or something. Then buy something like these. They're good. Everybody likes them. Personally i waited for separate deals to pop up on a receiver+sub combo, and then tower speakers, and built up from there. It took time though.
Any name brand receiver that advertises airplay will work. Every good brand has one in this price range. Almost all of them have all the features described. If a costco is near you, this is legit. There will be cheaper stuff on sale though, and there's no particularly good sales going on right at this moment.
Good airplay support is worming it's way in to even basic receivers now though.
A good soundbar will not be cheaper. $4-500 is right where soundbars start getting decent(stuff like the pioneer "andrew jones" model, some of the beefier yamaha stuff, whatever polk is trying now will be ok). The cheaper stuff that gets good reviews gets them from people who are using them in smallish spaces, or just haven't ever had even an entry-level-ish decent receiver/speaker setup. I'd put the halfway-decent sony models in this category. I also dislike the non-modularity of those setups. If the sub fails, you have to buy their sub and often that kills the bar. If a speaker blows, the whole thing is junk. If the amp or logic board dies the whole thing is toast. A receiver will also have superior cooling and likely last longer(the only soundbar i ever owned, which was very well reviewed, killed itself from heat).
Ive swapped around my speakers and amp a few times now, and i would never give up being able to mix and match bits especially in a bigger space like that. You may very well decide you want tower speakers, or four tower speakers, and likely a second sub for a space that size. Those are cheap, easy upgrades in a modular setup like that.
On preview, try and pick an amp that comes with a microphone to slap on a tripod and let the software in the receiver tune the levels of the various channels for your room. Every brand has a different name for this now(pioneer calls it MCACC for example) and they all do it pretty much. You'll be shocked at how much of a difference it makes, and it really helps with stuff like your center channel being too quiet and making dialog hard to hear in certain movies. Another feature, which me and my partner agree falls under "holy shit how did i live without this" is gain control/auto level control. This is fucking magic. Most brands include this on the midlevel and up models, and basically it turns down the explosions and turns up the quiet dialog so you're not constantly either being blown away by loud shocker sounds that every movie seems to use as a cheap shot now, but also don't have to constantly turn it up to hear quiet dialog. It rules. It often has a cryptic name, and although i had heard the one i bought came with it, months went by before i figured how to turn it on since it only gets a non-descriptive two sentence blurb in the manual and has no menu option.
posted by emptythought at 4:07 AM on September 14, 2015
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posted by primethyme at 6:23 PM on September 13, 2015