advise for installing multi-room audio

[Trydan]

I'm planning on a hardwired multi-room audio system which incorporates an iPod. At the moment I've wired cat 6 cable from my Node to all the points that are going to be connected (I hope). The reason I fancy this method is that I'm told its flexible. I know very little about this and therefore, I need to ask for sound advise from anyone with practical experience on this level. Unfortunately I haven't really got it fixed into my head what exactly it is that I do want. For instance I've thought about possibly adding in a door entry system - is this possible? and many other things but my knowledge is not good and I'm a bit of a technophobe. I am though ok with DIY.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

[Autopilot]

It all depends on how much you plan to spend, and how complicated you want things to get.

I would suggest looking at audio streamers first. The Squeezebox 3 is excellent and great value for money. A lot of us around here have them and they are designed to work great in multi room situations. The SB3 does not have an amp or speakers (which is a pro, not a con). For an option which includes a built in amp, look at the Sono's. All your music is stored on your main PC which acts like as a server, piping your music you each streaming device you have. You can have different music in different room's, or they can be synced to play the same music through the house.

iPod's, while great, are not your best option here for a number of reasons - the sound quality will be generally better with something like the SB3 or Sono's, you can have multi 'zones' playing different or the same music in each one, controlling the streamers is much better than the ipod and can in each room (the Sono has an amazing remote and you can use a PDA, laptop etc to control all the SB3's in your home), you will have much for storage on the PC for more music (especially if you use lossless compression (100% CD quality) rather than lossy compressed MP3, with the Sonos/SB3 you will discover a whole new world of joy with internet radio... the list go on really as to why an iPod is not the right choice for this kind of project.

See here - http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html and here - http://www.sonos.com/

Also see this thread for an idea of what popular around here - Audio streaming devices

[lazymatt]

What he said

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by Trydan

Unfortunately I haven't really got it fixed into my head what exactly it is that I do want. For instance I've thought about possibly adding in a door entry system - is this possible? and many other things but my knowledge is not good and I'm a bit of a technophobe. I am though ok with DIY.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

You can do all this and much its a question of cost, you also need more than just cat6 cabling although its a very good start. You also need to consider the rooms how you control them, what you control and what you want to listen too.

[Trydan]

Thanks guys for your replies.

I need time to digest this info and will act on this later when I investigate squeezebox. For now as I am installing the cabling I'm probably more interested in getting the cable to and from the correct locations around the house. At the moment I've wired from my node point (which will be adjacent to the pc) to all the points that will recieve the music. My concern is also at this stage that I've wired the cable (cat6) to each room alongside 13amp sockets and left these socket sized boxes unconnected prior to getting the house plastered. So you may understand that I believe it is crucial to get the "outlets" in the right location e.g. Are they going to have the speakers connected to this point or are speakers wired back to the node! If so, I need to get the cable installed quickly. I don't believe budget is an issue but I'd guess at about £3000 as my max.

Again thanks for the help.