Hi,
While enjoying some of the good weather at the weekend and making use of the conservatory for the first time this year I lazily pondered to myself that it'd be nice to get some audio in there for some background music. I had no idea what the tech was like at the moment but I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could get something relatively cheap that would stream from Spotify or something.
Then I started googling and now my head hurts. I like music but I've never had much in the way of sound systems and all this hifi stuff is quite alien to me and it maybe isn't as mature (in terms of internet stuff) as I was hoping yet.
I've been somewhat taken in by the idea of multiroom systems and though I'm not going to spend hundreds of pounds setting it all up now, I'd kind of like a system that I could add to from time to time.
A SONOS Play:1 looks like it'd do most of what I want though I don't subscribe to any services so I'd be a bit limited there and would want to get my ripped CDs available from something other than my desktop PC.
A Raspberry Pi also looks attractive, I may not know a lot about audio systems but I'm happy enough building and configuring PCs. Either setup as a NAS for SONOS to use or as a streamer in it's own right with something like Volumio.
What I don't know with the RPi is what I'd end up spending on the speaker bit if I didn't have something like a SONOS.
I know £170 isn't exactly a lot for a speaker and it sounds like the SONOS Play 1 is pretty reasonable but I'm a little nervous of 'locking myself in' to SONOS and spending at least £170 every time I want to expand the setup or whether I can get reasonable quality sound from a different setup.
Could I start out with 1 RPi with Hifiberry Amp+, a flash drive for mp3s and some cheap speakers (like Tibo EDGE MINI Black | Speakers Per Pair | Richer Sounds which cost a grand total of about £90 for something 'reasonable' and then add more RPi/amp + speakers in other rooms later that stream off the first one? Or is there another way of sharing the 1st RPi to speakers in other rooms?
I know I'm being really cheap here but if I can set up audio in 3/4 rooms for the same price as 2 SONOS Play 1s without a big difference in sound quality and with a bit of extra config I'm willing to try it. if I'm having a complete laugh expecting something worth listening to on that kind of setup I need to know and adjust my thinking
(I'll admit I kind of like the idea of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi but I do want something that once setup works without a lot of faf, which again seems to be a strong point for SONOS.)
Thanks!
While enjoying some of the good weather at the weekend and making use of the conservatory for the first time this year I lazily pondered to myself that it'd be nice to get some audio in there for some background music. I had no idea what the tech was like at the moment but I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could get something relatively cheap that would stream from Spotify or something.
Then I started googling and now my head hurts. I like music but I've never had much in the way of sound systems and all this hifi stuff is quite alien to me and it maybe isn't as mature (in terms of internet stuff) as I was hoping yet.
I've been somewhat taken in by the idea of multiroom systems and though I'm not going to spend hundreds of pounds setting it all up now, I'd kind of like a system that I could add to from time to time.
A SONOS Play:1 looks like it'd do most of what I want though I don't subscribe to any services so I'd be a bit limited there and would want to get my ripped CDs available from something other than my desktop PC.
A Raspberry Pi also looks attractive, I may not know a lot about audio systems but I'm happy enough building and configuring PCs. Either setup as a NAS for SONOS to use or as a streamer in it's own right with something like Volumio.
What I don't know with the RPi is what I'd end up spending on the speaker bit if I didn't have something like a SONOS.
I know £170 isn't exactly a lot for a speaker and it sounds like the SONOS Play 1 is pretty reasonable but I'm a little nervous of 'locking myself in' to SONOS and spending at least £170 every time I want to expand the setup or whether I can get reasonable quality sound from a different setup.
Could I start out with 1 RPi with Hifiberry Amp+, a flash drive for mp3s and some cheap speakers (like Tibo EDGE MINI Black | Speakers Per Pair | Richer Sounds which cost a grand total of about £90 for something 'reasonable' and then add more RPi/amp + speakers in other rooms later that stream off the first one? Or is there another way of sharing the 1st RPi to speakers in other rooms?
I know I'm being really cheap here but if I can set up audio in 3/4 rooms for the same price as 2 SONOS Play 1s without a big difference in sound quality and with a bit of extra config I'm willing to try it. if I'm having a complete laugh expecting something worth listening to on that kind of setup I need to know and adjust my thinking
(I'll admit I kind of like the idea of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi but I do want something that once setup works without a lot of faf, which again seems to be a strong point for SONOS.)
Thanks!