In this article, I am going to look at different options for adding music in multiple rooms of your house. Particularly, I will review some multi-room music systems and give some tips for installing the most essential components. After reading this short review, you should be able to understand the basics of how to distribute music within your home and also be able to pick a suitable system.
If you are looking to set up music in several rooms of your home then you are in luck. There are several products available including Sonos wireless music systems, Logitech's squeezebox, Creative Lab's wireless transmitters amongst others. Whichever system you pick depends on which features and level of performance you require as well as your budget. Most of these products are modular and you can start out getting just a few key modules and then add on more components as you expand the scope of your project later on.
Almost all of today's available products are distributing music in a digital format via a home network. If you have a LAN cable throughout your home then you will have no problem using any of these products. Each of the modules can plug into an Ethernet port and transmit or receiver audio via the network. In addition, some products offer an integrated wireless network or the option of adding wireless expansion modules. If you already have a LAN cable in your home then you should probably pick a system which does not come with a wireless network in order to save some money. If, on the other hand, you don't have a wired network connection then you should opt for a system with integrated wireless or wireless expansion modules. The advantage of products that offer a wireless option is that you can use both wireless in rooms where you don't have a LAN connection and add wireless modules only in those rooms where you don't have a network cable. This option is less expensive than going with a product that comes with an integrated wireless network.
Setting up a multi-room music system is pretty straightforward for most products. First of all, you'll need an internet connection if you plan on streaming music from an online resource such as an internet radio station. If you want to play music which is stored locally, such as an MP3 collection, a simple home network connection is enough. Some models also offer iPod docks which allow streaming of content that is stored on an Apple portable device. If you plan on playing music from your PC then some systems require that you share these music folders on the network in order to allow access to the multi-room music system. Next, you will need to install an application on your PC or a portable device that allows you to control your system. Some products also offer a dedicated remote control. If you are on a budget then you will prefer installing an app on a device that you already own.
Most available multi-room music systems allow you to set up and manage audio zones. A zone is an area that plays music from one source. A zone can be one room or several rooms grouped together. Grouping two wireless receiver together into one zone allows you to set up two speakers which are spaced fairly far apart as stereo speakers. One speaker outputs the left and one speaker outputs the right channel for enhanced stereo. Most products can also be used to set up home theater speakers. Make sure that all speakers connected via the system are in perfect sync. Otherwise you will experience degradation in the surround sound.
Find out more about Sonos products as well as wireless surround sound kits at these resources.
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