Welcome. Spreading the Music Around the House (1 Viewer)

[gregt848]

Hello,
I just found this site and I am very happy I have. Big Music and theater Fan. I have a question for everyone here. Hopefully you can help or advise me. Wanted to see what everyone recommended and if anyone else has done something similar. I want to know the best reasonable way to get the music on my computer say (Itunes) to various locations throughout the house. I want to be able to sit outside and listen to the music from my CPU, then when in the living room I feel the same way and want to hear those tunes, and even when working if the garage I often wish I had that music there too. Running, snaking wires is not a problem I have done it many times in the house and can get through the house relatively quick. I am basically wonder just how to get it to play in three or four different locations. Not nessesarily even all at once, or even different songs, just simply channeling the music to the areas. Can I channel it into a reciever's AUX port? And/or Just have aspliter to run to other set of speakers? What equipment and connections do I need? Not trying to spend a ton of money but will spend what I need. Any advice or input and help is always greatly apprieciated.Be easy I am a newbie!
Thanks in advance,
Greg

 

[JohnRice]

The simplst and probably most versatile way is to use a wireless network (easy and chaep to set up, if you don't already have it) and Apple Airport Express units. They run on PCs as well. They tap into iTunes and let you tisten wherever you want. Then you just need a receiver and speakers, boom box with aux input, powered computer speakers, etc. to play the music. The beauty of them is you can just grab one and plug it in wherever you want.

 

[gregt848]

Thanks for the quick response. Is there a way to do it wired? I had a netgear wireless media server and it did not work well. How would I go about setting it up via hard wire?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hi Greg,

Well, if you're really intent on running cables everywhere for this, it's pretty easy once you get past that. There's a link in my sig with retro-wiring tips, if you need help with that.

Since you say you're a music and theater fan, I assume you already have a stereo or home theater receiver. So, the first thing is to get an audio signal from the computer's headphone jack to a vacant input on the receiver - AUX for instance. For that, all you'll need is a splitter cable like this. If the computer is in another room or plugged into a different outlet than the system is, you might get some hum. If that happens, you can use an outboard USB sound card.

Once you get the signal to the receiver, you can use the so-designated Zone 2 or Zone 3 outputs, if your receiver happens to have them. If not, never fear - you can simply use the record out jacks of any source connection with both input and output jacks. Typically these will be labeled as VCR, DVR, etc. You can also use the output jacks for any audio recorder connection as well - CD-R, MD, etc.





These jacks will all have signal present for any source you've selected - the abovementioned AUX, CD, TUNER, etc. If you need to send to more locations than you have output jacks for, you can use common "y" splitters, or some kind of distribution amplifier.

Just keep in mind that you must use analog connections between the sources and receiver. For instance, if you're using only an digital optical or coaxial cable to connect your CD player, you'll have to add the analog (red/white RCA cables). The same holds for any other source you might be using with a digital-only connection. Signals from digital connections will not appear at any analog output jacks, because the two are separate signal paths inside the receiver.

For the wiring, you'll want to use some installation-grade cable like this. The easiest thing is to run a separate cable for left and right. If you want to same some money, the cable can carry both the left and right signals, although splitting it out at the source and destination ends is a bit of a hassle.

As John noted, once you get the signal to the garage, bathroom or wherever (and get RCA jacks soldered on the ends of the cable), you'll need a stand-alone amplifier and speakers at each location. You'll probably want an amp with a volume control - an old receiver you're not using anymore, for instance.

For outdoor locations, you'll probably want to use the receiver's "B" speaker terminals, rather than subject a remote amplifier to the elements. If no "B" terminals are available, you'll need a separate amplifier. You could use a speaker-level L-pad for local volume control.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[gregt848]

Wayne,
Yes. Thanks, This is exactly what I am looking for. Much Apprieciation! If you don't mind I have a few more questions. Your answer was very thorough, yet I have to clear it up and make sense of it in my head. Yes I do have a couple of recievers. So basically I am going to come out of the computer on the headphone jack. And go to the AUX input on the reciever? I have to use that cable you mentioned and splice on RCA connectors on one side and the connector for the headphone jack on the CPU on the other? You mentioned run two cables for left and right, how do those channel into one for the headphone jack? Also if I have a few locations I want to run the music too, do I have a splitter out of the headphone jack to run to each separate reciever? Am I on the right path? OR am I off completely. Go easy I am just getting iinto this. Once again, thanks for your help.
Greg

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Greg, there are two other solutions on the market that you may be interested in:

Logitech Squeezebox Duet:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/sp...tems/&cl=us,en

-and-

Sonos:
Sonos Digital Music System to stream digital music wirelessly from PC to any speakers in your home

Both of these offer greater flexibility than the Airport Express, but at a cost. The Logitech offers great flexibility with many third party plug-ins. The Sonos seems to offer a better turn-key install, ease of use and integration into a system.

One big difference between the two is the Duet utilizes your existing wireless network for communications, while the Sonos uses it's own proprietary mesh style network, freeing up bandwidth on your personal network

There's also a big difference in the way the two systems sync zones if you wish to play the same source from two or more zones. The Logitech Duet has each zone play directly from the source and attempts to get them all in sync. This mean the network is handling a stream's worth of bandwidth for each zone. The Sonos plays the stream in one zone and passes the same stream onto the next zone. Thus the network only has to handle the bandwidth for one zone. The Sonos way seems to be superior in theory and in practice.

One more difference - The Logitech requires running server software to handle the music database (iTunes or any other), the Sonos indexes the music database on each zone player, so there is no server needed to run on the central computer. Indeed, if you mount a NAS drive with your tunes, Sonos requires no computer at all. That way you don't need to turn the computer on just to listen to music. The Logitech does have workarounds for this, but it requires running a server on your NAS and seems to be tricky to implement.

That said, the Sonos is the more expensive solution. I personally own one and you would have to pry it from my cold dead fingers before I gave it up. It is the single best piece of electronics I own and after owning it for 90 days, I swear I'd give up my Home Theater before my Sonos.

PS - Whoops, I see now you are intending to go wired instead of wireless. While that may be the way to go, check out the features of these systems first. They are far superior to the netgear stuff (i.e. they actually work!!) and depending on your wiring job, may even be cheaper. You can also take them with you if you ever move.

 

[gregt848]

Hi Wayne,
Ok I thought about this some more, did some research and I made a little sense of the 1st part. Next I will figure out the rest. So if I buy a 3.5mm Stereo Male to RCA cable that will tie my CPU (headphone jack) to my Reciever (RCA JAck) if they are in close proximity. If they are in different parts of the house, an outbound USB sound card allows me to use the cable you linked to cable to the length (distance) then I can use the stereo male to RCA cable at that end to the reciever? Do you know where to buy an outbound USB sound Card and what type of connections are used on the lengthy run? Once I can get this first part correct, I can try and figure out the rest. What do I do if I want to run it to two recievers? Once Again, I really apprieciate your help.
GReg

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hi Greg,

See the attached wiring diagram - a picture is worth a thousand words, probably ten thousand if you're trying to describe audio/video cabling.

You would only need the USB soundcard if you end up with a hum problem, but it might be desirable if the computer is remotely located away from the receiver. It would eliminate the need for the headphone "y" cable. You can get them anywhere, the cheapest one you can find will work. I'm using a Creative MP3+ or something like that.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[gregt848]

Hi Wayne,
That diagram made visualizing everything easy. I think I will save that one. Worth more than a thousand Words! LOL. So if the reciever is in a different room, I would have to use the outboard sound card correct because I don't think they make the headphone Y cable in that length? How does the outboard sound card connect to the computer? What kind of cable/connecter does it use? I think I have the rest figured out. Thanks again in advance!

 

[gregt848]

If I need a USB cable to connect the external sound card, how long can they be and how do I go about it?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I doubt you'll find a 40' USB cable either. Typically the soundcard will be kept near the computer. You can run a length of in-wall cable for the rest of the distance to the receiver.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[gregt848]

Wayne,
So if I choose not to use the outboard soundcard and the reciever is in another part of the house, are you saying to buy the "Y" splitter and then splice the mic cable to the two ends and then run it into the AUX on the reciever, with the the single end of the y going to the headphone jack of the computer? If I need the soundcard (hum), I would put it close to the CPU and then run the mic line. Will the computer speakers still work with the headphone jack occupied? One more thing, did you say you had an link on soldering the RCA connectors to the mic line? Thanks, Wayne!

 

[gregt848]

Wayne, can you use Cat-5 for the long length, or is it better to use the mic/line cable? I so a post where someone used stranded cat-5, what are the setbacks of that?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Cat-5 can be used, but it's not recommended. It has no shield, and is more prone to picking up noise, which will show up in your audio system as hum or who knows what else. Cat 5 not significantly cheaper than installation-grade mic cable, so there's no good reason to use it.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt