[Closed] BOSE - B&O - B&W, Sonos Wireless sound systens? Which one?

If you have your existing sterio - will that be the high quality device or do you want the new Sterio to be the dogs ?

I'm a bit of an Apple nut (phone, iPad and computer) but I would say

Apple TV connected to TV plus some external speakers, eg nice Bose ones - drive music and online video, downloaded movies to your TV. You could use your Sterio as sound output for tv as well as as a stero/cd player
Airport Express to make existing Sterio wireless (or £2 jack plug wire and connect phone etc direct)
Rip all your CDs to music library so you can stream them (you will lose some quality depends what you listen to) if you have the apple remote app you can access music on your main computer from your phone working as a remote control and send it to Sterio

I have just done similar. Recently moved to a detached house and have always wanted a nice stereo.
I Have gone for a set of KEF LS50 speakers for Hi-Fi duty and KEF eggs for surround sound they are both currently running of a top end pioneer AV receiver (LS50's on direct mode on output b)although I am planning on getting a dedicated stereo amp at some point.
This is connected up to a sonos connect (the none amplified version) and I use spotify to stream the music from the web.
The spotify and sonos is amazing. its so easy to set up and use and being able to add more zones later for whole home audio is going to make it even better.
I looked at the apple system but you are limited to a single zone and I doubt it could be any easier or nicer to use than the sonos.

I have limited/no experience on Bose but a lot I read on the web and was told by a KEF and Bose dealer was that you can get much better than Bose for the money. I heard one system and definitely wasn't as good as the KEF system I bought. The Bose was quite a bit more expensive too. The dealer said they do very good integrated lifestyle systems. Take them with a pinch of salt but there are some forums where Bose get heavily bashed.

Andy

Apple user here - yes, agree, the lack of multiple zones is a shame but they will surely change this in future... - I have a B&W Zepplin Air and it is fantastic. Replaced my ageing hi fi with it and despite initial concerns over lack of stereo separation between the speakers I have not regretted it. Great sound and depth and really fills the room.

I have a spotify premium account and stream using our phones or the ipad.

I have a BW Zepplin and love it when it works, the only issue it occasionally has is continuous connectivity to my ipad or iphone, occasionally it drops and the music goes quiet. I need to sort this as i move around the house with the ipad or iphone into different zones or if another device , laptop, uses the network and can also drop. I think I need to bolster my network/router? have others solved this problem?

If you are looking for a smal and discreete system , then there are better that Bose for the money TBH.
Both QEF and B&W doe something around the 1 K mark ( it is in what hi fi this month)

I have everything streamed from an iMac/iPad/MacBook/iPhone to Apple TV.

The sound quality is not bad - a CD still sound a lot better (IMHO - but I do have crap ears). I run an apple TV2 in Germany and a ATV 3 in the UK. Both suffer "drop outs" - it seems to be a common problem if the scan the internet. It is annoying but I can't be arsed to try an correct it.
Via ATV obviously you a stream Spotify etc ...
Make sure you rip everything to Lossless... and it will take up a lot of space on the hard drive - so maybe think of a NAS

I think it is possible with an Apple setup to have 'zones'. If you had a dock in each room and a device, like a phone, pad or touch, all on home sharing, then you access the whole media content accross each device independantly. I've never tried it, but don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

but have no idea what the differences are between BOSE, B&O, B&W and Sonos.

BOSE - much better stuff out there
B&O - waaay to expensive. Nice and 'stylish' though
B&W - actually know what they're doing
Sonos - the easiest system I've ever set up

What do you want your 21st century hifi to do? Is it stream radio/use Spotify? Happy to have a pc/laptop open to stream your music from a hard drive? Fancy going all the way and ripping stuff to a NAS that can stream everywhere?

Cant speak for the other systems but since getting a Sonos I have listened to much more music and would highly recommend one.

I will still be using old separates for the CD and the record player.
I have iPhone, apple TV, I tunes and spotify so need something to play all this.

It would be nice if I could run the TV sound through it as well. I have an LG TV, probably about 5 year old but is a flat screen HD tv.

If you've got the sources sorted (and it does by the sound of it) it looks like the Sonos etc. may be a bit of overkill. Maybe you just need some active speakers to play your stuff? Maybe Audioengine?

Is there any way to get the Sonos a bit cheaper? I seems they fix the price (not allowing shops to go below that). I need 4 or more Play3's

C

I searched for ages to get sonos cheaper but to no avail. The price across the web varies by a few pence. In the end we bought a washing machine from curry's and got a £50 voucher off our next purchase which we used on the sonos.
Not sure how much you know about sonos but you may need to factor in the price of the sonos bridge too.

Andy

Again I would vote for Sonos, easy to setup, good for multiroom use, works for multiple inputs such as TV or turntable. The only negative is the price compared to airplay. Once you have used Sonos you will be convinced.

The cheapest place I have seen Sonos is at the airport where you can get a Play 3 for about £215. Not much good if your not a regular flyer though.

Love Airplay - love the [url= http://www.whathifi.com/review/bw-a5 ]B&W A5[/url] I have in the kitchen. I've got an airport attached to my old hifi in the back room and an apple TV on the soundbar in the front room. From my phone/pad I can control any of them individually, or control the main PC and control them all. It all works brilliantly and I listen to music more often now it's so easy.

So is a B&W A5 big enough for a lounge diner of 6 meter x 3 meters?

You are making a leap really with the Sonos, it worked for me because I had a mac with a big library of music and an Ipad/Phone to control it.

If you want to base a system on existing HiFi it may not be the best choice.

That said I think I converted quite a few people at a recent BBQ with people in the garden using an Ipad to queue and play their favourite music.

The sonos connect is perfect to use with existing hifi.

Sonos here. Set up with a 9 room set up. 8 rooms with amps units and in ceiling Tannoy and Monitor Audio speakers, 1 non amplified set up to Sony amp with a Monitor Audio speaker set up. Quality is out of this world. NAS set up with all cd's loaded up. Radio, spotify, loads of options. There is no need for a bridge if you have one unit attached to the router. Mine is connected by Ethernet over Power.

What do you mean by zones ? It's possible to have more than one Apple TV on the same network, you just assign them different names like living room, bedroom, kitchen or anything you want. I've never tried streaming different things to different rooms though.

I don't think its possible to stream different things to different rooms on the apple system.

I don't think its possible to stream different things to different rooms on the apple system.

I believe that's true as well BUT how often do you really want to? Airplay does let you stream to multiple locations with the SAME music which i found I wanted to do much more often than different. An airport express is 80 against a zoneplayer at 280.....

I'm finding Spotify on a iPad Airplayed to an Apple TV a lot easier to use, and more reliable, than either Sonos or Logitech

Another Sonus convert here got one a few months a go,best thing since sliced bread, out of the box blug in hold down button for three seconds connect to bridge and your off, use it with spotify listend to so much diffrent music .

Richer Sounds do some deals on Sonos stuff...not amazing, but better than full RRP.

If you're serious about sound quality then you cannot better one of these:

[img] [/img]

Easy enough to set up, loud enough to fill any normal sized room and the same speakers as used in their 100k reference speakers. Worth the money if thats your bag.

So sonos seems to have a good product that lets you listen to music in different rooms. Trouble is I'm only ever in one room at a time and although it may be great to spend 5K having the music follow me throughout the house i'm not that bothered. What I have found after listening to various systems in John Lewis and Richer Sounds is this.
They all sound OK but when you put some serious amount of noise level though them they have serious trouble separating the sound and playing distinct elements of the music. This could be because it is being streamed from a mobile or simple that they can't quite handle it.
When I got home I put on my stereo and played the XX, obviously not to everyones taste, through my cd player, 22 year old technics amp and mourdant short speakers. the difference is unbelievable.
So what I now need to do is find a way of playing spotify, apple TV, ITunes etc through my old amp.
God help me.

Sonos user here and can recommend it highly!

T'internet radio and use of music from tablets / laptops / pcs / phones from anyone in the house!

Simple to set up, even the wife can manage it

Great sound and loud to

Mooly, read my post above ^

If you have Airport Expresses, there are 3rd party tools which give you more control / features eg http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

Mr Nutt. Looks great what is the 100k - Money?

yep, But the McAire is only £3000ish

£3k is a bit to much. Was looking for something around £500 and now I type it i'm not surprised i haven't found anything of great quality.

Was looking for a speaker system to provide music in a marquee for a party. Guy at Richer Sounds recommended a Roth Powa 5 system, essentially a pair of powered speakers with 2x optical inputs, 3.5mm jack and RCA line input alongside Bluetooth.

Perfect for my needs, ran the music from the iPad/iPhone via Bluetooth and at 40w each ok volume for a civilised gathering. Now hooked p to the TV and giving much better sound with stereo separation as you can move them a good instance apart.

About £200 so may be a bit cheap and I imagine sound quality isn't brilliant but much better than 1 of these thin docks that were its competition at that pice bracket.

DIY?
[img] ?format=1000w[/img]

[url= http://audio.toddkumpf.com/the-vibe/#.UlOqklWzKph ]Process etc here...[/url]

Also - "No highs, no lows - must be BOSE"

B+W or KEF are much better brands, can't vouch for the others 🙂

Mooly I am wanting exactly the same thing as you by the sounds of it, although don't want to spend quite as much. I came across a gadget called an Arctic Cooling Wireless Relay which sounded like it would do the job, I can't find them to buy though, other than on Amazon at a ridiculous price. Richer sounds seem to have a few separates options. Last night I started reading about the Sonos Connect, I might try it.

Although having just read DIYs post I am tempted to give the pi idea a go...as my grandpa did actually give me his old stereo 🙂 he took the tuner out of the amp and put an oscillator in instead, I feel I should continue his work.

this thread has just reminded me of the desire for Sonos.....

I think I may be going for one of these although not airplay I can hopefully plug TV and apple TV in so should convert sound how I want it.
[url= http://www.richersounds.com/package/hi-fi-separates/dacs/pah011255 ]Cambridge DAC[/url]
Decisions decisions...

Apple. I [b]think[/b] you can stream different things to different rooms from different sources, eg iPhones/iPad. On my devices I get multiple options for AirPlay based upon the 3 different output destinations setup.

@Mooly - that seems very expensive for what it is, most sterios have an jackplug aux-in or you can get a cheap cable splitter.

HiFi experts - given digital music is compressed is it really worth having a great hifi with digital input. I have a NAD amp (25+ years old) to which I have an emotional attachment, one of these days I will connect it up again but I'm not expecting hifi quality (not that he NAD is cutting edge even at the time)

@mooly - what inputs does your old amp have ? I'm pretty sure for a few quid you can get a wire to connect your phone jackplug to the amp (perhaps with a simple splitter), that way you can check the sound quality (it's never going to be better than that via WiFi IMO). If that's suitable you can get an Airport Express to make your HiFi amp wireless. It wouldn't give you Apple TV would would do the iTunes/Spotify. If you don't mind wiring the amp to the TV audio out you can drive it all (inc Apple TV) through TV but that needs to be on.

HiFi experts - given digital music is compressed is it really worth having a great hifi with digital input. I have a NAD amp (25+ years old) to which I have an emotional attachment, one of these days I will connect it up again but I'm not expecting hifi quality (not that he NAD is cutting edge even at the time)

Some digital music is compressed, but some isn't.

Look into lossless formats like flac or alac.

I ripped all of my CDs to flac earlier this year and listen to them through my Sonos and hifi and they sound wonderful.

sterEo not sterIo.

Just saying.

I've run an Airport Express for about the last 5 years from my iMac with iTunes through my amp and good speakers - it's not quite CD sound obviously, but pretty good. I've also got an Apple TV, currently just hooked up to my, er, TV.

Amp is near the TV so it can be hard wired to that, but also to the A.E., therefore I can have TV sound or tunes from my iMac both running through the good hi fi set up. (But not at the same time). It's cheap but not a particularly 'tidy' system.

One question though - I haven't tried playing Spotify through Airport express, only iTunes. Likewise internet radio doesn't seem to play through AE. Is there a way round this?

erm - Internet radio does play through AE. I have one and use it every day with Internet Radio from BBC Radio Player

Does it? I'll admit I haven't had the system set up since a house move about 6 months ago, but it never used to. Could it be because the AE is 5 or 6 years old, or do I need to update it somehow? It seems that only iTunes lets you select the AE to send data to, but not an option in iPlayer etc....tell me how!

Sorry for the hijack...

No worries. On your iDevice of choice, start the radio player app and then choose the airport express as the output device. That's it.

On your favourite Mac, option-click on the volume icon in the menu bar and choose the AE as an output device for sound. (This may require OSX of a reasonably recent vintage)

Rachel

Thanks! I have also googled the problem and discovered Airfoil - which seems to be the answer too, allowing streaming of Spotify, iPlayer etc. to Airport Express and a decent hi fi.