Home entertainment help needed

[Engelbert Humperdinck]

Back when I was younger, when you talked about a stereo system for your home, it was this big stack of tuners, tape deck, turn table, equalizers with your album collection stacked beside this monstrosity. Now, I own maybe 5 or 10 CD, but the majority of my purchased music is stored on my hard drive.

Is there something on the market where I can add additional remote speakers throughout my house, and control the whole thing from my computer? I have a fairly nice set of speakers on my desktop, but would like to 'pipe' it to other places. If anyone has any experience with this or has a system of their own and has suggestions, I'd welcome the input.

It's one of those things where I know what I want but not the terminology/technology to attempt to purchase it.

Thanks.:-D

[TheKing]

the answer to your problems was released not terribly long ago

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

it has audio outputs to run to your soundsystem that could be controlled in your living room...all handled through itunes

also the airport express isnt a bad idea either if you need a wireless network solution but are only looking for audio functionality

personally all of my computer to non-computer multimedia is handled through my tivo and tivo2go...but as soon as my tivo bites the dust im picking up an appletv

[SoMissTV]

TheKing-

AppleTV only deals with media playback, not amplification and distibution to multiple zones throughout the house.

AppleTV is not the answer to his problems.

[TheKing]

but it will output from his computer to a distribution system if he goes that far...which is what i was getting at

[TheKing]

oh and here is a page from just best buy or something for some wireless speakers...some of them require a computer...some of them can hook to your home entertainment center

your mileage may vary depending on what youre wanting, how big your house is, etc etc

you can spend as much or as little on one of these setups as you would like

[SoMissTV]

the answer to your problems was released not terribly long ago

Your original response implies that the AppleTV box will solve the multiple problems that DAH listed. However, it only addresses one problem. Try to be more careful with the way you word your reply, as you may mislead people here into thinking you have knowledge in areas that you don't.

[58ford]

I have a radio.

[TheStereoGuy]

There are many ways, some very complicated and expensive.

You could run an audio cable out of the laptop ( "y" jack from the likely 1/8" audio output on the laptop to a calbe that then adapts to a dual "rca" style cable to plug into...) to a Home Receiver with built in amp, have then wired to speakers throughout the house ( in ceiling/wall ), with individual volume controls in each room. Expect to spend a grand or two, or three.

Or buy a wireless transmitter with a receiver to broadcast sound. There is one at Best Buy, runs about $100. Problem with these are that they require line of sight from the transmitter to the receiver. The receiver does has a built in amp to power a small set of speakers.

There is a whole house distributed audio system with a "music server" that you record all your music too ( it has a large hard drive ) and can be controlled by your computer. It then sends sound to a 12 channel control station that powers 6 pairs of speakers in 6 seperate zones ( rooms ) each with their own volume control and access to the music via wall mounted lcd touch pad remote. Expect to spend between 6 and 10 grand.

[Ted]

Or - get a 100watt RMS X 4 channel amp like I've got and -

CRANK IT UP!!

You'll hear it. :-D heh heh heh

[Guru]

Heh, I just gave a welcome to TheStereoGuy and was going to suggest your input. Way to go.

[pooker]

i love revival posts