Options considered so far:
- Sonos
- Logitech Squeezebox
- Airport Express
- Roku
- Creative Sound Blaster Wireless
Requirements:
1) Must be easy enough for the better half to use
2) Must be controllable by both of us
3) Not too expensive Want to haves:
4) Interoperable with iTunes
5) Controllable remotely
6) Does everything, even walks the dog
7) Some sort of connection to other services & streaming radios (satellite, FM, Pandora, Last.FM)
Batter up:
A) Sonos
Holy price prohibitive...! This is definitely the high end / does it all / no need to fiddle with it option. Reading up on it I truly did give it a chance based on everything it claims to do and the apparent ease of the remote control interface, but in the end this is not for me. I'm a geek. I want to fiddle. I want to break it, then put it back together better the second time.
Cost: $999 for remote and two rooms (one amp'ed, one not)
about $550 for additional rooms (for amped unit + speakers)
Sonos Pros:
- Keeps it simple
- Free iphone native app
- Audio quality is stellar in reviews Sonos
Sonos Cons:
- Cost, way too high $/room ratio
B) Logitech's SqueezeBox Duet, and other products in same line (Product Line Link)
Looks like in 2006 Logitech bought SlimDevices. The Squeezebox Duet is the latest product from this lifeblood. The brain of the Duet is the wifi remote which piqued my interest right away. All the marketing material makes it seem like it hooks up great into Pandora and XM/Sirius. I already knew it connects well into Firefly (mt-daapd). What ultimately killed it for me was lack of any iTunes interoperability and lack of iTunes purchased music ability. I drink the koolaid, I'm not going to lie.
Price:
$399 for controller and main unit
~$350 total for additional rooms (classic unit + speakers)
C) Airport Express + RadioSHARK + Airfoil
$ 99/Airport Express retail
$ 45 for RadioSHARK
$ 46 Airfoil (family pack) estimating ~$150/room
3 room total: $541
Airfoil : Airport Express : RadioSHARK: I knew from the start I was going to gravitate towards this option but to be fair I tried to give everything else a shot. Years ago I had the original Wireless G version. I was curious if the Wireless N version was going to be more stable as I did I have trouble streaming while a bit of data was transferring around.
The new house does not have a wired network installed but I am very strongly looking at installing Cat6 throughout. This would hopefully eliminate any trouble with audio dropouts and possibly even allow me to extend the wireless even further with the Airports scattered in different spots. If you aren't familiar, you can stream music from iTunes to multiple Airport Express units (Apple recommends only up to 3).
The software Airfoil goes a step further and will accept audio from any app on the mac and stream it to one or many Airports. I came across the RadioSHARK device recently and what I read online makes it sound like it would be perfect if I can remotely control it. A simple USB FM tuner with software that will let you tune to any station you want. I listen to enough local radio that I really wanted this as part of the feature set.
D) Roku Soundbridge
$129/unit
The Roku has been around for a while, possibly the first of it's type. From my initial reading it looks like there is no way to play the same music on multiple units. Looks like you can if you use the SlimServer but not iTunes. The interface still looks pretty basic these days. Leaning away from this one.
(E) Creative Sound Blaster Wireless for iTunes This device came out on the mark right about when I was researching all the options. I was excited to see something new hoping for new features. This device is amazingly poorly named. It does not really do anything special in iTunes as it will stream many other products, and it uses 2.4 ghz for transmission not Wireless G/N. Looks like the reviews are specing it at about 100 feet range. Not exactly what I am looking for.
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