I am looking to buy a home audio system, however unlike most people I don't want a big sound system for listening to movies or playing music really loud. My goal is to be able to play music throughout the house at low enough levels where you can talk over it.
I just want to place a bunch of small speakers on the cieling in different rooms as well is on the back porch.
I have a Mac Computer, Galaxy Nexus, and Transformer Prime. All of which can play all of my music. On top of that I have GoogleTV (Logitech Revue).
What is my best option for home audio (preferably through Google Music)?
Is my best bet to wait for "[email protected]"?
I have a bunch of old surround sound speakers that I don't use anymore, can I use those for low volume music playing? Don't want to spend $1000 on this...
what system you use doesn't matter that much, its controlling how your going to get the music from your music cloud (i'm assuming for you google music) to the rooms
your logitech revue can now use google music app
furthermore with the RF emitter of your logitech revue, your phone would be able to control your surround sound components from anywhere in the house..
or you can set up some type of media server on a computer and run that to audio system VIA HDMI
and there is a plethora of apps to control a media server remotely from your android device
checkout out plex media server or similiar solutions
for your actual system check out nuvo technologies
is a good place to start, these are really expensive though
or google HTD
be forwarned, whole house audio solutions aren't cheap
My Setup:
Crappy computer with a good sound card and windows and Spotify on it
This is connected to my 10.2 (5.1 of these are used for my surround sound in the living room, the other 5.1 are on a different channel and are used for around house audio) via HDMI
This surround sound system is programmed into my Logitech Revue Harmony software, thus allowing the control of it through my phone
I also have Spotify remote control app on my phone to control spotify on the crappy computer, thus allowing volume and content control all from the phone... hope this helps!
And yes, you can use your existing surround sound speakers as long as they use generic audio cable (black/red), you would just need to buy a central reciever and run all of your wires through the house, for what your talking any surround sound reciever will work, a good one with 5+ channels should run you max 600 bucks and that is MAX you could get in the 300 range if you wanted.
Best solution for you IMO would be to hook your logitech revue up to whatever audio solution you get and play google music through that
Awesome, thanks for the very detailed reply.
I think I will look for an inexpensive receiver and use my Revue. My only question now is how do I hook up my GoogleTV to a receiver?
I do not want my tv to run through the audio system, I want to play tv through the tv speakers.
A more expensive route (but the best quality and noob friendly) would be a set of Sonos.
I have a media center based on Windows Media Center .All works very well.
Related
I read about that new A2DP functionality for music so I got some interesting idea about turning my TC to a car mp3 player. My TC has 8gb so it's cool to have such amount of music in car without need to change discs or something.
There are new car cd players that support bluetooth, my question is how all this stuff works together ? Has anyone tried ? Is it comfortable at it's current state ? I mean will it connect automatically and will the cd player controls work to browse the music stored on TC or will I need to use the TC to navigate songs(less comfort while driving)... What about sound quality, is A2DP provides good sound ? What should I expect from such a setup ?
I would answer half of the question myself only If I would already have the bluetooth supported cd player, but my one doesn't support it :-( so I am thinking about a replacement and will it be worth or not.
I use my Tytyn2 for this purpose with a pioneer B65 Head unit. The quality is good enough for a car considering the background noise and far superior to using a FM transmitter. You will have to use the TC to control the tracks and the display on the head unit does not show track info.
Doesn't seems to be comfortable solution then... There is no interface that will allow head unit to control it ? :-((... Anyone else tried this ?
I use a Jabra BT320S to hear music in car using the line in of my head unit. Sound is good and obviously i have the TC to control the music. SOme programs have very finger friendly buttons. I'm very happy
This is the solution you are looking for.
Get a headunit with a USB port, such as this Kenwood. http://www.bassjunkies.com/index.php?pid=33470&show=expand_image
Install WM5torage on the PDA, and set it up so that the PDA appears as a mass storage device.
Plug the PDA into the headunit with a USB cable.
The headunit should now see the tracks in the memory card of the PDA.
Hope this helps.
WM5torage is not (currently) compatible with the Touch Cruise.
Hello,
since i'm an owner of an saxo vts, which is equal to say been roubed evey time. i just do not have normal player, i instead add amp. connected to the normal audio pre-installation.
Then a audio cable from the PDA to the input of the amp. this also means stereo no front back sound distribution.
i also thought about the bluetooth but then, i realize that with TomTom, phone call , plus blue streaming, the device was not power enough.
Ah since then no one broke in, why because there's actually nothing there to robe.
My Solution
X-Kent. I have been using bluetooth in my car for nearly a year now and it's definately the way forward. Forget plugging it in via USB!
My HU is a JVC BT-1.
First of all the quality of your A2DP can be configured using the 'Advance config' program (found on this forum). I also use a Sony bluetooth headphone receiver and at first my Orbit 2 sounded a bit...cheap! However by cranking up the sample rate to 48000, bit pool to 58 and the max bit pool to 80, it has increased the quality from a decent FM quality to CD quality. This is just in my experience and audio purists would argue otherwise. Nonetheless this applies to my reciever and my car BT.
Next is that if you use BT in your car you would change the tracks by using the phone NOT the head unit. But I think this is FAR better and safer. I have my phone mounted next to the wheel, and not only can I see what track is playing on my phone, I have big pause and next/back track buttons to press and I can even see the album art. Far better than the crappy text display you get on a head unit (unless you have a v.expensive one!) If you did use USB then it would put the track names on the HU and allow full control, but why when you can use the lovely phone touch functions.
Finally (this is where it comes into it's own). The BT-1 has a small mic that you can locate anywhere and you can make calls in the car without touching anything. The BT-1 allows voice dialling and you can speak to people thru your car. And because it's BT then you can have the phone in your pocket. The Headunit is intelligent enough to automatically pick up the phone when it's in range and link them together. No buttons required. If a call comes in and you're listening to music, the ring comes through the speakers of the car. You can then pick up and it pauses the music. When your conversation's done, the music starts up where you left off!
If you use Sat Nav, even if you're listening to music or having a convo, the voice instructions are also routed through your speakers.
Why use anything else other than bluetooth? Hope that helps
Jon
Hi,
I have a HTC Touch which I am currently using the Pocket Player software to stream my music from my PC which is located upstairs. I can connect the Touch to my Stereo amplifier through a USB/Jack cable and play the music through my Hifi speakers rather than headphones but I was wondering if it would be possible for me to transmit the audio to my amplifier by way of Bluetooth. It would cerntainly allow me the freedom of changing tracks on my phone sitting in my armchair rather than sat next to my amplifier through a cable. I.E Streaming music from my PC through Wi-FI, via my HTC Touch through bluetooth.
Hope this makes sense. Has anyone done it and is there a noticible difference in sound quality when sending music by bluetooth rather than a wired connection.
I have seen various Bluetooth type devices on ebay and amazon that claim to do this type of thing but as I have never tried Bluetooth I am a little sceptical and not sure exactly what is required. I assume that as my Touch can send Bluetooth beam I would only need a reciever to connect the Jack plug from my amp, is this correct? Or would it be better to buy a jack transmitter/receiver for the job.
I don't want to spend a whole lot of money doing this just to test so can anyone recomend a device.
Thanks in advance for any help.
hi there,
i use this device:
http://www.itechdynamic.com/en/products_spec.asp?cid=6&pid=06020 it's by itech and it's called bluecon35. the picture shows the black unit but i have the white one =) the 3.5mm jack is connected to the aux plug of my amplifier. my stereo system combined with the speakers are then also connected. from there, the bluecon is paired via bluetooth to my x7500. this gives me the luxury of changing track, albums, volume, etc. basically all the music is streamed to my amplifier via the bluecon. with regards to the quality, i would say it's quite good. i don't hear "noise" or static in the background...nor are there jumps or pauses in the connection. everything is just fine except that i'm using a much better set of speakers as compared to headphones.
disadvantages:
- if you listen to your sounds like for 8 hours, then you could have a problem. the battery life of bluecon is around and doesn't have an external power source that allows it to play even when paired. i read that itech is planning to come out with a new similar bt device but this time it's also plugged to the wall socket or a car charger. no idea when that will be
- a minor detail is that if you receive a call, an sms or your phone has an alarm for an event then these sounds are streamed into the amplifier as well.
cost? i got it from thailand and it was for 2000 baht....that's around 63 usd (based on a 32baht to dollar exchange rate).
hope that helps
I use a pinnacle soundbridge, which cost under £50, and it plugs into your hi-fi and streams music from your pc over your wireless network. It can be controlled using the ir remote control, or your pda can access it over wi-fi to control it. As well as streaming from you pc, you can also use it to listen to internet radio.
Thanks for the advice guys. Robson, the Bluetooth receiver is a possibility however after googling it I found a couple of bad reviews. Some people seem to have a problem connecting their devices to it and others have said it has trouble with streaming MP3's over 192kbps. I will look into this further.
Jez83uk, the Pinnacle Soundbridge looks like a really good idea. Is it differcult to set up with a PDA and will it connect to my PC through a wireless router.
Also were would you recomend picking one up for under £50.
Cheers for all the help!
Mine was £39.99 at ebuyer.com, but looking around a few websites they seem to be out of stock everywhere, google products. I recommend keeping an eye on ebay if you're interested in getting one. I have mine connected through a wireless router, and setup was extremely easy. You need to run a media server- I use firefly, but I believe that itunes or windows media player 11 can do the same thing. PDA control is just a case of installing two cab files for a package called visualmr. Hope this helps you.
belkin tunestage 1 here
...was originally only advertised as working with the supplied dongle for earlier ipods, which is how i used to use it, but i discovered it works great with A2DP too. should be v cheap on ebay...
With WP7 having Zune so heavily integrated, I would imagine that MS will have considered that some of us will want to play the music that we've downloaded with a Zune pass on some speakers, rather than headphones.
Clearly there are not going to be any speaker docks out there for WP7 phones as they're all slightly different shapes & sizes so what I want to do is get a bluetooth receiver to put into the aux input on my ipod speaker dock and stream music from my Omnia7 to the speaker dock using something like the Bluetooth wireless audio receiver from Belkin.
Is this possible? As the music downloaded with a Zune pass is DRM protected, I can't just copy it to my itunes/ipod etc so bluetooth would seem the best way.
I stream music from my HD7 to my Toyota's audio system via bluetooth, and it sounds absolutely fine to me.
Yes
adesonic said:
I stream music from my HD7 to my Toyota's audio system via bluetooth, and it sounds absolutely fine to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi all
I use a HTC 7 Mozart with a Jabra SP700 which connects with both the HandsFree profile and the High Quality Audio Profile (A2DP).
I get very good sound quality via the device over A2DP.
Cheers
andrew-in-woking
I have connected a Chordette Gem to my Hifi Rack and transfer music via Bluetooth from my WP7 (and Laptop etc)
High End D/A Converter inside (24bit and up to 196kHz), so you can expect audiophile sounds
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/products-info.asp?id=53
The other thing is that you don't want to have the phone volume all the way up... Correct me if I am wrong, but you want to let your amplifier doing the amplification - not your phone. I put my phone on 20/30 and it seems to make a difference in my Ford. It will also not force me to turn my system all the way up in my car.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
I am curious to know it if would be at all possible to develop a USB mode to emulate an iPod's USB connection. It'd be a tedious reverse engineering process to see how the iPod pairs with stereos, docks and such, however the outcome would be great considering how Android has no love in the stereo market right now. Perhaps the JVC receiver that will be coming out soon will change this... (http://ceoutlook.com/2011/12/05/jvc-mobile-gets-android-and-gesture-control/)
An ideal application would be to pair with your car stereo, just plug in your phone to the stereo and select the iPod emulator and voila, you can browse your music, play your music, etc. from your car stereo.
Yes, we have bluetooth, but as far as I know you're unable to browse your device on your car stereo using this. The audio quality is probably not as good as a direct connection to the stereo. Just recently I've become aware that it can transmit the song information to the receiver. The problem with this is finding a receiver that supports it, and for a relatively low price tag. Most low-end receivers already have iPod hookups, but if you throw in HD Radio, SiriusXM, Bluetooth, Navigation, or anything else the price will quickly double. You can also just get a simple receive that allows calls via Bluetooth but not A2DP for a lot less.
We also have an audio jack we could connect to, or audio through USB, but you still don't get interfacing as an iPod would (such as skipping tracks, browsing music, play/pausing)
Yes we need android connectivity just like the iPod. Why hasn't this happened yet?
i also was searching for this.
now i use this solution
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000PS70DM
This is needed
Old thread, I know, but this is an excellent idea. I had thought about such an emulation over the last few years, but had been happy to use DAB radio in my current car. We get a new car this weekend that doesn't have DAB, so I'm left with the old iPod USB connection issue.
I'm no coder these days, but is some reverse engineering of the USB signals not possible? Using bluetooth audio is *some* sort of solution, but doesn't go as far as to allow browsing tracks, albums, artists, playlists etc from my car's interface.
It seems like this is the obvious solution that no-one has thought of.
D
I've been wanting to do this for years, ever since iPod control in car stereos became commonplace (2006-ish?). That is, build a little box with a female iPod dock connector and a USB port. Plug any USB flash drive or hard drive into the box, and it reads the MP3 files on the drive and emulates an iPod. The iPod protocol is serial and seems to be hacked and documented on the web.
https://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/s2007/awr8_asl45/awr8_asl45/index.html
https://nuxx.net/wiki/Apple_Accessory_Protocol
My problem is I don't have the programming ability to write the software for the little iPod emulator box.
I see there's a lot of very inexpensive and handy USB bluetooth adapters for PCs and such. And that gives me an idea. I've tried searching the Almighty Google for this already, but nobody I've found wants to do exactly what I'm looking for, and I'm wondering if anyone here happens to know how to do what I'm planning.
So, what I want to be able to do is play my phone's audio wirelessly through my computer speakers. I'd mostly use this for watching YouTube in bed while my computer on the other side of the room is playing the audio. Because my computer's speakers are much better than the tiny built-in phone speaker, obviously. A lot of people on the internet want to stream their music from their phone to their computer, but that's not what I'm looking for, as all my the music on my phone came from my computer in the first place. I'd imagine I'd mostly be broadcasting YouTube audio, occasionally NetFlix audio, as well. But no media players, so I'd imagine the simplest thing is to broadcast all of my phone's audio output over bluetooth, to my computer, and through its speakers. Has anyone done this? Is this possible, is this easily doable, can this be done with any basic USB bluetooth receiver, et cetera?
My phone's a Samsung Infuse running Android 4.3, I'm on XP for now, sometime next month I'll on Windows 7 Ultimate.
Thanks!