[troika]

I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences/endorsements/warnings on wireless speakers for the home. I've got a nice analogue stereo system in my basement and still spin a lot of vinyl, but nothing at the moment up on the living floors. Our house is small, but tall and mostly we're looking for tunes in the kitchen, on the deck, occasionally in the alley. We're not talking about dance parties, just music.

We listen to actual radio, but also internet radio like Pandora and Slacker and I have a robust iPod, including a lot of my vinyl digitized. We can get radio through our cable as an option, as long as one of us isn't watching TV at the time. We don't currently have and audio system connected to our TV either, just it's native speakers.

So, on the one had, there's the bluetooth portable speakers like Jawbone Jambox, Beats Pill and Jabra something. There are "soundbars" for the TV and the Sonos wireless systems, which would do all of those things, but are more expensive and extensive.

The TV Audio is probably least important to us and also easiest to solve for if I wanted to. Soundbars are a new, elegant solution, but I could also pick up a nice receiver used and a couple of speakers and be good. But, if I look at something like Sonos, it probably makes since to address both.

Any thoughts?

For context on "small, but tall house". 1330 sq/ft includes our basement. Bedrooms upstairs, we're really dealing with the ground floor and yard/patios on either side for the audio question. Inside is more or less one room that is probably a bit less than 500 sq/ft.

I like, but don't need necessarily, the speakerphone feature of some of the bluetooth units, by the way. Not for business, but for calling grandma from the kitchen table and stuff.

Thanks in advance.

[MarkJerling]

I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences/endorsements/warnings on wireless speakers for the home. I've got a nice analogue stereo system in my basement and still spin a lot of vinyl, but nothing at the moment up on the living floors. Our house is small, but tall and mostly we're looking for tunes in the kitchen, on the deck, occasionally in the alley. We're not talking about dance parties, just music.

We listen to actual radio, but also internet radio like Pandora and Slacker and I have a robust iPod, including a lot of my vinyl digitized. We can get radio through our cable as an option, as long as one of us isn't watching TV at the time. We don't currently have and audio system connected to our TV either, just it's native speakers.

So, on the one had, there's the bluetooth portable speakers like Jawbone Jambox, Beats Pill and Jabra something. There are "soundbars" for the TV and the Sonos wireless systems, which would do all of those things, but are more expensive and extensive.

The TV Audio is probably least important to us and also easiest to solve for if I wanted to. Soundbars are a new, elegant solution, but I could also pick up a nice receiver used and a couple of speakers and be good. But, if I look at something like Sonos, it probably makes since to address both.

Any thoughts?

For context on "small, but tall house". 1330 sq/ft includes our basement. Bedrooms upstairs, we're really dealing with the ground floor and yard/patios on either side for the audio question. Inside is more or less one room that is probably a bit less than 500 sq/ft.

I like, but don't need necessarily, the speakerphone feature of some of the bluetooth units, by the way. Not for business, but for calling grandma from the kitchen table and stuff.

Thanks in advance.

The moment you said analogue and vinyl my ears perked up. I have the feeling wireless may disappoint considering what you're used too.
I have found this page which gives a good comparison between two options: Wireless speaker shootout: Sonos Play:5 vs. Bowers & Wilkins A7
If you can run wires, to where you need sound, I'd suggest go that route instead. Good quality speaker cable is relatively cheap compared to many other options.

[troika]

Ah, a brother in analog!

Yeah, I know. ... I know...

For some of what I need this for, it really doesn't matter. Streaming Rhaposdy in the kitchen while I'm cooking while someone's watching TB just outside the kitchen, for example. If I want to listen to my very good pressing of Dexter Gordon's One Flight Up (which I very frequently do), I have the basement for that.

On the other hand...yeah...I know.

I'll check the links, thanks.

[Racer X 69]

I too have analog ears and equipment. A Sansui AU7900 with a Pioneer PL112D turntable (on a granite slab), and a Technica cartridge, and four Speakerlab 4 speakers.

I also run the audio from the DVD and TV into the amp.

When I was building my house a few years ago I looked into various ways to set up the room where the audio and TV are so there would not be wires everywhere. At the timer there was only one wireless option and it did not perform well.

So I got the best wire available and put it in the walls before the drywall went up. I have 4 outlets with RCA jacks for the speakers, and a junction box behind the amp with RCA jacks.

Very clean.

[jsherman999]

You may want to look into some equipment by AudioEngine - their D2 DAC is a wireless (not bluetooth) sender/multi-receiver setup and can be used to stream audio anywhere in your house. It's relatively inexpensive and is just truly killer in audio quality when paired with decent speakers. AudioEngine also sells highly-rated powered speakers that can work with this. (google audioengine A2 speaker reviews)

I looked into a similar thing few months back. What blows me away about the audioengine setup is the sound - better, cleaner, crisper than any bluetooth speaker I've ever heard... and it didn't hurt the wallet much. Here's my thread on this.


Here's a list of their stuff: Audioengine


.

[troika]

Thanks guys, I'll check all that out. Racer X, I would like your system, all similar stuff on my end.

Mine is a NAD 7155 receiver from the 80s and a Philips 212 Turntable (1970s) with a Grado Blue cartridge. Not expensive stuff, but very clean and very good sound. I also have a Onkyo CD player that was highly reccomended to me by a heavy audiophile friend that cost about $100 and does it's job well. Klipsch speakers.

But, all that is downstairs...

My house was built in 1915 and it's wasn't planned out in a modern way. Furthermore, I've done such a good job of soundproofing my basement, that all of that analog bliss doesn't do much for me upstairs. I could run a set of upstairs speakers through the B channel and find a way to get the wire through the ceiling/floor, but it's awkward and that ties me to a system in the basement, which is not ideal, when I just want tunes while I'm cooking. It would probably be better to pick up another inexpensive, maybe digital receiver or power amp, connect it to the TV and run speakers around the first floor, including in the kitchen maybe two sets with a switcher, so that I could send them to one room or another. If I chose well, I could prop them in an open window for the BBQs.

I'll think through it before i do anything. Thanks for the links and shared experiences.

[Ratmagiclady]

I wonder, Troika, if your house happens to have any easy chases to drop wiring down, (like heating ducts, alongside an old chimney, or the like. Given the date of your house, there might even be an easy way at least from the first floor down to your basement, especially if the ceiling's not all sheetrocked in down there. )

[Racer X 69]

Thanks guys, I'll check all that out. Racer X, I would like your system, all similar stuff on my end.

Thanks.

I bought the speaker kits from Speakerlab at their original store in Ravenna, one pair in 1976 or 1977, the second pair a year later. They used to put put very good kits, the Walnut cabinets pre assembled. You applied the finish of your choice, assembled the crossovers and installed the speakers, then choose the fabric and assemble the grilles.

The woofers have pretty long throws, and with the Sansui amp I can just about blow a candle out with them.

Good times!

(I really wanted the Speakerlab version of the Kipsch cornerhorns, but the cost was a bit high, and moving them can be a pain. But they are unmatched for sound quality!)

I wonder, Troika, if your house happens to have any easy chases to drop wiring down, (like heating ducts, alongside an old chimney, or the like. Given the date of your house, there might even be an easy way at least from the first floor down to your basement, especially if the ceiling's not all sheetrocked in down there. )

Great suggestion RML!

But those old houses have lath and plaster walls, covered with who knows how many layers of paper from years of remodeling. Using the duct work is a possibility, and many of the old Seattle homes do have central gas heat, with ducting everywhere.

Following a chimney might be a great choice too, as many of those old homes had (originally) a wood furnace in the basement, and later an oil furnace to replace it. The chimney may be there but buried after getting abandoned in favor of the gas heating systems.

[Ratmagiclady]

Great suggestion RML!

But those old houses have lath and plaster walls, covered with who knows how many layers of paper from years of remodeling. Using the duct work is a possibility, and many of the old Seattle homes do have central gas heat, with ducting everywhere.

Following a chimney might be a great choice too, as many of those old homes had (originally) a wood furnace in the basement, and later an oil furnace to replace it. The chimney may be there but buried after getting abandoned in favor of the gas heating systems.

Sometimes you can even just find a discreet place to drill through a floorboard, depending what ceiling access the basement has, (Suspended ceilings may not be the epitome of craftsmanship, for instance, but you could put anything up there and still be able to get at it easily, as many teenagers learn. ) and of course, what the floorboards are made of. Depending how the wireless transmitters hook up into the system, it might even be a good idea to put the transmitter upstairs and run RCA cable or whatever to it.

Anyway, what the walls are covered in is less of an issue, (The thing with plaster and lath is you want to score carefully around any holes you want to drill and use sharp tools, (it could be brittle or loose in there) you dont' want the lath flapping around or plaster to prefer to crumble. ) What's really important is the kind of framing behind it: you don't want to have to drill through solid sills, but some construction actually allows a pretty easy sneaking around it.)

Easier in any case to not bother with the walls or slills if you don't have to. But if the wiring or plumbing's been upgraded there's a chance there's a straight shot next to pipes or other utilities. Forced hot air and the returns for such are sometimes retrofits (with little gaps where they fit up the ductwork, covered by the grills or registers, )and you might be able to sneak a wire past the sheetmetal of the duct or even just run the wire through the duct: drill a hole in the galvy right below, and either put a string up in there to just grab and bring upstairs, or push through a straightened coathanger to attach a string to and fish it down. It all tends to be specific to the house, in the details, but there are doable options there.

Also if there's any call to upgrade any old outlets, there's no reason you can't have the electrician fish any other kind of wire alongside the Romex, set it up all nice in a wall plate. Which is what we did in a house renovation I worked on, we upgraded a lot of the wiring and put in sometimes four-gang plugs, coaxial cable, and Ethernet (and a piece of string for anything else that might come up later) all in the same panels. All very cool for an old Italianate house with a lot of students living there. It was before wireless was a thing, but the whole house didn't need it. Everything ran from all over the house, down into the basement, and back up up into a cabinet area for an Ethernet hub (and a well-labeled diagram of the whole thing. Not to mention redundantly-labeled and color coded wires. Capacity to wire the place for central sound was also there, but left for later. For that I made do with certain improvisations like I'd just mentioned. As I recall, I ran the speaker wire under the floors to where the big ol' speakers would go, and temporarily set things up so that we could put other speakers in the windows so that the same music could be heard outside if there was an event going on. This was always intended to be a temporary measure since the plan was to obtain outdoor speakers and later put a ,pre dance-friendly floor in, but it's a lot better than tripping on wires.

Anyway, biggest point there is if there's any old wiring needing replacing anyway, nothing says the job gets much bigger if you fish other wires at the same time.

But sometimes there's a professional way and sometimes there's an unobtrusive kludge. Air ducts, if present, are *designed* to go from the basement up to near anywhere in the house. No reason you can't put a wire in there along with, generally. (And would you expect any less from da Ratlady. )

[troika]

Good ideas, all. And, yes, that pretty much describes my house to a T. That basement ceiling, though is where I've done layers of soundproofing, but ducts pose an opportunity.

I'll explore those options, thanks for the suggetion.

Racer X, most my stuff came from Hawthorn, just across the street from the current Speaker Labs location.

[MarkJerling]

Ah, a brother in analog!

Yeah, I know. ... I know...

For some of what I need this for, it really doesn't matter. Streaming Rhaposdy in the kitchen while I'm cooking while someone's watching TB just outside the kitchen, for example. If I want to listen to my very good pressing of Dexter Gordon's One Flight Up (which I very frequently do), I have the basement for that.

On the other hand...yeah...I know.

I'll check the links, thanks.

We have two separate living spaces, each with a TV and cheap surround sound home theatre system, one with blueray, the other not. Then I have my old Pioneer valve receiver / amp which I ues to play CD's even though I can play CD's on either of the surround sound systems, i like the EC83 valve sound in the Pioneer more, coupled with the very good NAD CD player.

Then, I have a PL12D Pioneer turntable with a Shure cartridge which works quite well for the LP's. Still waiting for completion of restoration is my stereo amp using two pairs of EL34's, but I need a decent and cheap valve pre-amp for the turntable. Then, I need to finish restoration of my Ariston Audio RD40 with Mission tone arm and Sure EDT2 cartridge. My problem is not so much running speaker wire, but rather firm level surfaces for all the gear, without annoying my better half. (Not counting the pre-war HMV's scattered around the house for playing '78's!)

One nice thing about timber frame houses is that it's really easy to drill through holes for wiring. So much harder with a brick house! Like you, I'm slowly digitising some of my LP's to make for easy listening, but I still like to haul out the vinyl too.

[BobInGA]

You may want to look at Apple's Airport Express. I use it to access my iTunes library on my basement computer for listening upstairs. It can easily connect to any powered speakers (I have an Onkyo receiver upstairs). It is very simple to set up and connect to your existing home wireless network.