multiroom speaker set ups v. bt vs. wifi

[alasdairm]

hey guys

i have a friend who's looking for some advice. the options here seem dizzying and i'm not on top of the zeitgeist of technologies and standards when it comes to home audio.

anyway, she wants to be able to play music from her macbook pro and/or iphone. her house is small and she'd like decently loud playback in the main living area and the option to playback (from the same source and simultaneously) on her back deck. the house is about 4ft-50ft max.

my first thought was two bt speakers which she can play to using airfoil.

does that sound like a plan or are there options i'm missing which would do a better job?

any ideas and suggestions gratefully received.

alasdair

 

[JahSEEuS]

I don't know much about it, but I do know that my friends Sonos system works very well and sounds very nice.

I have had some issues trying to use multiple BT speakers from the same source, sometimes connection issues, sometimes syncing between the 2 speakers, etc. It seems wifi might be an easier solution.

My BT experience was many years ago though, so may be more user friendly now.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Is she into hifi? BT speakers don't work well for that, you really will need to use quality cables, a hifi player (you can probably find one from your computer like her Mac, but it is kinda pointless if you don't have lossless versions of the music she has).

I recently got a couple Bose speakers that are pretty good in smallish spaces like that. Not really work $600 though.

I always like cabled speaker setups. Most people can't tell the difference, and of course when your music isn't in lossless format it is kinda limited. But I feel like I can tell the difference in the quality when one does have a nice hifi setup. Makes vinyl sound a hell of a lot better.

Does she want a 360* speaker or just something that projects sound in one direction? That is probably the starting place in finding a good BT speaker. Honestly, after trying 360* speakers, I think I prefer those that just project sound out in a single direct - especially when you have two (or more).

Great thread. I really don't know too much about this topic, but it's definitely something I'd like to learn more about.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

good time to be buying speakers. or recently was. based on a half-hour of google activity comparing wifi vs bluetooth for multi-room setups, i'd get a wifi system like sonos. says its app can setup multiple stereo pairs, which is the way to go.

airfoil looks like a weak link. there are complaints about lagging and sound quality (likely some sort of compression going on). and as of feb 2016 it could not create stereo groups (don't see anything new advertising otherwise). a 3rd party steaming app to deliver non-stereo sound is making due, which shouldn't be necessary when starting from scratch. buying a faulty, patched together system.


hifi systems sounds good if you a sitting in a designated seat. what's your setup, toothpastedog? i gots ...

pair of klipsch r-26f speakers
klipsch r-12sw subwoofer
nad c 326bee (needed a sub out, so 316 wouldn't cut it)

source is my iphone, using its dac and stereo jack. entry-level but sounds great. and 50 percent off during last year's sales.

 

[alasdairm]

^ i love nad gear.

she went with sonos. black friday sale ftw!

alasdair