Output audio in separate rooms?

A

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
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I know this HAS to be possible, but I'm just not too sure how to do it. I want to be able to output music in separate rooms in my apartment. (living room, my room, bathroom) My current setup is Swans D1080MKII and an Energy ESW10 for my room. I have Logitech Z-5500 for the living room, and I have yet to buy something for my bathroom.

I want to be able to output to any or all of the speakers at any given time, all the same thing though. For example I have no need to output a movie to the living room and music to the bathroom. Would my solution be to buy some sort of external switch? I would prefer to do this through software, but I would think that it would entail me having multiple sound cards. Any ideas?
 
Those wireless players would probably do it. If you want a non-computer based solution, then what you are after is a receiver with multiple zones. Many AV receivers have 2 or 3 zones which are specifically designed for remote speakers. So zone 1 is the surround speakers at the TV, zone 2 is stereo speakers in the dining room or something.
 
I am not an apple fanboy or anything, but have you considered using an airport base station or apple TV? I have an apple tv upstairs and my pc downstairs as well as a sound system in the garage that is plugged into my laptop. When having parties (yes, it happens) i simply use the free 'remote' ap for my ipod touch and I can enable or disable each of the speakers at will. It is very cool to walk around the house with all of the tunes synced up. Being able to run the jukebox connected to my whole itunes library from my pocket is pretty cool also.

The reason I mention the airport access point is that it has a stereo out built into it so that you can enable remote speakers. You can have more than one for different speaker sets and also have fantastic wifi (yes they work with a pc of course) I personally got the apple TV because the visualizations, album covers or pictures running on the bigscreen adds bling. Just a thought.
 
I think i might just have to go with the Linksys one. I see on ebay some of them are going for ~$40. I really don't gave the money to spend on Apple TV or anything >$200.
 
Or else, you build a small buffer circuit to drive many audio outputs, and send wires everywhere around the place. ;-)
 
DragonMaster said:
Or else, you build a small buffer circuit to drive many audio outputs, and send wires everywhere around the place. ;-)
Click to expand...

Do you have any good schematics?

Can the Airport be used for DD and DTS?
 
Last edited:
Can the Airport be used for DD and DTS?
Click to expand...
I doubt.

Do you have any good schematics?
Click to expand...
A PSU like this: http://sound.westhost.com/project05.htm
and a simple circuit like this for both channels would provide four outputs:
Buffer.png


If the other areas are too far from the buffer, variable or additional gain could be added to the circuit (two resistors per output), and then, if that's not enough, balanced audio, etc...

I guess you could find a pre-built unit for about $10.

If you want to distribute SPDIF, it's a different circuit with a simple logic gate.
 
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