http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/ Engadget Comments for Switched On: Multi-room music's rocket ride http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 23rd 2009 3:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.bestbuy.com/rocketboost). Then again is it *really* that hard to run a couple of wires? Only interesting option is the "wireless outdoor" and there are already far too many competing (cheaper) options out there. ]]>Dec 23rd 2009 3:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
Exactly. It's not COMPLETELY wireless, either, as you'll always need a power cord. Airport Express FTW.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 7:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
Airport Express has terrible audio quality.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 8:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
the audio quality when using the digital output is irrelevant.
if you have the ecosystem to support the airport express, it's a fantastic option ]]>Dec 23rd 2009 10:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
There are 100 million PCs sold every year and probably many more Wi-Fi handsets. None of these have the Avnera radio technolgy, so none of them can be seamless sources or controllers (without some convoluted connections or dongles).

Klipsch did a wireless thing that was similar a couple of years back, Bose just released the Bluetooth-dongle thing, equally useless. Sony's S-Air will surely fail.

Mainstream Wi-Fi is the only way to go - its in everything you own already, its cheap, plenty of bandwidth (an uncompressed CD stream is 1.5Mbps - 5 of those are easily handled by even a .11g router let alone .11n) and it gives people what they want (entertainment thru access to content, not technology).

But then again Best Buy is the last man standing in the retail game, could have some some impact, but I doubt it.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
It's not "HD" if it's strictly an audio device. Slapping "HD" on shitty, degraded video is bad enough. Slapping it on audio products? DUMB.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 7:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
HD = High Definition
HD audio is to the audio you get from the Airport Express as a $500 speaker system is to your apple headphones. HD doesn't mean it has to be 1080p, dumbass.]]>Dec 24th 2009 12:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/]]>Dec 24th 2009 6:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
Wrong. The "HD" label is for VIDEO, not audio. And no, it doesn't have to be 1080p; it could be 720p.]]>Dec 30th 2009 2:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 23rd 2009 7:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
It runs at 56 ghz from what i understand. It's a very clear sound. It supports multizone amps as well, which allows for independant audio sources playing at the same time. ]]>Dec 24th 2009 2:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
I stand corrected, 2.4 but according to the specs, proprietary 2.4.]]>Dec 24th 2009 2:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
That kills the product.]]>Dec 30th 2009 2:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
Squeezebox doesnt have any limits and I'm hoping this Rocketboost system doesnt either.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 7:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
I don't think this runs any particular server software. I think it just transmits what ever you plug into it. Software choice such as Itunes or Media Monkey is up to you. The pro's are that you can transmit audio regardless of whether you use Itunes, but the cons are that you won't be able to integrate the REMOTE iphone app if you don't use iTunes on your home PC.

]]>Dec 23rd 2009 9:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/]]>Dec 23rd 2009 9:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/]]>Dec 24th 2009 6:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/I would say the best solution is a Squeezbox from Logitech. They play FLAC (no conversion the codec is built-in) You can sync. them and you can chose them on an RJ-45 or Wifi network.

So I have been doing this for some time at home now work realy nice. Great players. got 3 of them in my house.]]>Dec 25th 2009 7:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 25th 2009 9:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 24th 2009 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
But Airport Express audio quality sucks.]]>Dec 24th 2009 3:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 24th 2009 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
Airport express is ok if you like crap music quality.]]>Dec 24th 2009 6:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 24th 2009 11:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
The sound is great to me with a little tweaking, although maybe if you can hear a mouse fart from 80 yards like some of the posters here you might want to look elsewhere.]]>Dec 24th 2009 2:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/
So, I've resorted to another solution - I look for small laptops that are on sale (often under $250) and use those as music (and video) multicast client receivers using VideoLAN (VLC - open source, free) to act as a music or video server on another base computer (media server). Turns out that a multipurpose laptop fully capable of receiving an audio signal via 2.4GHz wireless or powerline networking is far more reliable than any single-purpose music broadcasting hardware, at least in my experience.

Yes, I must also buy some decent self-powered speakers to pair with each laptop, or a powerline adaptor. When I'm done, I have an internet capable computer at each household location that can either access the common stream being broadcast by VLC to an IP address, or each laptop can play individualized music or video streamed off either the internet or my in-house media server.

In my experience, all the multi-room media servers I've seen so far are either incapable of providing a reliable audio signal throughout the house, or cost far more and provide less flexibility than the solution I've just described.

If you've already got a wireless network in the house, I'd recommend that you create your multi-room audio/video system using cheap laptops and self-powered speakers. Laptops are typically on sale just before school starts or at the holidays.

]]>Dec 24th 2009 3:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 24th 2009 6:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Dec 24th 2009 9:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/switched-on-multi-room-musics-rocket-ride/Jan 23rd 2010 7:16AM