New memeber needs help, please

[Slideways]

Hi all. This is my first post. A quick bio here. I'm an anti-tech old guy who bought a MacBook to help ease myself into being more computer literate. Big mistake!!! I'm becoming less of a tech curmudgeon everyday.

Now for my question. I'm in a new home that is wired for speakers thru-out. I'd like to wirelessly send a signal from my MacBook to some piece of audio equipment in the closet where all the speaker wires start from. What do I need?

Thanks in advance for any help. Aj

 

[mazersteven]

Welcome to Audioholics.

 

[zumbo]

Poke around the Niles site.
http://www.nilesaudio.com/

 

[adk highlander]

Now for my question. I'm in a new home that is wired for speakers thru-out. I'd like to wirelessly send a signal from my MacBook to some piece of audio equipment in the closet where all the speaker wires start from. What do I need?

Welcome to the Forum.

There are many ways to do what you want. What other controls are important to you other than the wireless. That can be done with AppleTV, Onkyo makes a wireless streaming device http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Accessory&m=UWL-1&p=i or a variety of other products. Do you already have zone volume controls for the speakers or do all the speaker wires just come to a central location?

 

[Petro]

The Apple Airport Express will do precisely that for you.

Granted, it'll leave you with a line-level signal, so you'll need amplification - but it takes care of getting the music there.

 

[gus6464]

I have an Airport Express connected to my receiver via miniplug-toslink cable and all of my music ripped to my PC in uncompressed format (AIFF). Sounds pretty good.

This is the cable I bought from monoprice for cheap.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022902&p_id=1571&seq=1&format=2

 

[Slideways]

Thanks all

What a great community, thanks.

I have nothing but speaker wires run from a closet to almost every room in the house. No speakers yet installed. I do have a music collection on the MacBook and would love to be able listen to that and my favorite internet stations. Based on the links you all have so kindly provided I'm seing some options I've not considered. Control panels in key rooms that would allow for control of the music sound pretty cool. This would require more then I think was my original idea but you all have helped me see beyond that.

Thanks again for any suggests.

Aj

 

[jcPanny]

Distributed audio system

Is each room wired for a volume control? If so, you could use 1 or 2 stereo amps to power all of the speakers with impedance matching volume controls in each room. The main limitation of this system is each room is playing the same source, but you only mentioned the laptop as a music source.

A distribution amp system from will cost $1-2k for an amp for 4-6 rooms and about $100 for a keypad in each room. You will also need cat5 wiring to each VC/keypad. With this system you will be able to select a different source in each room.

If the macbook is your source, any remote or keypad would have to interface to that. An apple TV or SqueezeBox3 source could be more easily controlled via an IR or RF remote.