help please - need idiots guide to what's needed to listen to CDs etc in every room

Nenen

My dh and I are not at all techie but do use a laptop, PC, and Blackberry phones (just very basic functions). DH bought me an ipad for my birthday a few weeks ago but I have yet to get to grips with it! We do not (as yet) use itunes/ipods etc and haven't a clue how to transfer CDs to digital files.

We currently have a stereo system in the sitting room. My dh wants to be able to listen to DAB radio and his (vast - 800+) CD collection in the kitchen and bedroom (both have limited space so need something with a smallish footprint). He asked for a good quality, portable DAB/CD player for Christmas. I've been researching options for several weeks but have ended up getting more and more confused! He is quite fussy about sound quality and usually goes for Sony or Bose. My maximum budget is around £300 but would be great to spend less.

From what I can gather I have 3 options and would be very grateful to have opinions on the pros/cons of each and/or advice regarding any options I don't know about.

Option 1)
The Roberts MP53 (link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roberts-MP53-Digital-System-iPod-Black/dp/B001MVQYJC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292581877&sr=8-1) might be a suitable portable CD/DAB player and costs around £220.

Option 2)
One of my sons says I would be better getting him an ipod classic and a portable docking station with speakers. However, this means that he would have to transfer all his CDs to the ipod and my other son said this is extremely time consuming and not always straightforward. No idea which of them is right! Went in to Maplins to look at some kit and salesman told me buying CD player was buying 'backwards technology' and I should go for an ipod classic which would hold his entire CD collection, a speaker docking station and buy a CD ripping machine (£30) to help upload all his CDs. However, he couldn't tell me if this was quicker than using a laptop or PC to do it!

Option 3)
During my searches I've come across some info on wireless speakers but am at a loss to understand all the info about 'streaming' and/or 'Spotify' (do not really understand what these are or do). Am I right in thinking that a third solution would be to buy a couple of pairs of wireless speakers to go into the kitchen and bedroom and linking these to our laptop or pc? I've looked at several and they all talk about playing digital music and radio but none mention if you can also play a CD in your PC/Laptop and listen to this through the wireless speakers too. Is this possible?

Any advice much appreciated.

googler

Simplest solution.

Install Mini HiFi or DAB/CD player such as the Roberts in kitchen. Install another in bedroom.

Carry CDs from Living Room to Kitchen or Bedroom. Insert Disc into player, hit play.

Your house isn't big enough to render this too time-consuming or tedious, is it?

====================

Opt 2 - "should go for an ipod classic which would hold his entire CD collection, a speaker docking station and buy a CD ripping machine (£30) to help upload all his CDs. However, he couldn't tell me if this was quicker than using a laptop or PC to do it!"

An iPod (by Apple) is designed to work with iTunes (an Apple program) running on a PC - if you choose to rip the CDs into iTunes, with the intent of placing them on a 160Gb iPod Classic, then you need a PC with at least 160Gb of free disk space, since you transfer the music onto the iPod from the PC. If you have less free space than this, you'll never fill the iPod.

I'm not convinced that a 'CD ripping machine' will do the job....

=======================

"During my searches I've come across some info on wireless speakers but am at a loss to understand all the info about 'streaming' and/or 'Spotify'.

You could get wireless speakers, but the difficulty will be getting the music onto either a PC or network access device, which means ripping them, and having the available free space on the PC or laptop to accommodate them.

Spotify may well allow you to stream the same music as your OH has on his CDs, but you won't be playing the CDs anymore - you'll be listening to a copy of the CD streamed from Spotify's website.

googler

Oh, and if you're looking for a Music Replay system, I'd suggest going to a retailer who specialises in such, rather than Maplins, who are more of a jack-of-all-trades, no specialisation type of retailer......

Look for audio dealers in your town or county

Nenen

Thanks for your replies Googler. However, yes we could have a Roberts (or similar) player in each room but this would be expensive and (I think) a needless repetition of equipment. I was hoping to find a portable device to carry around the house with the CDs if I went for option 1.

If I went for option 3 (wireless speakers) I was hoping we could just play the CD in the PC (I've just tried and a CD will play using Windows media player without 'ripping'). Would a CD play automatically through the speakers if required too... or do you have to 'rip' or store the music digitally first before it will play through wireless speakers?

Sorry if this sounds a stupid question, as I'm sure you can tell, I do not understand digital music!

Finally, I did try going into a specialist shop but came out even more confused and feeling the salesman was trying to flog me the most expensive option as he realised he could tell me anything he liked!

Nenen

Just checked my laptop - I currently have 365 gb of free space out of 451gb.

jayme1

what size ipad have you got? I work out 800 CDs each with 12 tracks and 4MB per file would come to 38GB (potentially a lot less if using a lower audio bit rate)

http://www.apple.com/uk/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

ok the here goes the simplest wireless streaming way, using an apple airport express.

first is use the airport express as the main wireless router connected to your broadband of which all your devices connect to that wirelessly to access the internet, then buy another airport express for the rooms that require music, set them up to extend the wireless network of the first airport express, connect them to the speakers and then use the remote app in the ipad to access the music in itunes on the computer to send the music to the speakers. (with this way you can listen to the same song in any room you want, all the rooms at the same time, or any combination.) (picture below)

or the 2nd way is to put all the music on the ipad (which is on the latest firmware 4.2) then set up the airport expresses same as above and then use 'airplay' to send the music from the ipad to the speakers. (this way it is 1 room at a time) (picture below but do not need the computer to be always on to listen to music)

both methods require some speakers with a line or optical in in every room you want an airport express to listen to the music.

total cost, assuming your computer has wireless (or is in a room where an airport express is going to go and is not the airport express that is going to be connected to the broadband), and a big enough hard drive to store your music at least to just put it on the ipad, and you already have the speakers in each room with a line in,
for 3 airport expresses would be about £150 if you got them 2nd hand from something like ebay or £70 each new.

this is the basic setup of how using the airport express works for music streaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUakC3WUOY
and this is the basic how to use airplay (just assume it is music not video and to an airport exppress not an apple TV) http://gizmodo.com/5696600/everything-you-need-to-know-about-airplay-in-action

airport express FAQ http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1515

here is the basic setup in picture form because in text it sounds stupidly more complicated:

obviously just use as many expresses as you need, like remove no. 3.

hope that helps

jayme1

is is an overview of the remote app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvEpgcE9KCs

you would use that on the ipad to access the music on the computer to send that music to any speaker you have set up

fwor

One of the reasons why this is a confusing subject is because there really are many ways to do this. For example, I have a wired Gigabit network around my house which allows both music and TV replay in several rooms - but that's almost certainly more complex than you need.

The solution will depend probably more than anything on your budget.

You may want to take a look at products such as Logitech's Squeezebox, or Sonos (or the Apple products inthe previous post). These require that you rip your CDs to the hard disk of a central PC (it's an easy but rather tedious process), and that then uses a standard wireless network to stream the music to small playback boxes around the house.

These have been around for around 5 years now, so you can get older ones fairly cheaply secondhand.

CoolHotCold

First off Option 2 appeals to me, and you don't need 160GB space on your PC for 800 CD's, It varies on the length and the size of each song, but a good rule of thumb is a average of 5mb per song at 20 songs per disc which would give you about 80GB space required. ((800 x 5 x 20)/1000)

Now I'm not going to lie, this will take donkies, Itunes rips at about 11 or 12 times speed, so if a CD took a hour to play itunes would do it in a little under 6 minutes per CD. Think 200 hours of sitting in front of the PC.

So Option 2 is fine in theory, but practical sense it will take a while to do, it would also be my preferred method because having a CD collection in a digital format is much more convent and flexible to use.

For you, Option 1 would be fine, though a little annoying having to move constantly.

I'll research the Wireless sound setup for you, both Bose and Creative do them and Samsung had wireless speakers somewhere, and my fav Sonos is dedicated to wireless sound but the expense is probably more then you bargained for.


*Side Note for The Apple Airplay through Airport*
You do need speakers to be attached to the Airport to be able to listen to the music, also you will need to purchase a program that will convert Quicktime Radio links into .mp3 radio links that the Airports can read and will transmit. (and you will have to spend donkies converting from CD to your hard drive. roughly 200 hours for +800)

CoolHotCold

fwor wrote: »

One of the reasons why this is a confusing subject is because there really are many ways to do this. For example, I have a wired Gigabit network around my house which allows both music and TV replay in several rooms - but that's almost certainly more complex than you need.

The solution will depend probably more than anything on your budget.

You may want to take a look at products such as Logitech's Squeezebox, or Sonos (or the Apple products inthe previous post). These require that you rip your CDs to the hard disk of a central PC (it's an easy but rather tedious process), and that then uses a standard wireless network to stream the music to small playback boxes around the house.

These have been around for around 5 years now, so you can get older ones fairly cheaply secondhand.

I had a Squeezebox and it worked brill, BUT the sound was below par, you will need a decent set of speakers plugged into it so factor that into the cost.

jayme1

all the streaming methods will require the songs to be ripped to a computer, of which you only have to do it once and if you want music on the ipad you will have to do it to some CDs anyway, sonos is a good choice but the basic system is far greater than the £300 limit she has already given, at least my way all you require is the airport express and a pair of speakers just something basic like these or these.

the world is moving away from CDs now you will likely have to rip thoes CDs at some point, you have plenty of space on the computer, at least you won;t have to name them if you rip them while connected to the internet in either itunes or media player