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Whole Home Streaming

I didn't seem to encounter a recent version of this when searching threads, but I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before.
I am out of town (currently in Boston area) for a funeral. My brother in law invited us to his new townhome. He doesn't have an audio system currently in place. The town home is on 3 levels. The previous owners had a Sonos system in the house but apparently it stopped working years ago for unknown reasons. The sellers left all their audio equipment behind in built ins. A receiver, VHS player, and cable box.
My b-i-l would like to do something better than Sonos so he isn't interested
in reviving the current equipment. He was quoted $30,000 from a local high end HT place. He is willing to go to 1/3-- 1/2 of that. He is quite tech savvy but not up to date on audiophilia
My question here concerns the whole home streaming end. i'm a Mac&Dac
guy in my own home and rely on Apple TV to stream from my main two channel system to my two HT systems, but I don't do serious listening in the two HT areas. He intends to do serious listening in the 3 areas. They are:
1) The family room/great room area, where the aforementioned built ins and residual equipment resides.
2) A living room downstairs and across the hall.
3) A Bedroom upstairs.
His Domestic Partner has veto power over any ugly looking stuff in areas one and 3. My b-i-l would like to control everything wirelessly from a tablet and have as much of a wireless connection as possible. He listens to Classical music and some pop, mainly CDs ripped to itunes.
The existing equipment will not be retained.
The main priorities are 1) Simultaneous streaming in the 3 main zones, 2) Sound quality, and 3) as few wires and ugly boxes as possible.

Suggestions?
And can anyone suggest a reasonable HT installation in the Boston area?
richardfinegold

Showing 2 responses by erikminer

erikminer
433 posts
 
For a multi room, multi source music system that's dead nuts reliable and can be made to sound excellent and at a reasonable price Sonos really can't be beat.

The only limitation is that currently it can't do hi-res, but there is talk that Sonos is working on that.

With any system like this it's all about user interface, easy of use and stability.. Sonos truly does it better than anything else.. cost no object..

Fwiw I've had four Sonos zones running in my home now for almost 8 years with zero issues, except for when I recently upgraded my router to a POS Netgear, switching to a Linksys solved the problem .
erikminer
433 posts
 
Keep in mind that Sonos is not a High End audio product.. but sonically they can be made to sound excellent.. and probably as good or better than your brother in law needs..

Also and I can't stress this enough for most non audiophile folks it's really all about the interface, stability and ease of use.. The other options out there like Control 4 are way more expensive and cumbersome to use.

Most normal folks will be thrilled with a Connect Amp driving a good set of bookshelf speakers, and a Connect going digital out into a decent AV receiver will sound as good as anything else going in digital. If one is going to run a Connect into a better (higher end) system then using a re-clocker from Empirical Audio or the like is almost mandatory.. but it all depends on the end user.
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