apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I highly recommend the airport express. Not only will it stream your music, but you can use them as print servers and as repeaters to extend your wifi network. You can often find them on apple's refurb section for about 80 dollars.

You do know that there are reasonably priced wireless speaker systems available so that you can have speakers playing in any room of the apartment...

I use a portable set of iPod speakers and carry it around with me. Or, if I'm vacuuming, I'll listen to my iPod but with noise-canceling earbuds (which work surprisingly well). I'm obviously not an audio snob, but this works for me.

I love having music in the kitchen. While washing the dishes, it's a very needed distraction.

Big stereo in the living room, ipod boombox in the bedroom, portable speaker for the kitchen or when I'm sewing or crafting in the dining room.

Kitchen! how does the airport express work?

I need something in the bedroom... that's where I dance.

one thing i rarely notice in most house tours are serious music systems. everyone has tiny speakers in bookcases or little ipod systems. but what if you need, or more precisely want, big speakers? this really poses an aesthetic dilemma. we have a two big main speakers, which are actually quite beautiful (Vienna Acoustic, Mozart) made of rosewood. Then there's our subwoofer not to mention the huge, huge cable wires connecting everything. While our speakers & subwoofer are comparatively nice to look at, let's face it, no one really wants to see these things in a living room, esp. in a small space. what do those of you who are into big sound do to incorporate this into your decor? hiding the speakers & subwoofer in cabinets is out of the question, since these speakers demand central placement on the floor. would be nice to hear what others do about this.

@SydneyBristow: It works by sending audio through a wireless network. its made by apple, but it doesn't not require an apple computer, and if you get a program called airfoil it doesn't even require itunes. You would need to supply your own speakers, that you would connect through a standard 3.5mm jack.

You can get more information here: http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

I always have the music on when cleaning, so I like to be able to have it everywhere. We have one i-pod speaker system for downstairs and one (that can be portable) for upstairs. My roommate and I have found that we usually don't both want music in our bedrooms, so sharing the speaker systems like this works pretty well. (I've also been known to wear my i-pod while doing the dishes, because the water running can drown out the speakers and I don't want to turn them up annoyingly loud. I mean, as long as the dishes get done, right?)

Jose A--

I too use the Airport Express as my wireless router for the cable internet & printer as well as to connect iTunes to the stereo - I just love that thing!

i second the airport express configuration. in our situation, we have a mac-mini as a "home server" attached to the LCD-TV in the den (fed through an AV receiver). the LCD serves as a monitor for the computer as well as a TV (fed by cable... and the mac-mini for DVD and digital content). all of our music is saved as MP3, so streaming tunes to any room with an airport express is easy. adding to jose's note, you need *powered* speakers or an amplifier/speaker set-up in these remote locations (i.e.: bedroom)... something as small as a kloss/tivoli radio can work well (as long as it has an aux 3.5mm input jack)

There are three places to listen to music in my place - either on the computer in the living room (though mostly my taste in music), the computer in the den (his taste in music), or on the small cd player/clock radio in the bedroom. I prefer listening to music with headphones while I cruise around online.

I have a nice stereo in the living room, but I usually just carry my laptop with me and listen to Pandora. It comes in the bathroom with me so I can listen during my shower and I bring it in the kitchen, too. And to bed. And the living room to listen to while I eat breakfast!

Airport Express does it for me!!! For a minimal investment you can have music in every single room of your house and more importantly... the same music everwhere. No cacophonies in my house!

Yep. Apple's Airport Express is my best friend. Music in the den, kitchen, shower, bedroom... I love it.

How about everywhere in the house or anywhere you want it depending on your mood? Look into the Logitech Squeezebox family of products. Like an airport express, they are affordable, and will stream music anywhere using a wireless network. They will synch up or not if you own multiple devices. Unlike Apple, they have a range of devices from high-end audiophile component devices to smaller discreet units, to boombox style units. They also have a remote that has a visual display and can control any unit if you have multiples. They play any popular format (MP3, FLAC, etc) and stream internet radio and work with almost all of the popular music services, including Pandora. Plus, you can control from a web browser or a smart phone.

Timmy Jr.-

I have that dilemma. I think about the posters here saying they just carry around their laptops and portable speakers, etc. I would die if that's what I had to listen to music through all the time. Big, clear, crisp, well-balanced, sound does not come from tiny speakers.

You can't do much for hiding nice systems, except buy pretty ones, and deal with it. Or build your own speaker boxes to your specifications!

As to the original topic... I put it in the middle of the apartment and hope for the best. I'm considering buying another system so I can spread the sound to different rooms.

our place is not that big, most of the time we listen from itunes right on the laptop hooked up to our altec computer speakers, or from satellite radio thats free with direct tv (included in our rent)

timmy jr - if you're handy, and/or not an ikea hater, check the pictures and commentary in the audio/visual category at www.ikeahacker.com. people have made some interesting speaker stands and cabinets to house their A/V equipment.

timmy jr:

The best solution I have seen is putting a wall of French doors a few feet in front of your speaker/component wall, replacing the glass in the doors with audio-permeable fabric. It looks very elegant, hides your audio gear, and does not impact the sound (if you space it all right). But you need a big room and the French doors are not cheap.

We simply painted the front wall of our media room in a dark-ish color. Our speakers blend into the background wall color and are not as visible as they otherwise might be.