I am pretty new to Roomie and wondered what you thought the best way for me to go to achieve multi-room audio. The config
- ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus
- 1 AirPort Express connected to powered Paradigm Shift A2 speakers (An Apple TV also in this space connected through a TV)
- Marantz AV7005 (AirPort Express Enabled; an Apple TV also in this space connected to the Marantz)
- 1 Mac Pro in the office that currently has AirFoil on it and some Kipsch speakers
- 1 Outdoor Audio system to come
- possibly 1 master bath and/or bedroom powered speaker to come
It looks like Roomie 1.7 added multiple AirPlay support, so I was thinking something there might make sense. The NAS can run Plex and SlimDevices/SqueezeBox softwaee, as well as perhaps others. I haven't had great luck putting music down off the NAS.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!
Personally, I would invest in the Sonos system. I also have the ReadyNAS and use that to hold my audio files. But Sonos brings in all of the Spotify, Pandora, Sat Radio, and all of that, in addition to my local library on the ReadyNAS. All integrated. With Roomie. I love it.
Can Sonos pull music from Apple iTunes Match directly from the Internet/iCloud or does it still require the iTunes music library to be stored on a local device for it to access?
Second the Sonos recommendation. As so many people will tell you “it just works”. I have 3 connect amps and 1 connect (hooked to AV receiver), and never have had any trouble with perfectly synced music throughout the house.
I don’t think it can pull music from iCloud directly. You’ll likely want a NAS (this eliminates need to leave a computer on as Sonos can pull straight from a NAS). If you get a 2 or 3 TB model, you can store thousands upon thousands of songs in lossless format. Local storage on NAS (or computer for that matter) also eliminates requirement for internet access to play your music (although if you want to stream Pandora you will obviously need a connection)