Tag Archives: whole house audio

Whole House Audio – Ask the Big Questions

When clients first call ReadyToPlay most start with “I want to get my music ripped” or “I want to put my blog 1music on an iPod”.   This is a starting point and converting CDs to lossless format is a service that ReadyToPlay provides, but we always steer customers into a bigger discussion about how to use digital music on portable devices (which is a given) AND in the home. So the question now becomes: “How do I play digital music in my home?”

Deploying digital music in your home depends on your home and your vision for music in your home.  Everyone should start with the following considerations when deciding to take digital music throughout the house:

  1. How large is your house?  Do you have multi-story, multi room house or are you in a two bedroom apartment in New York City? This translates into the difference between a multi-zone installation or a single zone installation.
  2. If you have a ‘larger house’ is it built of brick, split level, on a beach or hillside?  Why does this matter?  Because we all know that certain architectures and constructions have an easier or harder time transmitting wi-fi signals consistently throughout the home.
  3. Do you have a dedicated listening room to play your music? If so, you are what I’d call an audiophile, and have a different level of expectation in terms of sound quality and stereo implementation than your average listener.
  4. Do you share music with a TV in one room as the primary ‘entertainment center’?  This would lead us to how can I see and play my music in conjunction with the TV.
  5. Do you already have a whole house audio system?  If so, do you have touch panels in each room or a programmed tablet to control or a central rack for AV equipment? If so, then you need to discuss how digital products will compliment or replace existing installations.

As you can see, it is a given that you can get your music on a portable device like an iPod but for the whole home, it takes a bit more thought on what to do.  Converting CDs to MP3 format is the first step to enjoying digital and lossless music, knowing how to seamlessly play digital music throughout your home is the next step; See part two in this series for what happens next once you’ve thought about your house configuration.