by Ty Ahmad-Taylor, CEO, THX Ltd.
A good friend of mine asked me the following:
“I’m putting a sound system in my house and thought you would be a good guy to ask.
Any thoughts?”
Why, yes, yes, I do have thoughts, sir.
First things first
I had to ask: “How big is the house, how big is the media room, do you want sound in most rooms in the house, or just the media room?”
He answered: “Want to get sound through the house (inside and outside) and great sound in the media room. We were going to just do a Sonos systems but thought that you might have other ideas for either.”
Music services?
I needed to know which services he used, as different platforms have access to different services:
- Spotify (Airplay | Chromecast | Echo | Sonos)
- TuneIn (Airplay | Chromecast | Echo | Sonos)
- Soundcloud (Airplay | Sonos)
- Apple Music | iTunes (Airplay | Sonos)
- BBC iPlayer (Airplay only)
This determined whether or not he needed an Airplay-only system or not. It turned out that he is an Apple Music person, so that excludes Chromecast and Amazon Echo systems.
He needed either a Sonos-based system or an Airplay-based system.
The system
The resultant system is expensive, for clarity, but primarily uses THX-blessed equipment. My friend wanted a higher-end system, and thus the list below reflects pricier equipment.
For the Sonos-based or Airplay systems, you want to get their speaker-less products and hook them up to good speaker systems.
Streaming solution
The Sonos is a control head-end plus amp. The Apple solution requires an amp. In both cases, I gave him options for near/actual audiophile sound.
Amplifier solution (if you go the AirPlay route.)
Speakers
- In wall or, if you don’t want to make cuts in the ceiling . . .
- Free-standing
Media room solution
Outdoor speakers and subwoofers
- Klipsch outdoor “rock” speakers
Have other recommendations? Let us know in the comments.
