Top tips for wirelessly streaming music around your home

Filling your home with music is simple with the latest technology on your side, and best of all it needn’t cost a fortune. Follow our top tips and we’ll have you streaming sounds around the house in minutes!

Step 1: Best on a budget
Streaming sounds around the house needn’t be more complicated than hooking up a Bluetooth-packed stereo or speaker system. Sony’s CMT-HX90BRT packs in all you’d expect from a top-notch Hi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth so you can send songs from a mobile phone, Bluetooth-equipped MP3 player or PC.

Bluetooth has a range around 10 metres, so if you’re simply sending songs from one room to another, it should suffice, and won’t break the bank. You can add an adapter, such as the £44 Sony Ericsson MBR-100, to any Hi-Fi or speaker system with a line-in connector, allowing it to receive sounds from a Bluetooth device.

Step 2: Best for large houses
If you want to beam music around a larger house, you’ll need to use Wi-Fi. That doesn’t mean it has to be much more expensive, however. Apple’s Airport Express will operate over hundreds of metres, and has a connector to plug in to any stereo or speaker system with an auxiliary input. If that doesn’t suit your needs, you can plug speakers directly into it, letting you stream sounds from a computer running iTunes to any room in the house. You can even use an iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control.

Don’t fancy Apple’s solution? Then take a look at the Logitech Squeezebox Duet, it’ll do pretty much the same thing, and even includes a remote.

If that’s too complicated, how about a digital radio that’ll stream songs from your PC? All these models will handle the task, but you’ll need to be running Windows Media Player on your computer for it to work.

Step 3: Best for proper multi-room audio
All of the above solutions are great for sending sounds from one room to another, but if you want full control over what’s playing in different areas of the house you’ll need a proper multi-room audio system.

The Sonos ZP-80 bundle will let you do just that. Set it up, and you’ll be able to stream different music to different areas of the house, or combine them to make the same song play everywhere. Great for sharing a single music source, and pumping out sound whenever you throw a party!

Get chatting about, or share your own media center tips at the PriceRunner forum

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