T - I just use the Duet. My local radio has internet feed for 90% of stations. All CDs are on the computer.

Your old stereo receiver is probably an inefficient way of getting radio access. But standalone tuners are not as cheap as they should be so I would just do this and hopefully you won't need it if you have internet feeds.

You do need remotes of some kind in each room as you are right about what you can do in each room. That is why the duet (or Sonos) is so nice because it is a remote by wi-fi that should work everywhere.

Now you can get into infrared repeating so that you take your receiver remote into other rooms but I had some issues with this functionality and I wouldn't count on it working - imagine sunlight, CFLs, LCD and Plasma TVs all interfere with these things.

I do have the DVD player hooked as a source for the occassional CD playing and I have the cable box as another for the music channels although we never use it since the duet is much easier.

Example - christmas music. My wife always hated the cable box channel as it was very old timey. So she wanted to listen to radio. I showed her how but with a few clicks of Pandora via duet and the radio has never come on again.

Conclusion - the duet or similar is so much easier to use in a whole house situation that you probably won't really want to use anything else.

Thanks, David! I'll probably be like your wife and be perfectly happy with internet radio EXCEPT in the rare occasion that the 2 of us want different music on in different areas.....can't share the same Duet or Sonos, so we'd need an alternative--this is where the receiver would come in--for regular radio. But thanks for the idea of the cable box for cable music--hadn't thought of that. That would give yet another choice.....

We were just at the house....I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

Just FYI the squeezebox duet is on sale at crutchfield and if you google crutchfield coupon codes there is a code for an addition 20 percent off bringing the cost to 304.00 with free shipping. Tempted to order one!

Hey, thanks athensmom. I think I'll break down and do it. I was considering the Sonos because I could use my iPhone with it, BUT, if I were gone and had my iPhone with me, hubby couldn't use it unless he got on the computer to access internet radio--and he leaves that stuff to me. Besides, in the price wars, the crutchfield sale (and David's recommendation, too, of course) tips the scale in favor of the duet.

T - there is an iphone app for the squeezebox. It is nice as it gives a second controller. If you want to listen to different things, get a second player (I might do that now and take advantage of the sale.) You could use the remote for hubby and the iphone for yourself - or for $300, just get a second remote (as opposed to the player which can be had for just under $200 by itself).

Oh wow, I didn't know there was an iPhone app for squeezebox, too--neat. I'll not tell hubby and mess with him sometime when he's fiddling with the SB duet's remote ;-)

I'm getting so excited to get in the house and try out all the new toys!

Broke down and ordered a Sqeezebox duet a couple of days ago and got it this afternoon. Coolest. Thing. Ever. I had no idea everything it could do and everything I had access to through it.

Although accessing itunes and pandora is great, my favorite thing may be the Live Music Archive which has allowed me to release my inner Dead Head. . . There must be a thousand live Grateful Dead concerts available, itemized by date and venue, and each concert broken down by song so you can skip over the 30 minute drum solos :) Since I no longer have a cassette player to play my old, college Dead bootlegs, this alone makes it worth it for me!

I can only imagine how awesome it is when hooked up to whole house audio. I don't think I would need any thing else!

Late to the party here......

We have whole house audio we haven't hooked up yet. C'mon it's only been two years! I am a complete know nothing so bear with me.

If we get one of these squeezebox thingies we can run the whole house audio from it? And access digital radio? And run my ipod through it? Even though we do not live in an area in which we have wi fi or any type of high speed internet?

I was thinking we were going to have to spend several thousand. The only thing I remember about the "receiver" or whatever it's called we were supposed to get was that it needed to have 4 channels or something like that. I was under the assumption (perhaps incorrect) that that meant we could listen to 4 different things in different areas of the house.

Enlighten me or tell me I am hopeless.

PS If it's only 300- I might pull the trigger ASAP!

You're hopeless. Sorry but these goodies are for people with high speed Internet and a wifi router.

But I think the entire northern hemisphere has high speed internet possibilities and a wifi router is $50.

The duet is not an amplifier so you need that part too. Technically a reciever is an amp and radio.

Ponydoc--David suggested several months ago when I was in your boat (total newbie) that I check out www.htd.com for their controller / amps (to connect the audio source--like stereo, CD player, iPod, etc.--to the speakers). I liked what I saw and bought from them. It's a couple of weeks away from being installed, so I can't comment on how I like it, etc., but it has great reviews on the website. Please see an earlier post I started on "whole house audio"; I asked a lot of the same kind of questions you probably have.

I just ordered the Squeezebox Duet. I didn't want to miss the sale, but also didn't want it too soon--we won't be moved in for about 4 more weeks. I hope I can at least try it out before the return policy ends.

Hubby and I were just talking today about how much we love the whole house audio, so I thought I'd come back on here and say just that. We LOVE it. And I absolutely love the Duet!

Many thanks to all who answered my questions and steered me in the right direction on all these components. I can't imagine needing more than the Duet (listening to Pandora right now), but it'd be nice to have 2 so we could each listen to what we want when in our separate spaces.

Tracey

Tracey - glad to hear you like it. Don't forget the local radio function - we used it for the holidays. Pandora gives you so much but every once in awhile, local radio is nice. We had made a few christmas stations but wife wanted 99.5 sometimes.

And just for fun, try the sound effects. Ocean waves in the whole house this far inland is pretty bizarre.

Hey David. I did find local radio stations--another reason we'd like another Squeezebox (but you can't just buy the receiver anymore--I'm also using my iPhone as a controller, so don't need a second). And the "ambient sounds"....I put it on there when hubby wasn't paying attention, and it was so funny to watch his face as he realized he was hearing it raining when the sun was shining outside. I'll have to search for ocean waves--that would be cool to have on while napping. How peaceful! Like I said--I just LOVE IT.

How 'bout this lovely snow?
Happy New Year!

Any of you with the Squeezebox Duet have trouble with it not working from time-to-time? Sometimes the remote won't work but I can get it to come on with my iPhone app for it. However, today, neither works. I just checked the receiver and it doesn't have the symbol lit up in blue. I unplugged it for a few seconds, and it ran through the other colors up to blue and then went blank again. Any ideas? Thanks!

Nevermind....after much searching the Logitech site, I found my solution. Thank goodness....I missed it! I have it on for several hours every single day; I'm glad to have it back up and running.

tracey_b,

The Squeezebox site has been having problems the last few days and their server was down. You can get a digest from their site, where others pipe in and the downed server was mentioned in it.

I too, have a whole house sound system, the Squeezebox is one part, we also have 2 satelite receivers and have another spot for another source (= 4 sources, where we can get audio from).
We have the SB hard wired into an unused networked computer and have the .flac music running out of a portable hard drive, which is wired into that computer.

That's good to know, Ronniner; thanks--I'll check it out the site to get more familiar with it. Until now, I'd just been enjoying it without caring how it "worked".

Yeah - I had been having problems too and I was wondering if they were related....