Home audio - can ONE thing do what I'd like?

[Broadside]

For £169 you might consider a Sonos Play 1. Not cheap but comparable or cheaper that buying a new hifi mini system.

The Sonos app on your phone and/or computer is very good as it allows you to play from your music library and also has radio TuneIn which is an app that streams most radio stations. I was recently looking for a do-it-all thing and went for this.

The speaker is wireless, quite small and very neat on a shelf. For it's size it produces astounding volume and quality. It just has a volume switch and a play/pause button actually on the unit, so it will just start playing what you last listened to, radio/playlists etc. sometimes you don't want to have to fiddle about with an app. It also has an alarm that will start playing what ever you want at a set time on different days so we now have the radio playing as we get up. It's a nicely thought out product.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Thanks everyone. It looks like the Brennan thing would store lots of CDs but @Houthakker's Yamaha might be close to what I want. I'll take a look.

Hey, I suggested Yamaha first!

 

[Booyaa]

I would just like a radio that had a nice friendly presenter and some pleasant music in the morning.
Radio 2 has Chris Evans shouting like a hyperactive toddler every morning.
I only have the choice of two local commercial stations, each playing the same three adverts every 15 minutes.

Even on ipad I cannot find anything.

Radioplayer - Free UK radio is a great app on the ipad I use. Loads of good digital radio stations.

 

[DaveReading]

Do you have a Richer Sounds near you? If so, go in and get one of their people to take you through the options.

Then - and this bit is very important - leave the shop and think about what you need. Then decide what you're going to get.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with Richer Sounds, but I bought a set of their own-brand (Cambridge Audio) separates a few years ago. Within a week I was on my 3rd AV receiver/amp (the first had no sound on one channel, the second no sound at all on 'phones), the current one needs to be thumped to get it to work at all, the CD player died after a couple of years and its replacement skips the first 2 seconds of any CD it plays.

YMMV.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Yebbut yours was bright yellow.... the glare of which made us think you'd plonked some hi-vision the shelf in your living room. I

Humph, I think you'll find it was bright orange.

 

[Houthakker]

Hey, I suggested Yamaha first!

Mine was a more restrained black.
http://www.richersounds.com/product/mini-hi-fi/yamaha/crx550/yama-crx550-blk
I didnt need and speakers, just used the ones from my old sony system as they were the right rating for the new one.

 

[Over The Hill]

Radioplayer - Free UK radio is a great app on the ipad I use. Loads of good digital radio stations.

Thanks for recommendation.
I am totally out of touch on this so here are a couple of stupid questions.
- Can I make the thing I am playing it on switch on at 7.30 and the music just come out (like my clock radio) without any input from me? I really could not manage to fire up even a tablet, go onto an app and find a particular station each morning.
- All I can find are rather annoying commercial stations that are just like the two available local commercial stations, three minutes of ads every 15 minutes, same ads each time.
Just want some current music, some oldies, a bit of light banter and a couple of minutes of news headlines to come on when I wake up.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

I'm happy with what I have except there are a couple of things I'd occasionally like to do:

* If I miss a radio program I'd sometimes like to listen to it later. I know I can do this on iplayer via my laptop but I've never bothered with that.

* Sometimes it would be nice to listen to music from my CDs in a more random fashion. I can do this on my phone but I don't want to listen on my phone.

...

if your hi-fi has a line-in / aux input... you could connect the phone (you don't like using) via its headphone socket, listen to random CDs and with the iPlayer app*, catch up on radio programmes. The phono-jack cable will cost about £2 on Ebay.

*depending on your smart phone.. it won't install on mine

 

[annedonnelly]

Thanks @MontyVeda

Worth a try but I suspect I won't be able to install iPlayer app either. My phone complained about lack of space after Google decided to do some sort of upgrade. I removed Google Play to get the space back but now I probably can't install more apps. There's only one app I use anyway and that works perfectly so I'm happy

 

[rualexander]

Scottish brand Revo might have something that will cover what you need.
http://revo.co.uk/shop/

 

[MontyVeda]

Thanks @MontyVeda

Worth a try but I suspect I won't be able to install iPlayer app either. My phone complained about lack of space after Google decided to do some sort of upgrade. I removed Google Play to get the space back but now I probably can't install more apps. There's only one app I use anyway and that works perfectly so I'm happy

i think its my phone's OS or something that's not compatible rather than space, so it might be worth a try. It's annoying as the Iplayer is one of the few apps I want.

 

[annedonnelly]

i think its my phone's OS or something that's not compatible rather than space, so it might be worth a try. It's annoying as the Iplayer is one of the few apps I want.

It says "This app is incompatible with your device". Sounds like the same problem you have

 

[Pale Rider]

How many CDs do you have?

The Brennan is regarded as an excellent piece of kit, but you will need to 'load' your CDs on to it, which is time consuming.

Unless you can find a way of shunting your digital collection across from your phone.

That would be quicker, but loading direct will almost certainly give better quality.

 

[Profpointy]

How many CDs do you have?

The Brennan is regarded as an excellent piece of kit, but you will need to 'load' your CDs on to it, which is time consuming.

Unless you can find a way of shunting your digital collection across from your phone.

That would be quicker, but loading direct will almost certainly give better quality.

I'd be wary of a proprietary box to load my music onto. Stick it all on a PC, you can do backups, copy them elsewhere, update the sound card or DAC and a whole lot else

 

[Pale Rider]

I'd be wary of a proprietary box to load my music onto. Stick it all on a PC, you can do backups, copy them elsewhere, update the sound card or DAC and a whole lot else

I'm sure you - and others - can.

The OP, however, ruled out this option in her first post.