[Aaron Fude]

Hi,

I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Many thanks in advance,

Aaron

[Richard Crowley]

"Aaron Fude" wrote...
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Sure. Commercial sound systems have a variety of remotely-controlled
components (including computer-controlled) available. However the
prices may be outide your (undisclosed) budget.

[Aaron Fude]

On Oct 6, 9:36*pm, "Richard Crowley" wrote:
"Aaron Fude" *wrote...
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Sure. Commercial sound systems have a variety of remotely-controlled
components (including computer-controlled) available. However the
prices may be outide your (undisclosed) budget.

$2k and be sized rougly like a normal preamplifier.

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:09:02 -0700 (PDT), Aaron Fude
wrote:

I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Which do you require, a remote-controlled speaker switch, or
a remote-controlled preamp? Both exist.

All good fortune,
Chris Hornbeck

[Aaron Fude]

On Oct 6, 10:21*pm, Chris Hornbeck
wrote:
On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:09:02 -0700 (PDT), Aaron Fude

wrote:
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Which do you require, a remote-controlled speaker switch, or
a remote-controlled preamp? Both exist.

All good fortune,
Chris Hornbeck


I guess I don't know what I need. What I would like to do is have a
computer in one of the rooms of the house with a collection of mp3's
on it. and from that computer I want to control what plays and in what
part of the house. What I imagined is a preamp with a USB port or
wireless that you can drive from a computer.

[Eeyore]

Aaron Fude wrote:

Hi,

I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Probably but I find your entire concept flawed (especially when the laptop
crashes). I was considering these ideas asa designer in the 70's but the
technology wasn't up to it then and now I simply know better.

Graham

[Eeyore]

Richard Crowley wrote:

"Aaron Fude" wrote...
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Sure. Commercial sound systems have a variety of remotely-controlled
components (including computer-controlled) available. However the
prices may be outide your (undisclosed) budget.

By about the price of a house roughly.

Graham

[Eeyore]

Aaron Fude wrote:

On Oct 6, 9:36 pm, "Richard Crowley" wrote:
"Aaron Fude" wrote...
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Sure. Commercial sound systems have a variety of remotely-controlled
components (including computer-controlled) available. However the
prices may be outide your (undisclosed) budget.

$2k and be sized rougly like a normal preamplifier.

For one channel ? I could probably design that for you. The critical chip only
costs about $5. Then there's there's the host controller and I/O etc etc plus
it'll need drivers writing ( Windows I suppose ? ).

Oh only $2k, £2k maybe. So call it $4k.

Graham

[Eeyore]

Aaron Fude wrote:

Chris Hornbeck wrote: Aaron Fude
wrote:
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Which do you require, a remote-controlled speaker switch, or
a remote-controlled preamp? Both exist.

I guess I don't know what I need. What I would like to do is have a
computer in one of the rooms of the house with a collection of mp3's
on it. and from that computer I want to control what plays and in what
part of the house. What I imagined is a preamp with a USB port or
wireless that you can drive from a computer.

Oh, when you said pre-amp, being an audio pro, I thought mic preamp.

I have actually been working conceptually on such a design for some years
(using a central music server accessible from any room suitably equipped in
the home) but the software side and comms protocols (using ethernet probably
- wired or wireless) are beyond me. My brother-in-law has expressed an
interest in this project and he is a good coder too but he's always too busy
!

To develop it on a strict commercial basis would be a multi tens of $k
project. Using contractors it would go over $100k easily. Maybe we'll finally
get round to doing it in our own time but in the meantime I also have a
killer energy controller project.

Graham

[jamesgangnc]

"Aaron Fude" wrote in message
...
On Oct 6, 9:36 pm, "Richard Crowley" wrote:
"Aaron Fude" wrote...
I'm looking to control whole-house audio entirely with my laptop. So
in my ideal world I have a computer in a particular location and I
would like to control which speakers are on and which are off, from my
computer.

Does there exist a preamp that can be controled by a computer?

Sure. Commercial sound systems have a variety of remotely-controlled
components (including computer-controlled) available. However the
prices may be outide your (undisclosed) budget.

$2k and be sized rougly like a normal preamplifier.

Squeezeboxes. They can be controlled remotely from a web link. I control
mine from the computer when I want. And they will use a shared central
store of mp3s. They have a volume control. Plus they have an optical
remote so that you can control them from each room as well. So just get a
squeezebox, 2 channel amp, and speakers for each room in question. You
don't even need to run any wires. 2 grand would do a number of rooms of you
don't go to crazy on the amp and speakers. Squeezeboxes are $299 each.
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html I suggest ebay for used 2
channel amps. Amp technology has not changed all that much in 20 years.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250303722012 I'd go new
on the speakers though.

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 22:25:40 -0700 (PDT), Aaron Fude
wrote:

I guess I don't know what I need. What I would like to do is have a
computer in one of the rooms of the house with a collection of mp3's
on it. and from that computer I want to control what plays and in what
part of the house. What I imagined is a preamp with a USB port or
wireless that you can drive from a computer.

OK, so you want a multi-zone system with a central server
and local clients.

May I suggest that you adopt a model of a Windows Media
Player server and Ethernet connections to the local
clients?

Rooms with video might use PlayStation3's as clients,
with or without Sony's cool little $150 wireless
streaming video remote controls.

Rooms without video can use a simpler client, but some
display will *always* be needed. Navigation requires
visual feedback to be even remotely enjoyable, for any
system of any kind.


All good fortune,
Chris Hornbeck