The music died

[Jim Becker]

We use an older iPhone 4 in the kitchen to stream music via an iHome clock/radio/sound system. It replaced an even older iPod Touch. The iPhone 4 without a SIM is essentially the equivalent of an iPod relative to music and runs just fine on WiFi for the purpose.

[Shawn Pixley]

Like Edwin, I care a lot about audio quality. For my ears, streaming quality sucks (and Pandora cannot figure out my tastes), iPods/MP4's are only marginally suitable, CD's are okay, and vinyl is best. Music in our house runs through our audio system (reasonably good from an Audiophile standpoint, but no 20K$ turntables here).

If you are looking for easy, an iHome with an old iPod/iPhone is pretty acceptable. I like music when I am cooking / cleaning. In the shop, I listen to Podcasts (audio quality only marginally important).

[Dave Zellers]

I sure like the $35 part but this is specifically for the kitchen while we make dinner at the end of two long days. It's driving me crazy being without it. Sometimes the best part of a homemade pizza is the music that went into making it.

[Dave Zellers]

Like Edwin, I care a lot about audio quality. For my ears, streaming quality sucks (and Pandora cannot figure out my tastes), iPods/MP4's are only marginally suitable, CD's are okay, and vinyl is best. Music in our house runs through our audio system (reasonably good from an Audiophile standpoint, but no 20K$ turntables here).

If you are looking for easy, an iHome with an old iPod/iPhone is pretty acceptable. I like music when I am cooking / cleaning. In the shop, I listen to Podcasts (audio quality only marginally important).

dang. Just when I thought I had this figured out, you walk in with this. Sounds like you're saying streaming (does that include wi-fi?) is a notch below mp4 quality wise? Because that's exactly what I'm wondering about. With the old Bose Sound Dock, I was playing mp4's directly off my iPod. If streaming or wi-fi is a step down from that especially if there is any skipping or delays, that could be a problem.
Oy! So many things to consider!

[Matt Meiser]

Everyone in our house has a small Bose Bluetooth speaker. Me in my office but I often take it out to the garage, my daughter one she uses whereever, and my wife had one at work when she had an office but now that she's at a new job in a cubicle its in our master bath. They sound decent and are super simple to use. We gave one to my mom as a gift as well for in her kitchen. Best deal is a refurb at an outlet mall if you have one nearby.

[Edwin Santos]

Dave, my experience with streaming quality has been excellent. For example, based on Shawn's comments just for myself, I listened to Beatles Love streamed from Rhapsody, and compared it to Beatles Love sourced from my network drive (mp3 files ripped from my CD), and I could not tell the difference. I never encounter skipping or buffering delays. Some of this might depend on internet connection speed, wireless access point. I guess the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, but my experience thus far has been very good.

For some reason, my hand cut dovetails always turn out better when I'm listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash.

[Dave Zellers]

Well I can certainly relate to that. I took my future wife to see them in Cleveland right after Neil Young joined tne band. The first third of the show was just CS&N and then they brought out Neil.

I think every seat was six bucks. We were there early, maybe 4-6 people behind the doors, then when they opened the doors, the CRUSH began. We had great seats. I'll never forget it.

[Dave Zellers]

Had to Duck Duck Go it. I was wrong. Four bucks.

http://rawsugarstudio.com/product/cs...oncert-poster/

ahh.... memories. I can close my eyes and see/hear them play Wooden Ships just a short distance away.

[Edwin Santos]

That's some story! Stephen Stills is truly amazing. Crosby and Nash are undeniably talented, but the story goes Stills played nearly every instrument on their debut album, and when it came time to tour to support it, they needed at least one other musician who could play instruments so Stills recruited Neil Young whom he knew from playing in Buffalo Springfield together.
You got to see them right at the time they took the world by storm, a few months after Woodstock.

[Jim Becker]

While it's certainly technically true that (in general) streaming isn't as good quality as other sources, for background purposes, most folks will be perfectly happy with it. And where else can you get and instant mix of Country, Bollywood and Classical with a couple of quick touches on a screen.

[roger wiegand]

I have Sonos connect units that I run into a mid-range amp in both the house and workshop, allowing me to use better speakers (that I already owned) in both places. You could even feed the Bose sound dock from a sonos connect. If you are happy with the way Bose stuff sounds you will be happy with any of the other choices as well. I love the access that Sonos gives me both to many thousands of "radio" stations on the web as well as seamless access to the couple thousand CDs stored on my computer.

[Brian Elfert]

Why not get a 30 pin to lightning adapter and use one of the iPhones with the existing dock? Another option is to get a used/refurbished iPod touch that still has the 30 pin connector.

[Chris Wdowiak]

We run these LG wifi speakers in the house and backyard. They work great and are cheaper than sonos.

http://www.lg.com/us/wireless-speakers

[Dave Zellers]

Why not get a 30 pin to lightning adapter and use one of the iPhones with the existing dock? Another option is to get a used/refurbished iPod touch that still has the 30 pin connector.

You have it backwards. The iPods still work, the Bose Sound Dock died.

It's starting to look very Sonosy.

[Dave Zellers]

We run these LG wifi speakers in the house and backyard. They work great and are cheaper than sonos.

http://www.lg.com/us/wireless-speakers

Interesting! Looking less Sonosy....