Synchronizing Music Players?

orn asks: "Lots of people now have MP3 players in the living room. Some people have players in the kitchen, bedroom, garage, and so on. They are great when it comes to getting to your music from multiple places, but when you walk from room to room, it's almost impossible to get the music aligned. Are there software packages or techniques for synchronizing multiple networked music players? One thought is to use streaming software to stream to all players — but is there any streamer that will let you account for the different delays in different hardware to create a single synchronized whole?"

Comments

SlimServer

[jad4]

SlimServer works for me. http://slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html

Simplify

[pintpusher]

So, I know this doesn't answer your question, and I'm all for technology, but why not just run a multi-output speaker control box. Then just pipe the same signal to all the rooms over plain old speaker wire. I'm sure you can get lovely remote control panels (or fab some up) to control the device too. Its just so much simpler, IMO.

Re:Simplify

[blhack]

I came here to suggest the same thing. We have a setup very similar to this in our house. There is a room with a rack that has 4 Amps on it. Each one is individually controllable as far as volume goes (remotely). So that i can be in my bedroom with the music on VERY low, and the kids can be out in pool with the music on very LOUD. With this setup, you can also run different sources to different amps too. Its pretty slick. I'm still at work so i can't look at who makes the stuff. If this is something like what you want, i'll go look at who makes everything for you when i get there. :)

BTW, everything is controlled either from little panels that look like light switches in each room, or from a wireless tablet.

Easy solution

[YrWrstNtmr]

but when you walk from room to room, it's almost impossible to get the music aligned.

That's what the volume knob is for. I assume you have an '11' setting on it? Problem solved. You can hear it in all rooms simultaneously.

Simple.

[harrkev]

Simple!

First, figure out what your slowest player is. Then, delay the others to match. Note that a lot of cat-5 cable might be useful -- about a mile or two should do it.

Use an osiclloscope to compare two different devices, and figure out how much delay you need. Figure that eight inches of wire is about a nanosecond delay. Note that you might have trouble driving a mile or two of cat-5, so you might have to throw in a switch or hub along the way -- which will introduce additional delay. Simply measure the delay and use less cable.

See, simple!

AirPort Express

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy AirPort Expresses. iTunes will drive multiple units in perfect sync. If you don't like iTunes or need to play from some other source, the Mac version of Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil can also drive multiple units in sync using any application on your computer as the source.

Don't think DIY is going to do it

[Zadaz]

Standard Network latency and timing is not precise enough to reliably sync audio between rooms in such a way that you won't hear an echo. At least that was what I found when I researched this a couple of years ago.

Buy a Sonos and forget about it. It's an amazing set of hardware that's worth twice the price.

Hate to point out the obvious but...

[cybereal]

Apple's iPod + iTunes + Airport Express covers all of your needs.

One iTunes installation streaming to several AirPort Express base stations (connectable via wifi or ethernet) provides just what you need, including synchronized output. I was really surprised when I discovered the output was synchronized, despite being streamed as data and decoded at the express device itself.

Furthermore, if you have several iPods it's trivial to synchronize them all with the same iTunes installation, in fact, it's kind of the entire point and reason behind the iPod's success isn't it?

It's not like the iPod is that great of a player, and people can quit pretending the scroll wheel was a good idea because it's not (my sore thumb joint...) but the software to manage the things, that's the golden feature right there.

I'm sorry to be the one that pimps Apple on this, but son... they've got you pegged.