Send audio from phone to whole house - Bluetooth? Wifi?

There are many ways to accomplish this:

1. Use a PC with Itunes hooked up with any WHA audio system and send your music that is found locally on your I-phone through wifi to your PC to play over your zone on your WHA.

2. Use a WHA audio system that supports a local source connected to a zone to distribute audio in the home.

3. Same as #1 above, except you store the music on the PC and use I-remote to play the music that is stored on the PC on your WHA.


If you want to control your WHA with your i-phone and/or android phone, there are systems out there that allow you to do so. If you provide me with more information on sources, zones budget etc... we can start looking at specifics and provide you with some recommendations.

We have used this BDXTT bluetooth recvr in a few systems, plus I use one myself.. I do the same thing you are looking to do, pick up where I left off in the car once inside the house.
the xantech digi5 is a cost effective 4 zone distribution system and will work with your wiring that is in place.

Good info in this thread - thanks.

I have WHA with an HAI system and use a PC with Spotify/Pandora as a source. But I constantly found myself running to the PC screen as my wife and I tried to guess the name of the artist who was playing. So I just added a BDXTT as another one of my inputs. I was planning on streaming music from my android phone so the playlist would be at hand. It works well but I have two limitations that I wonder if someone could comment on:

1) Whenever I get an email, the music stops and I get my email notification sound through my speakers which is annoying
2) I can't use my phone further than maybe 12 feet away from the BDXTT without getting dropouts. Sitting in my backyard is therefore out of the question.

Advice? Are there any devices with better bluetooth range I could use with the BDXTT? I'm not adverse to getting an iPad etc dedicated to being a music source that I could being to the backyard and use as my music info screen and controller.

Now can I get my iPhone to automatically engage the room's speakers as I walk from room to room?

This is Apple's AirPlay shines. It's built into Late iOS 4 and all late iOS 5 iPhones and iPads. It will redirect all device level audio to any AirPlay receiving devices. The AirPlay receiver can be any of the following:

An AirPlay compatible receiver (like Denon)

An AppleTV 2nd gen (or a hacked 1st gen)

An Apple Airport Express

Any Mac or PC running Airfoil Speakers 5, which will turn that machine into an AirPlay compatible receiving device (free trial)

Another iPhone/iPad running an AirPlay compatible receiver app (third party)

You can mute all device level audio - like text tones, email tones - by switching that devices mute switch to on. It will leave the audio stream intact. Phone calls will still cut the audio.

Additionally, you can use the Remote app (Apple) to control iTunes to stream directly to an AirPlay device. Or us Remote app to coordinate media playback on an AppleTV.

Range is only a problem if your Wifi access point isn't close to the back yard. Wifi will be better than Bluetooth for range and audio quality.

I use this solution almost daily. Just this evening I used my iPhone to stream NPR to my patio speakers while at my grill making dinner, and switched to Rhapsody once I had enough doom and gloom of NPR.

Thanks intake. The Airplay/Airfoil looks like a cool solution. I'm going to try that if I wind up getting an iPad 3 next month.

In the interim, I purchased the LogMeIn app for Android and control my music PC over the phone. It shows a miniature version of the Windows desktop on the phone and you have to click around the screen to start apps, but at least I can play "radio stations" or playlists , change songs, pause and see the artist and song info. Plus there is no distance limit for remote control like wifi or bluetooth. There are also no notification annoyances. Not bad for $30.

I apologize for adding to an old post, but the Sonos Connect might be worth a look. It can provide the internet music services with Android/iPhone control via Wi-Fi. Best of all, it is designed to plug into existing WHA or stereo systems (does not have to be Sonos).

(We also tried the Xantech Bluetooth receiver, and loved the functionality, but the range was not long enough to cover the entire house.)

Just a thought.