Other than the Philips Streamium is there a self-contained device (with speakers) that I can put on my nightstand that will play MP3’s from a PC on my wireless network? I already have an Audiotron hooked up to my home stereo system which gives me access to music on my PC, but I’m looking for a solution for the three bedrooms in my house.
The Streamium is the only solution I know of, but it seems rather large and expensive.
OK, seeing that I received no responses, let me change my question a little…
Is there a device that exists that has integrated speakers (in other words it doesn’t depend on my receiver and speakers) that will allow me to play music stored on my wired or wireless home network?
Thanks.
A pair of wireless speakers situated where you desired would do what you wanted. There are quite a few types from $30 to $300. Google “wireless speakers”. Connect them to the line our of your PC soundcard and you’re good to go. Use a PC timer/cock radio applet to play the songs you want at a specific time.
You can set up a pair of wireless speakers in any room, run them from your computer, and set up the timing any way you like. Or, this may be overkill, but if you’ve already got the network and the mp3 player, you might want to consider Home Automated Living (HAL). In addition to the wakeup call, you can also set your lights and thermostat and other stuff to run automatically. I have a friend who uses HAL to keep her life on schedule (when to go to bed, get up, etc.) just by the lighting cues. Of course, she’s also got six computers, but that’s geeks for you.
And I see that astro snuck in there with the wireless speakers, and a useful link. “Preview is my friend”
Thanks for the responses so far, but let me tell you more of my requirements…
I have three kids, each with small boom-boxes in their bedrooms. Instead of having them trade CD’s with each other, misplace the CD’s, scratch the CD’s, etc. I’d like to replace the current boomboxes with something that will play music from my network. That also means that the kids need a way to control which songs are playing from their bedrooms.
The AirTunes solution is meant to work with a separate receiver and speakers (and it would be bulky and expensive to buy a receiver and speakers for each bedroom.
I do have a media center PC in the basement, and I could set-up wireless speakers, but then I’d need to control the music from the basement, and I couldn’t have separate songs playing in each bedroom.
I’m basically looking for something that:
The Streamium I linked to above seems to satisfy those requirements (although it’s kind of pricey and bulky), but I want to know if there are other options.
Thanks.
This is one of my favorite subjects. I just finished building my Ramsey FM30 FM transmitter. I have this hooked up to the sound card of my PC. I am currently using Windows Media Player to play MP3s to the transmitter.
The signal reaches a half block away, so I can wear a FM radio walkman while I cut my grass and listen to my tunes. I turn on my clock radio in the evening while the PC is playing calm classical music.
My MP3s are on a small Linux server running Samba. My eventual goal is to obtain or write some jukebox software for the Linux server that will provide a local web site that I can bring up anywhere in my house to control which playlist is being played.
It will eventually automatically play rock during the day, jazz in the evening, and classical music at bedtime.
I’m a huge fan of the squeezebox. It doesn’t come with speakers, but it meets your other requirements, including having an alarm clock feature (which I gather wasn’t really a requirement 
) I used to have an AudioTron and found it clunky, slow and difficult. Now I swear by the squeezebox. It also gives you the option to synchronize multiple devices on the same network, so if you’re having a party or something, you can have the same playlist going throughout the house.