Winter is upon us, and though many think of the holiday season in winter, the holidays are only the start. Inclement weather, early sunsets, and just plain cold keep us indoors this time of year, and often keep us home as well. So what can you do when the TV doesn’t entice? Or when there is work around the house, and you need something to make your tasks go quicker? Stream some music!
Hawthorne Integrations Services LLC offers many options in the streaming music department. The days when you were stuck with picking out 5 CDs from your collection and playing them until you were weary of the same old songs are long gone … Internet streaming opens up millions of new songs and thousands of new artists, and you can play your old favorites as well, without digging up that disk buried in the back of your closet!
A streaming music player can be as simple as a wireless speaker, or it can be a player connected to your stereo, or it can be a whole house system that lets you play different streams in different rooms. Here are just some of the streaming music solutions we can sell, install, or set up for you:
- Sonos – this giant in the streaming industry has everything, from portable speakers to players you can connect to your existing audio/video equipment. Sonos supports most popular streaming platforms, and has the most international programming.
- HEOS – made by Denon, the HEOS product line includes both wireless speakers and full AV Receivers with the product built in. HEOS is a great choice if you need a new stereo, and don’t need some of the international offerings that Sonos provides. HEOS also has more third-party control options, where Sonos only allows limited control outside their own app.
- Bluesound – made by NAD, the Bluesound line of streaming players has the highest available audio quality, and has a product that can store the CDs you already own without needing to resort to ripping them on your computer. Bluesound is frequently the choice of true audiophiles.
- Autonomic – Autonomic products are designed from the ground up to be used in a whole-house system (though they make single room players as well). They have amplifiers that can connect to your players over your house network, so and they also are one of the very few (along with Sonos) that will natively support Apple Music without resorting to Airplay.
- RTI Music – RTI’s offering to the streaming music world is a relative newcomer, and is designed to work with RTI control systems … in fact, it requires them. It has among the best control interfaces available, which is completely customizable and can be used on hand-held remotes from RTI, or on their app.
When choosing between streaming music players, the first thing you need to do is decide what services are important to you. All of them will play music from the most popular services, like TuneIn, Spotify, or SiriusXM, but there are some services that are not available on every brand of player. So it’s important, if you have a favorite, to check whether your service is supported. The second thing is to decide how you are going to use your player. Will it be part of a bigger system, or just a single room? Do you need portable speakers? Do you already own equipment, and want your new players to work with it? Hawthorne Integrations Services can help you decide, contact us, and we will help you find the solution that best fits your needs.
And then winter need not be so long.
