Whole Home Streaming


I didn't seem to encounter a recent version of this when searching threads, but I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before.
I am out of town (currently in Boston area) for a funeral. My brother in law invited us to his new townhome. He doesn't have an audio system currently in place. The town home is on 3 levels. The previous owners had a Sonos system in the house but apparently it stopped working years ago for unknown reasons. The sellers left all their audio equipment behind in built ins. A receiver, VHS player, and cable box.
My b-i-l would like to do something better than Sonos so he isn't interested
in reviving the current equipment. He was quoted $30,000 from a local high end HT place. He is willing to go to 1/3-- 1/2 of that. He is quite tech savvy but not up to date on audiophilia
My question here concerns the whole home streaming end. i'm a Mac&Dac
guy in my own home and rely on Apple TV to stream from my main two channel system to my two HT systems, but I don't do serious listening in the two HT areas. He intends to do serious listening in the 3 areas. They are:
1) The family room/great room area, where the aforementioned built ins and residual equipment resides.
2) A living room downstairs and across the hall.
3) A Bedroom upstairs.
His Domestic Partner has veto power over any ugly looking stuff in areas one and 3. My b-i-l would like to control everything wirelessly from a tablet and have as much of a wireless connection as possible. He listens to Classical music and some pop, mainly CDs ripped to itunes.
The existing equipment will not be retained.
The main priorities are 1) Simultaneous streaming in the 3 main zones, 2) Sound quality, and 3) as few wires and ugly boxes as possible.

Suggestions?
And can anyone suggest a reasonable HT installation in the Boston area?
richardfinegold
It looks like you set your mind on wireless. I had problem
using 2.4GHz WiFi since it has only 3 non-overlapping
channels. My microwave was interfering with one and
neighbors with two others. There are few possible choices:

- brute force, use powerful antenna >0.5W (will also force
neighbors to change channels), or/and repeaters

- switch to dual band router and operate at 5GHz that has 23
non-overlapping channels (that's what I did). No
interference since it is not very common yet, plus penetrates
walls poorly - a advantage against incomming interference but
also disadvantage if you need to go thru the walls or over
long distance.

- device that doesn't use WiFi (investigate Sonos - they make
modules like that)

I use AE and it is inexpensive ($100) and decent with Toslink
out. I would recommend some reclocking after. I use
reclocking DAC but you might find stand alone reclockers (W4S
makes one). You can always add this later, but they are
costly (W4S is $399). It comes to jitter suppression (to
sound cleaner). I would use AE or Squeezebox (if you can find
it) or Sonos and not the Apple TV since it converts
everything to 48kHz and conversion 44.1/48, according to few
posts, has negative effect on sound.
AE is limited to 16/44.1 but it is OK with me since I listen
only to CDs.

I'm not sure if you can have more than one AE receiver, but
it is easy to confirm on this forum.
For 30k, the dealer needs to give you a proposal of exactly what he wants you to buy. The price does seem high, but it could be fair depending what he is giving you.
Multiple Airport Expresses are fine--I run two, plus an Apple TV box. Each has its own name and those names show up as speakers in iTunes.
It's a little cludgy because the hardware has been discontinued, but Logitech Media Server is a great system. If you can find a Squeezebox Touch, it'll be expensive, but it's easy to make your own with most andy idevice and a digital dock. The server can be on any computer or a micro device.
Better quality than Airport Express.