I listen to music and podcasts almost 24⁄7 while working from home. I even listen to ambient music while I’m sleeping, which is why Chuck Wild (Liquid Mind) tops my last.fm charts.
I’ve got some good speakers for that, because laptop speakers aren’t great and I move around too much to use headphones or earbuds all the time. But I don’t want my laptop chained to my speakers via audio cable!
Solution: Airport Express + Airfoil.
Airport Express is a tiny wifi hub. Just plug it in, connect it to your wifi network, and connect your speakers’ input cable. Now you can use Apple’s Airplay technology to stream audio to your speakers wirelessly. Unfortunately, Airplay is only for Mac, and it only streams iTunes music.
That’s where Airfoil comes in. Airfoil works on Mac or Windows, and can stream audio from any source (including your entire system audio output). If you want, you can even set it up to stream audio from (say) Spotify, but have the rest of your audio play through your laptop speakers, physically connected speakers, earbuds, or whatever.
The one catch is that there’s (necessarily) a bit of lag. That’s not a problem for music or podcasts, but if you’re watching video then the video and audio will be out of sync. The Airfoil video player solves this for many types of video files, so you can generally watch DVDs and stuff that way, but if you’re watching occasional YouTube videos then it’s inconvenient to keep switching stuff to the Airfoil video player. When I’m watching videos online I just click the Airfoil menubar item and switch my “Transmit To:” option from “Airport Express” to “Computer,” then I switch it back when I’m back to listening to music.
Since I use these two pieces of technology almost all hours I’m in my house, it’s a damn good investment for me, and it might be for you, too.
I second this recommendation in general, though I have no experience with the specific tools. I have a pair of Sony S-air speakers that I have in different parts of the house that let me easily listen to my winamp playlist in the shower for example.
Airport Express ($99) + Airfoil ($25)
I listen to music and podcasts almost 24⁄7 while working from home. I even listen to ambient music while I’m sleeping, which is why Chuck Wild (Liquid Mind) tops my last.fm charts.
I’ve got some good speakers for that, because laptop speakers aren’t great and I move around too much to use headphones or earbuds all the time. But I don’t want my laptop chained to my speakers via audio cable!
Solution: Airport Express + Airfoil.
Airport Express is a tiny wifi hub. Just plug it in, connect it to your wifi network, and connect your speakers’ input cable. Now you can use Apple’s Airplay technology to stream audio to your speakers wirelessly. Unfortunately, Airplay is only for Mac, and it only streams iTunes music.
That’s where Airfoil comes in. Airfoil works on Mac or Windows, and can stream audio from any source (including your entire system audio output). If you want, you can even set it up to stream audio from (say) Spotify, but have the rest of your audio play through your laptop speakers, physically connected speakers, earbuds, or whatever.
The one catch is that there’s (necessarily) a bit of lag. That’s not a problem for music or podcasts, but if you’re watching video then the video and audio will be out of sync. The Airfoil video player solves this for many types of video files, so you can generally watch DVDs and stuff that way, but if you’re watching occasional YouTube videos then it’s inconvenient to keep switching stuff to the Airfoil video player. When I’m watching videos online I just click the Airfoil menubar item and switch my “Transmit To:” option from “Airport Express” to “Computer,” then I switch it back when I’m back to listening to music.
Since I use these two pieces of technology almost all hours I’m in my house, it’s a damn good investment for me, and it might be for you, too.
I second this recommendation in general, though I have no experience with the specific tools. I have a pair of Sony S-air speakers that I have in different parts of the house that let me easily listen to my winamp playlist in the shower for example.