The Music Lover's Home - Integrating Music Into Your Home & Lifestyle

By Damon Della Greca
Owner of Premier Audio Video Designs, Westchester, NY


If you are a music lover, each time you hear music, it evokes emotions, gives you energy and helps you enjoy yourself after a long day.  What better way to enjoy your music than to equip your home with your very own integrated audio system?  Have a personal concert hall in your home.

If you have a family, everyone can enjoy their own music independently in different rooms with one system.  Mom can listen to jazz in the den, Dad can enjoy talk radio in the study – all while the kids listen to their favorite music in their bed rooms.  Everyone’s happy!

The sonos touchscreen controller displays
song title, artist, album & cover art.

Technology has come a long way in the past fifteen years, which allows us to make our music more available and more portable than ever.  We also have more options for music sources.  Thanks to internet radio stations and various online services that are now available, there is bound to be something to suit your personal tastes and provide flexibility you can enjoy.  If you have a larger CD collection than will fit on your iPod, a CD player can be used.  Many people enjoy the music channels that come with their cable or satellite TV service.  AM/FM/XM/Sirius radio tuners are very common in music systems.  The most compact way to make entire music collections available is with the use of iPod docks and music servers.  This way, all of your music can be made readily available at all times.  With most iPod docks and music servers, “metadata feedback” is provided.  With metadata feedback, you can see what you’re listening to and control the iPod or server as though it was right in your hand.  Select by song, artist, album, genre, playlist and more, right from your controller.  Most radio tuners offer the same feedback, so you know what station you are listening to.  Enjoy what you want, when you want.  It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Crestron offers docks to make control from an iPad simple.

Perhaps the most important part of an audio system is the way you use it.  Some systems have in-wall keypads, color touch screens, handheld or remote controls.  Others have the ability to be controlled from a computer, iPhone, iPad, laptop or smart phones.  Most controllers will have an LCD display (some in color, some not) to allow you to see what you are listening to and get metadata feedback. This also allows you to easily navigate your music library.  If a system is easy to use, you will enjoy it so much more and be happy with your purchase.

Since many of us like to entertain guests or have parties, another great feature of many audio systems is “party mode”.  This allows you to play background music in the rooms where you and your guests will be, while not disturbing others in different parts of the home.  It’s a very convenient way to truly bring a party to life and set the mood.

This planter conceals a
high-quality speaker.

A well designed audio system should fit into your home without taking away from your décor.  By hiding wires in the walls of new constructions or retrofit into existing homes and neatly storing equipment in unseen places of the home, you can achieve the look you want while obtaining an impressive sound system.  One of the main things to take into account is what will be the most visually obvious part of the system – the speakers.  There are many types of speakers which can be used to keep your home visually appealing.  Speakers range from in-ceiling and in-wall, which are almost flush against the surface, to make speakers less obvious.  There are also speakers that look like rocks or functional planters, adding a nice look to you outdoor listening areas.

With all of these options and features that home audio systems have to offer, the music lover is bound to enjoy this great addition to their home.