We like to listen to Pandora on the Bose system we have in the bedroom. We use my iPhone and the Pandora iPhone app to run it. Sometimes however we want Pandora to run through the main speakers in the lounge room. Usually we either stick the iPhone in the mount out there, or we run iTunes through one of the two Airport Express dongles we have. Today I decided to set it up so that Pandora would play in the main stereo in the lounge room and through the Bose system in the bedroom. I did it with Airfoil.

It hitched to Firefox, though Firefox doing one of its installs/updates killed the hitch initially but it grabbed it the next time. Pandora was quickly streaming through Airport Express into the main stereo's speakers.

Airfoil comes with a little app, Airfoil Speakers, that lets any other system be hooked up to Airfoil. I downloaded Airfoil Speakers from the app store on the iPhone and the Macbook was soon streaming the Pandora feed from Firefox into the iPhone on the Bose system. Rockin'

It now raises the issue that the Airport Express as big ugly dongles - admittedly that provide USB and cat5 as well - can now be replaced by adhoc iPhones or Touch's. Which are more useful systems that don't need to be installed permanently for a mono-purpose.

I have been looking for a solution to our music needs for a while. I want to dump the old analog stereo system and cabinet and replace it with a modern wireless system that uses iTunes, the two airport expresses we have and modern speakers that are built for that use.

Audio Engine has products which fit into that need. I got the Audio Engine 5 bookshelf speakers. The right speaker has an inbuilt amplifier which is pretty strong. They are bassy speakers - when played from a concrete floor anyway. It is a good strong and clear sound.

The cool thing is that they integrate directly with airport express. The back of the right speaker is designed to accept an airport express as part of the speaker rather than unattached on a separate power line. This is awesome.

Setting them up was easy. Because they integrate with airport express I had them streaming music from iTunes within seconds. It is a great sound and the speakers are light enough to be mobile if they need to be placed outside or in another part of the house.

The speakers have an inbuilt amplifier that is of high quality and the airport express integrates in easily. This is a good solution that fits what I need exceptionally well. I am very happy with them.