Hot off the presses: CasaTunes announces a new iPhone app companion to its family of whole-house audio equipment. The CasaTunes PC-based system is designed for 6- or 12-room audio, although according to their latest press release, it can now control up to 48 rooms — now that’s a big house! You can probably guess that the whole system will set you back a pretty penny (CasaTunes Software $349, XLi $499, XLe $1,199, XLi Music Server $1,499, XLe Music Server $2,199, Keypads $199, XLa V2 $899). But hey, the app’s free for existing customers.

The CasaTunes iPhone app will allow you to control multiple or individual rooms, pulling from your personal database of songs hosted on the CasaTunes server. It also gives you access to over 25,000 free SHOUTCAST radio stations. One of the more impressive features is that you and your family can access the same iPhone/iPod but play different songs from it in different rooms. This must be what it would sound like if you lived inside a magical boom box.

My biggest question is how this system compares to whole-house audio available from the likes of Sonos or Logitech. By comparison, CasaTunes seems rather expensive and setup looks to be more technically challenging. Sonos also offers an iPhone app to control their system, which I hear is pretty sweet.

The whole concept of whole house audio is awesome. Of course I’d love to have my own personal soundtrack scoring everything I do from brushing my teeth with Ziggy Stardust to entertaining my music snob aficionado friends with the very latest Animal Collective, but perhaps I’m a tad too fresh in my career to afford such luxuries. I suppose for right now, it’s just me and the ol’ vintage white headphones for me. Of course, unless Sony would allow iPod compatibility with their new motion-activated headphones… then we’d really be in business.