Multi Room Audio

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Multi Room Audio

sheldybro

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#19763 29-Feb-2008 15:13

Hi all,

I would like to get all the advice I can get on home multi room audio units, whats available, where from, best deals, etc..

My family and I are going through the process of building ourselves a new home, so while we are still at the plan stage i thought I would work on the house entertainment systems.

The house has got 4 bedrooms, study, 2 bathrroms + ensuite, separate lounge, open plan family / dining / kitchen, garage and outdoor areas.

I have allowed aprox - 26 Cat5e cables through out the house as well as 20 RG6 cables, to cover telephone, computer, tv...
In the main lounge is where I would like to have a surround sound set up and from there I would like to get audio through out the home.

I would like to try and keep the system as simple as possible at this stage, although I am open to all suggestions.

All and any help greatly appreciated

CYaBro

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#113791 29-Feb-2008 15:24

Do you have any idea on your budget?

There are a lot of music servers available, where you put in a CD and it rips it to the internal hard drive (getting title/track details from CDDB built in or from the internet,) and depending on how much you spend as to how many zones that server can handle.
Then there is usually a keypad and speakers in each zone to amplify and control the music, volume etc.

There are also wireless systems available like Sonos, which play your music from a computer, MAC, network hard drive etc.
They aren't cheap with systems starting around $2500 for two zones and the wireless controller. You still need to add speakers as well.
The Sonos is an awesome system though and is very easy to use. It gets great reviews on all the audio websites.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

cyril7

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#113811 29-Feb-2008 16:27

Yep Sonos is cool, here is a link to both Sonos and Russound, the Sonos is an IP based media server, whereas the Russound is a central switch and 4zone amplifer with upto 4 control panels. Both system integrate over structured cat5e/6 cabling, although the Russound needs seperate speaker runs.

neither systems are exactly cheap.

Cyril

stuzzo

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#113813 29-Feb-2008 16:30

This is a field which is developing fairly rapidly at the moment especially in the area of remotes to control music with access to the metadata ie track titles, album art etc.

Sonos is a great system which I have auditioned. I just felt the controller is a bit last century, heavy, with a small screen though I guess they will upgrade at some stage. Using Apple Airports is another way but is probably more suited to the person who likes to tinker. This new solution from Logitech also looks interesting: Squeezebox Duet Wireless Digital Player

Home Theatre Receivers max out at about 3 zones. The latest Denons have an optional controller (RC7000) to utilise metadata.

Controllers are starting to come out for Windows Media Centre software and extenders. Not sure whats available in NZ yet.

Other than that there are plenty of commercial solutions such as Control 4.

richms

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#114019 1-Mar-2008 23:56

Sonos will not publish their wireless encryption methods, so it may already be hacked and wide open, it also means that you need to have wifi availability between the zone players and the remote, unless you buy one of their bridges/repeatersto extend it. It will not connect to an exisiting 802.11g WPA network so if the players are all in a closet somewhere then you will have crap coverage to the remotes unless the house is really small.

Richard rich.ms

sheldybro

20 posts

Geek

#114553 4-Mar-2008 13:05

thanks guys for your help, i have been away for a few days, but i think i might scale back a wee bit for the whole house audio as much as i want go the whole system, seems this might blow my budget a wee bit, so instead i might just concentrate on the home theatre in the lounge and then maybe a second zone for music in the dining/family room, and possibly a third for the outdoor area. would like to think i can do this for under $4000, not sure what speakers are worth to put in the walls/cieling for home theatre, but saw a yamaha av reciever which might do what i want.