Hey I need help setting up Zone Control

T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
Hey so I have a Tascam Pa-r100 and just bought a Ultralink TS-8 for Zones, on the back of my receiver is has RCA inputs for 'zone 2' and on the back of the Ultralink is normal speaker wire plug in, now I was told to buy a RCA cable, cut it and put the inside cable to the positive insert on the zone box, and the negative to black but I did this and have no sound from my speakers when I click the button for the zone, help would be appreciated, thanks
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Hey so I have a Tascam Pa-r100 and just bought a Ultralink TS-8 for Zones, on the back of my receiver is has RCA inputs for 'zone 2' and on the back of the Ultralink is normal speaker wire plug in, now I was told to buy a RCA cable, cut it and put the inside cable to the positive insert on the zone box, and the negative to black but I did this and have no sound from my speakers when I click the button for the zone, help would be appreciated, thanks
I don't know enough to really offer advice for your situation, but cutting an rca and splitting up the pos and neg doesn't sound like the way to go to me. You could just buy something like this instead. I'd wait for a few more replies just to make sure you're not building a fire though. :p

*Edit: I just noticed I linked female adaptors. They sell the male adaptors as well.
 
T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
Okay I called a local store and they actually told me to cut one and just use that for the speaker wire input but it didn't work, I will probably try one of those but if they don't work I'm really stuck on this problem
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai

You’re getting some pathetically bad advice from that place. The Ultralink is a speaker-level switch. You can’t drive it with a line-level signal.

You need an outboard amplifier for the Zone 2 speakers. It will get a signal from the TASCAM’s Zone 2 outputs. The Ultra link will connect to the amplifier with speaker wire.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
You’re getting some pathetically bad advice from that place. The Ultralink is a speaker-level switch. You can’t drive it with a line-level signal.

You need an outboard amplifier for the Zone 2 speakers. It will get a signal from the TASCAM’s Zone 2 outputs. The Ultra link will connect to the amplifier with speaker wire.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
Could you link me to this outboard amplifier? I'm not sure what I'm looking for? Thanks
 
T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
Anyone know a good type of outboard/external amplifier? I'd love to get this Zone2 thing working
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
If you don't mind the industrial look the Crown XLS amps are a good way to go.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
You can't typically drive speaker selectors with more than about 100 watts per channel. This one claims about 200 watts, then confuses itself back to 100... So, hard to be sure.

I would use an amplifier like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonance-275-SE-2-channel-amplifier-/232343014015?hash=item3618b90a7f:g:1tIAAOSwhvFZDeJy

You can see in the photos the standard RCA inputs, and then the amplified speaker outputs on the back.

How do you intend to control volume in all those places? You typically need volume controls in line to allow for volume to be adjusted up/down in every location.

Personally, I would likely have gotten a speaker selector/volume control integrated unit which does the same thing as what you have, but adds volume control for the different audio zones.
 
T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
You can't typically drive speaker selectors with more than about 100 watts per channel. This one claims about 200 watts, then confuses itself back to 100... So, hard to be sure.

I would use an amplifier like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonance-275-SE-2-channel-amplifier-/232343014015?hash=item3618b90a7f:g:1tIAAOSwhvFZDeJy

You can see in the photos the standard RCA inputs, and then the amplified speaker outputs on the back.

How do you intend to control volume in all those places? You typically need volume controls in line to allow for volume to be adjusted up/down in every location.

Personally, I would likely have gotten a speaker selector/volume control integrated unit which does the same thing as what you have, but adds volume control for the different audio zones.
Probably just have it the same sound level as the receiver, dont think adjusting zone volume will be a big deal for us
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Probably just have it the same sound level as the receiver, dont think adjusting zone volume will be a big deal for us
I wasn't thinking about a speaker selector, thinking for some reason it was just an outboard amp off the receiver. If the speakers are all the same sensitivity then volume could be uniform, but otherwise....
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
Probably just have it the same sound level as the receiver, dont think adjusting zone volume will be a big deal for us
I'm going thru something similar with speakers thru out the house and BMX helped me out. Knows his s-it imo.

My thoughts.

It looks like you have a 5 channel AVR that has RCA jacks for 1 extra zone...L & R for 1 pair of speakers in this zone. You have the Ultra link, which is a speaker selector. You need power for zone 2.

I think you need an external amp to connect to your AVR to power zone 2...unless you are trying to connect more than one pair of speakers in zone 2, you don't need the Ultra link.

Connect the new amp to the AVR via the RCA jacks in zone 2, connect speakers to the new amp and zone 2 should work.

From looking at the remote on your AVR it gives you some level of control over zone 2....most likely source, volume, on/off.

Depending on the type amp you get, you could get more "faux zones" out of this system and that's how the Ultra link will come into play as a switcher. If you also wanted volume control over these "faux zones" there are devices similar to what you bought.

Something like this.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8232

Good luck with it.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Probably just have it the same sound level as the receiver, dont think adjusting zone volume will be a big deal for us
Large rooms need far more volume than small rooms. A bathroom with speakers run at the same volume as a bedroom, for example will be very loud vs. good. Then a kitchen, which is open to the house, may be pretty quiet in comparison.

If you already purchased this speaker selector already, then it really makes no sense to return it and get the volume control speaker selectors like those listed above, but you may really decide you want them in the long run.

You really just need a decent external amplifier, and make sure you turn on speaker protection.
 
T

Tyler95

Audiophyte
Large rooms need far more volume than small rooms. A bathroom with speakers run at the same volume as a bedroom, for example will be very loud vs. good. Then a kitchen, which is open to the house, may be pretty quiet in comparison.

If you already purchased this speaker selector already, then it really makes no sense to return it and get the volume control speaker selectors like those listed above, but you may really decide you want them in the long run.

You really just need a decent external amplifier, and make sure you turn on speaker protection.
Yeah all the speakers are in big open rooms so it actually works out good, personally i dont think volume will be a problem but if it is now i know what to do if we change our mind, thanks for the help! I will probably buy that amp you linked me too on eBay
 

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