I am helping my Parents install a home theatre

[Omega Man]

n a new house they just built. This house is a 3 story, 9300 ft.² The main home theater setup will be in the great room. We will probably be utilizing a Denon 3805 receiver for the surround sound in this room. we want to provide music to the rest of the house. Is it practical to use this receiver for that purpose? Is there a web site or book that I can use as reference material for this project? we are also going to be putting an intercom through out the house.
the contractor on the project wrote me this e-mail

I have been
talking with a supplier who helped us with the wiring of the clinic's
music system, which was a 70 volt system, that we could put numerous
speakers on, in numerous locations, all having individual volume
controls. I am tossing about some sort of zoning idea, or the
individual controls, which may work better, but, am not decided yet,
and looking for input suggestions, if you have them.

what opinions do you have on this? Thanks in advance.

 

[BMXTRIX]

70 volt is garbage. It is used by large institutions for public address systems... Like your old high school. Even with decent speakers (70v) they aren't that great sounding for music.

8 ohm speakers from companies like SpeakerCraft and Sonance are the way to go.

If a 'pro' recommended 70v to you, then you are DEFINITELY working with a person who knows nothing about audio quality and how to do distributed audio systems.

Sonace (www.sonance.com) has multi-channel amps, speakers, speaker selectors, whole house audio systems, keypads, volume controls, etc. Also check Niles and Speakercraft websites. Great info there, and actually designed around quality.

IS THE HOUSE BUILT?

If the house was new construction, and the wires were not already run, then expect the cost of running the wires to be about 3 times the price of running them during construction, plus the cost of drywall repair and painting.

I would suggest you contact a custom A/V company in your area if you haven't already and at least speak to them.

Where do you live exactly - perhaps you can get some recommendations here.

 

[Omega Man]

This house is still in the construction phrase. They will probably be doing the drywall within the next three weeks. I really appreciate your reply. They are located in a very remote area of the Smoky Mountains. It turns out I am their conduit for this knowledge. They want to put music in every room and if possible bring in the ability to use those speakers in an intercom system, but this is not a must. I take it from your post that it will not be possible to use a large receiver like a Denon 3805 and run audio cables all over the house. What you're telling me is there will have to be boost up amplifiers at different levels of the House in order to amplify the signal correctly. If that is correct and the cost of the systems you are recommending are prohibitive, we may just go with six or seven different small home theater in a box systems for select areas.
any feedback you can provide on my assertions are greatly appreciated.