I Need Your Help! What's my setup?

[fateshand]

I don't know much about home audio set ups and I'm trying to help my parents get the perfect set up at thier house. Right now they have a Yamaha HTR 5640 receiver http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=200185&CTID=5000400.

The goal is to be able to send music to three different locations, the living room (main room), the kitchen, and the outside deck. Preferably I would like to be able to decide which rooms receive music (A,B,C,A+B,A+C,B+C,A+B+C, etc.). I am not terribly concerned about having multiple sources (different sources to different rooms). I would be content with the same source to all three rooms as long as I could control the listening volume in each room separately.

Thank you so much for your help and recommendations. I look forward to your suggestions.

Gavin

Oh yah, do they make wireless speakers that are any good? The outside deck is kind of far from the house and wired speakers might be difficult.

 

[MDS]

You would need to purchase a speaker selector and/or impedance matching volume controls. The IM volume controls would be necessary if the speaker selector doesn't have impedance matching capabilities or if you don't use a speaker selector and just wire all of the speakers in parallel with the speakers in the main room.

I can't tell from the web page if that receiver has a zone 2 capability but if it does things are a tad easier. You'd wire the patio and deck speakers together using IM volume controls and use the zone 2 speaker binding posts on the receiver. Your three zones would really be two - main room and the 'zone 2' which would be both the patio and deck. You could have different sources between main and zone 2 but both the patio and deck would play the same source. The IM volume controls would allow you to control the volume level separately for the patio and deck.

 

[fateshand]

Thanks for the reply. So both the speaker selector and the IM would allow me to control the volume levels to each room? Also, I think you mis-understood me a little bit. I would need a three room setup because I would have a living room (main), a kitchen, and a deck. Once again, I am fine with only one source but I would need to be able to control the volume to each room separately.

 

[whitestone]

Yes with what MDS said. With a speaker controller with enough zones you will be able to control the volume in each area.

 

[fateshand]

I guess my last question would be in regards to power. The main room would be a 6.1 surround, the kitchen would be two speakers and the deck would be probably 4 speakers. Do I loose a lot of power (volume) to the speakers with this many speakers hooked up to the receiver?

 

[MDS]

The impedance matching volume controls make sure the receiver sees a load it can handle so that you do not lose power. You'll have to make sure you get volume controls that can be set to the impedance you need and that depends on how many speakers.

By the way, I was with you on the number of zones. I was just saying that if the receiver has a zone 2 feature you can consider the patio and the deck as a single zone and wire those two rooms in parallel with IM volume controls. You then wouldn't have to do anything for the main room.

 

[Seth=L]

The HTR-5640 does not have Zone 2 features.

The impedance matching speaker selector (preferably one with independent level controls) would probably fit the bill.

Sima makes some 4 way speaker selectors that can accept 2 amplifiers and has independent level adjustments for each pair of speakers. They can range from $100 to over $200. I had one and it was very nice, I just didn't have much use for it in an apartment.

 

[fateshand]

Thanks for all of the responses guys. I really appreciate it. Ok my Dad just told me that he also had a Monster SS4 speaker selector. It has a button on it for "Amplification Protection." Does this take care of my impedance issues?