mono or stereo for whole house audio

[rockdoctor54]

I am wiring my house for stereo in 12 rooms-thats 24 speakers. If I use only 12 and set it up as mono how will the sound be for just cruising around the house listening to XM radio or a CD. Has anyone experience with mono listening in this kind of setting.

I have a big honking Carver with 1000 watts/channel mono and 600 watts/ch @ 4 ohms. I looking at the Yamaha NS-IW760 2-Way In-Wall Speakers rated @ 6 ohms. The are supposed to sound great and cost only $44 each...BIG SAVINGS overall with 12 such speakers.
Thanks

 

[jaxvon]

Mono will sound fine for background music around the house. If you plan on distributing audio to any specific stereo setup where you would be looking to sit down or actually enjoy listening for its own sake, then you might want to have secondary stereo feed for that. But if it's just going to be background, mono will be the way to go (IMO of course).

 

[rockdoctor54]

Thanks for the support. The 12 speakers I'm looking at (because of cost and supposed good sound reproduction) will be much easier for the Carver to handle in bridged mono at some 1000 or 1200 watts @ 8 ohms. 24 speakers is pushing it no matter how I configure a series/parallel wiring. I have ample equipment for the HT in the Living room. If can talk my wife into ditching the Bose surround system for my Klipsch Cornwalls and Heresy's hooked to my Sony GX-800...now we're talking.