Whole house audio...Sonos or...?

[Audiocd]

So I have been researching some on whole house audio setups. I want to do the simplest cheapest reasonable setup. In a previous home I was happy with speakers in the main bathroom, kitchen, patio and living room. Now my needs are a bit more expansive but not by much. I have recently discovered the SOnos system and by most accounts it works very well wirelessly. I live in a typical mid entry home with a main system in the living room run by the onkyo tx-8050 which has zone 2 capabilties. I'm considering running wired speakers to the patio and master bath with wall volume controls via a second reciever in the living room run off of zone 2 of the Onkyo. That still leaves the master bedroom and downstairs den area and possibly the garage.
I already have the Onkyo 609 AVR in the den which I attempted to connect to the upstairs living room by a 35ft RCA stereo cable but the sound loss was a bit too much for me. This would have allowed me to use the 609 system for the den and garage.

How long is the longest you guys would run an RCA? Are there high quality cables that reduce signal loss?

Should I just forget the hardwired speakers and start investing in Sonos? I could probably get by with hardwired patio speakers + three sonos zones. The more I research the more technical and expensive people get with this stuff. I want to keep this as straight forward and simple as possible.

Thanks

Jon

 

[ImcLoud]

How easy is it to run cable through your house, some houses are tougher than others to retrofit? If its not too bad, I would hard wire it all, the cable is cheap the results are better {IMO}... Sonos has its positives though... Cost wise its probably about the same to hardwire then buy all them sonos players...
Even if you buy a separate amp for zone two like the apa150 {on sale for $125}, then add a monoprice selector $50-, 6 volume controls $120, speakers $300, cable $100, ect you will be under $700... ALthough the sonos units are convenient, I like it built in...

As far as running rcas a long way, I wouldn't go more than 15 feet, I would convert to xlr for long runs sweetwater sells pretty much everything you would need to do it.....

 

[Nestor]

You can run audio over cat5 cable with a pair of baluns.

They are passive, and they're rated for up to 1km, so 35 ft shouldn't be a problem.

I have a couple pairs of them and they work great.

Look to pay about 90 bucks/pair at smarthome.com.

 

[Audiocd]

You can run audio over cat5 cable with a pair of baluns.

They are passive, and they're rated for up to 1km, so 35 ft shouldn't be a problem.

I have a couple pairs of them and they work great.

Look to pay about 90 bucks/pair at smarthome.com.

Cool, thanks for the advice! Now I can connect my downstairs stereo and run some speakers to the garage and maybe laundry room off zone 2 on it.

Thanks, Imcloud. For some reason I tend to favor the hard wired setup too. I think I will go that route.

The house won't be too hard to wire. Decent attic access and built in 1985 so no plaster walls.

 

[Nestor]

Sounds like you're doing something similar to me.

I've compiled my experiences in my Pros'n'Joes thread starting here . Maybe something in there will be of assistance to you in deciding your final course of action.

 

[Irishman]

So I have been researching some on whole house audio setups. I want to do the simplest cheapest reasonable setup. In a previous home I was happy with speakers in the main bathroom, kitchen, patio and living room. Now my needs are a bit more expansive but not by much. I have recently discovered the SOnos system and by most accounts it works very well wirelessly. I live in a typical mid entry home with a main system in the living room run by the onkyo tx-8050 which has zone 2 capabilties. I'm considering running wired speakers to the patio and master bath with wall volume controls via a second reciever in the living room run off of zone 2 of the Onkyo. That still leaves the master bedroom and downstairs den area and possibly the garage.
I already have the Onkyo 609 AVR in the den which I attempted to connect to the upstairs living room by a 35ft RCA stereo cable but the sound loss was a bit too much for me. This would have allowed me to use the 609 system for the den and garage.

How long is the longest you guys would run an RCA? Are there high quality cables that reduce signal loss?

Should I just forget the hardwired speakers and start investing in Sonos? I could probably get by with hardwired patio speakers + three sonos zones. The more I research the more technical and expensive people get with this stuff. I want to keep this as straight forward and simple as possible.

Thanks

Jon

If you're going the wireless route, it really does start and stop with Sonos. No need at this time to consider anything else.

 

[flyboylr45]

I just had my house wired for 6 zones. I bought a 12 channel amplifier from Parts Express and use it connected to a Sonos. In my case, I won't be using cds while running the house audio. Using Sonos you have access to MOG (awesome 320kbps streaming-near cd quality), Pandora, radio stations and a ton more. I actually ordered 3 more Sonos for my main music room and the living room system I'm thinking of building. It's extremely easy to use and can be run with an iPhone, Android, iPad, ect.