Hey Guys!!! I'm new to Whole Home Audio (WHA) systems so forgive my ignorance. I talked to a friend and he said that I should reach out to the professions on the Audioholics forum.
So... Here I go... I have researched for weeks and thought I had exactly what I wanted for my WHA. I purchased the 6 zone Soundavo WS66I... Looks and sounds great but for the money I think I was expecting a bit more. Not sure if it's common for an Amplifier to not go to standby mode and always be powered on... but I didn't like that. I can connect and control it with the App but I was wanting to control it with SMART voice commands (Alexa or Google Home). Doesn't seem that I can without setting up a bunch of TRIGGERcmd commands that call RS232 commands via batch files. Also the WS66I comes with two streamers... causing you to control the Amp with a different app than the Streamers (neither app is controllable with Alexa/Google Home)... but you can't even turn off the streamers even if all the zones are off. So the streamers constantly stream and pull from the network all day long. Not a big deal... just not ideal and seems like a waste of bandwidth and electricity. The keypads are awesome (Cat5e connected)... but they don't control the music (like next song) only ON/OFF, volume, zone, bass, treble. Not sure if pads can even do what I want. (Shrug).
Anyway... the reason why I'm here is I think I'm going to return the Soundavo Amp and I'm looking for a replacement and need some advice to replace it. Budget is being re-evaluated because it seems like I'm going to have to spend more to get what I want.
Here is a wish list if anyone is kind enough to assist with their professional opinion.
1. Must be SMART home compatible (Alexa/Google Home)
2. 12 Channels (Minimum)
3. 3-6 zones (3 Minimum)
4. Centralized Amp (all zones in single location)
5. Mobile App for Control
6. Key Pad Option (Preferred)
Thanks in advance!!!
