Need help on home audio full house setup

[NickG21]

Hello, I am not sure if this is the proper place to post this, so if not please let me know and i'll be sure to move it.

I recently bought a house that has a whole home sound system in it that was installed 20 years ago. The speakers are Sonance Symphony 8 ohms, there are 5 different volume controls throughout the house, so I imagine 5 zones and there is an old Niles Intellipad input selector in the main bedroom. When the house was purchased all of the stereo equipment was taken with it, so I am left with a bundle of wires coming out of the wall and I am at a loss of how to wire this thing up.

After quite a bit of research and recommendation from the company I purchased a Sonance Sonamp 12-50 Power amplifier to power the system, but I have no idea how to wire up the intellipad to put power to it. I was hoping anyone could point me in the right direction with this. Truth of the matter is, I would actually prefer to get rid of the intellipad as it's basically obsolete these days with bluetooth selectors and wireless options were I to want to go that route.

I'm just looking for some advice if anyone has ran into a similar situation and if there is something I am missing here.
Thank you very much

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello, I am not sure if this is the proper place to post this, so if not please let me know and i'll be sure to move it.

I recently bought a house that has a whole home sound system in it that was installed 20 years ago. The speakers are Sonance Symphony 8 ohms, there are 5 different volume controls throughout the house, so I imagine 5 zones and there is an old Niles Intellipad input selector in the main bedroom. When the house was purchased all of the stereo equipment was taken with it, so I am left with a bundle of wires coming out of the wall and I am at a loss of how to wire this thing up.

After quite a bit of research and recommendation from the company I purchased a Sonance Sonamp 12-50 Power amplifier to power the system, but I have no idea how to wire up the intellipad to put power to it. I was hoping anyone could point me in the right direction with this. Truth of the matter is, I would actually prefer to get rid of the intellipad as it's basically obsolete these days with bluetooth selectors and wireless options were I to want to go that route.

I'm just looking for some advice if anyone has ran into a similar situation and if there is something I am missing here.
Thank you very much

We get these posts again and again. Without being there to trace wires we can not help you. Usually these systems are abysmal installations by builders with no clue how to do it properly.

If you do not know how to do this, then get a professional installer with a good reputation before you blow up your new amp.

Basically we dread these posts and have learned the hard way not to get involved. Get a pro, then you will have redress if it all turns to ashes.

 

[lovinthehd]

We're not much into this sort of setup overall but if anyone can help it'd be @BMXTRIX

 

[BMXTRIX]

So, how do you turn the system on and off without a keypad? You go, find your phone, login, open the app, then can control the system?

Wall controllers, even those which are years old, are still ideal to have in place when basic controls for a space are needed. They aren't the only option these days for sure, and Bluetooth, as nifty as it is, is also very painful and inappropriate for use in the home. Instead, you want to consider whole house audio sources which are connected via Wi-Fi and allow for network integration. These devices are still controlled from a phone, and can receive audio from your phone, but they are completely stand alone products which work even when your phone is powered off, or out of range of Wi-Fi.

As it is, just because you have 5 volume controls, it doesn't really mean that the old owners had five zones. It may just mean that they had a single source to all the rooms and five volume controls to adjust volume in each room.

So, you need to determine what it is you want to listen to and if you want the ability to listen to different things in different rooms at the same time. Having two or three sources hooked up so you can throw a CD on, if you still do that, or having a his/hers setup of networked audio players isn't a bad thing. If you want to pipe cable TV audio into the system, that's an option as well if you want. But, first you determine the actual sources you want to play everywhere.

On the higher end side of things, go with a multi-zone source selector. A model like the Lync 6 from Home Theater Direct is an example:

MCA-66 Set (No Keypads)

Whole-house audio systems you can install yourself and control with smart phones and tablets. All HTD systems include a 30-day guarantee and 5-year warranty.

www.htd.com

You can hook up multiple sources to it, of your choosing, then use your phone to select a source for each room and adjust volume for each room. This makes the volume controls obsolete.
Sources may include up to 6 analog stereo devices like a BlueSound player, or a couple of Sonos players, a CD player, or cable box. Up to six, mix and match, your choice.

Cheaper would be to simply hook up a single source to your amplifier. Like a Sonos or BlueSound product. Replace the Niles keypad with a volume control (if the wiring is there to do so!) and control playback from your phone and adjust volume by walking to each room and turning volume controls up or down as you choose for music playback.

Before buying that very nice amplifier, there were some other options that could have been a bit less money overall, but kind of pointless now because you have the nice multi-channel amplifier. I've used Sonance stuff over the years, and it is really solid equipment. Not inexpensive for sure. Hopefully you didn't buy the 1250 brand new.

 

[NickG21]

So, how do you turn the system on and off without a keypad? You go, find your phone, login, open the app, then can control the system?

Wall controllers, even those which are years old, are still ideal to have in place when basic controls for a space are needed. They aren't the only option these days for sure, and Bluetooth, as nifty as it is, is also very painful and inappropriate for use in the home. Instead, you want to consider whole house audio sources which are connected via Wi-Fi and allow for network integration. These devices are still controlled from a phone, and can receive audio from your phone, but they are completely stand alone products which work even when your phone is powered off, or out of range of Wi-Fi.

As it is, just because you have 5 volume controls, it doesn't really mean that the old owners had five zones. It may just mean that they had a single source to all the rooms and five volume controls to adjust volume in each room.

So, you need to determine what it is you want to listen to and if you want the ability to listen to different things in different rooms at the same time. Having two or three sources hooked up so you can throw a CD on, if you still do that, or having a his/hers setup of networked audio players isn't a bad thing. If you want to pipe cable TV audio into the system, that's an option as well if you want. But, first you determine the actual sources you want to play everywhere.

On the higher end side of things, go with a multi-zone source selector. A model like the Lync 6 from Home Theater Direct is an example:

MCA-66 Set (No Keypads)

Whole-house audio systems you can install yourself and control with smart phones and tablets. All HTD systems include a 30-day guarantee and 5-year warranty.

www.htd.com

You can hook up multiple sources to it, of your choosing, then use your phone to select a source for each room and adjust volume for each room. This makes the volume controls obsolete.
Sources may include up to 6 analog stereo devices like a BlueSound player, or a couple of Sonos players, a CD player, or cable box. Up to six, mix and match, your choice.

Cheaper would be to simply hook up a single source to your amplifier. Like a Sonos or BlueSound product. Replace the Niles keypad with a volume control (if the wiring is there to do so!) and control playback from your phone and adjust volume by walking to each room and turning volume controls up or down as you choose for music playback.

Before buying that very nice amplifier, there were some other options that could have been a bit less money overall, but kind of pointless now because you have the nice multi-channel amplifier. I've used Sonance stuff over the years, and it is really solid equipment. Not inexpensive for sure. Hopefully you didn't buy the 1250 brand new.

Thank you for the writeup, I honestly bought it because the former owners used a Sonance Sonamp 1230 that is not discontinued and the sonamp I purchased is the updated model, so I figured try to mimic the original setup as much as possible.

In regards to removing the intellipad, I have no desire to do that one way or another, my real problem is I don't know how to hook the system up to it. Everything i've read indicates that using the older intellipad requires an IR repeater such as the the Niles IRP6+ which I purchased an old one of for $30 on ebay, but am still not sure how to hook that up to the amp or a receiver in order to use it.

I have tried contacting professionals, but where I live there isn't anyone within 90 minutes that does this kind of work, im in a rural part of Massachusetts and the local pro-audio company closed during the pandemic. I was suggesting removing the intellipad simply because I would directly hook the inputs into the amp as the intellipad is located in the bedroom but the wiring all terminates in the living room where they had their entertainment center.

I guess at the end of the day I was hoping someone might have a similar setup in their home and would be able to give me an idea on the wiring of the whole thing or even just a picture of how their system is wired. I am plenty capable of doing it and am quite knowledgeable of wiring and networking but have never done anything with an in home audio system.

Thanks again!

 

[NickG21]

We get these posts again and again. Without being there to trace wires we can not help you. Usually these systems are abysmal installations by builders with no clue how to do it properly.

If you do not know how to do this, then get a professional installer with a good reputation before you blow up your new amp.

Basically we dread these posts and have learned the hard way not to get involved. Get a pro, then you will have redress if it all turns to ashes.

I've tried to contact some pro there just isn't any options where I live unfortunately. There is no reason to think that there would be anything wrong with the wiring, this house is very well built and was built new in 2001. I appreciate the advice and will keep trying to find some home audio pro to come out and help.
Thank you

 

[BMXTRIX]

In regards to removing the intellipad, I have no desire to do that one way or another, my real problem is I don't know how to hook the system up to it. Everything i've read indicates that using the older intellipad requires an IR repeater such as the the Niles IRP6+ which I purchased an old one of for $30 on ebay, but am still not sure how to hook that up to the amp or a receiver in order to use it.

I guess at the end of the day I was hoping someone might have a similar setup in their home and would be able to give me an idea on the wiring of the whole thing or even just a picture of how their system is wired. I am plenty capable of doing it and am quite knowledgeable of wiring and networking but have never done anything with an in home audio system.

If you have speakers in place, then the HTD system I linked to would be a good direction to go.

As I mentioned, I talked a LOT about your sources and what it is you want to do at the end of all of this. It's not simple enough to say "HOOK IT UP!" - You have to know what you want to do, because that impacts what you buy next.

Single source - same source in all zones?
Multiple source - same source in all zones?
Multiple source - different source in all zones?

The last setup is the most complex, but not all that difficult compared to the first one really. A few more pieces of gear, but it all goes together the same way.

The control portion (Niles) is completely separate from the amplifier. The Sonance 1230 and 1250 are different products. The 1230 is a 12-channel, 30 watts per channel amplifier, while the 1250 is a 12-channel 50 watts per channel amplifier. Both have been available for decades (yes decades). It looks like they discontinued the old analog 1250 amp for a new all-digital 12-50 version of it. I would expect the legacy model to have been better overall, but who am I to really judge? I haven't heard it. I'm sure if you bought it new, you overpaid.

Sonance SONAMP 1250 MKII 12 Channel Power Amplifier | eBay

You are buying a Sonance SONAMP 1250 MKII 12 Channel Power Amplifier. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET.

www.ebay.com

That said, you have a solid amp, and Sonance is in the business of long term reliabile products. So, you can just start off by hooking all your speakers up to the back of the amplifier and plugging a source (like a phone) into your amplifier and playing audio back. Instead of US showing you photos of our setup, it makes WAY more sense for you to show us photos of what YOU are dealing with. Our setups are irrelevant. I mean, seriously... does this really help you?

So here we go... 24+ A/V Zones w/10 Sources

This past year I moved. My old home was pretty well setup, but didn't have any land and with young kids it was time for a new home a lot closer to my office. So, here I am, less than a mile from my office, with some land for the kids, but my old home A/V system left behind. You know what...

forums.audioholics.com

Probably not.

So, you do need to describe your setup a bit more. And you can definitely get audio going today if you wanted to. A single speaker gets connected to each channel of the amplifier. If wiring is industry standard 4-conductor, then red is + and black is - for the right speaker in a room and white is + and green is - for the left speaker in the same room. But you should pull out the volume control in a room and confirm that is how it was wired. You don't want to blow it up.

Then wire it to the back of the 12-50 that way.

Plug a source, like a phone with a 1/8" to RCA adapter into the amplifier and turn it on with low volume to begin with. Volume controls can be turned up in the rooms.

You said you have 5 volume controls, but you didn't mention the number of speakers or if the bedroom with the Niles also had a volume control in it. So, we are still missing information.

I would get on the phone and post from your phone taking lots of photos, or try some other way so we can see photos of what you are dealing with.