Niles Substitute

[dmbgamer]

My GXR2 based system appears to be failing. The individual touchpads are powered but not functioning to control each zone. Currently, only one zone has a functioning touchpad. I have done a couple of soft resets that helped bring the one working touchpad back to life. This is second time in recent months that this problem has occurred. Based on my internet research (combined with my recent stay at a holiday inn express), it appears that there are few options to replace the GXR2 except buy a used on on EBay.

I am ready to move on if I can find a reasonable cost solution ~$2000 - $2500.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I am a Sonos user and currently have a Connect unit plugged into the Niles unit and I has worked beautifully for several years.

I am a novice with audio but reasonably tech confident.

Or, do I need to bite the bullet and have an audio solutions firm help me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[highfigh]

My GXR2 based system appears to be failing. The individual touchpads are powered but not functioning to control each zone. Currently, only one zone has a functioning touchpad. I have done a couple of soft resets that helped bring the one working touchpad back to life. This is second time in recent months that this problem has occurred. Based on my internet research (combined with my recent stay at a holiday inn express), it appears that there are few options to replace the GXR2 except buy a used on on EBay.

I am ready to move on if I can find a reasonable cost solution ~$2000 - $2500.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I am a Sonos user and currently have a Connect unit plugged into the Niles unit and I has worked beautifully for several years.

I am a novice with audio but reasonably tech confident.

Or, do I need to bite the bullet and have an audio solutions firm help me.

Thanks in advance.

Most control manufacturers don't sell to the general public in part because they receive enough calls to tech support already. I have discussed this with RTi, URC and C4- none wants to give up the licenses and software, regardless of the fact that many people in the wild are more qualified as programmers.

Look for a Custom Integrator, not an audio company.

 

[BMXTRIX]

What specifically are you looking for? How many rooms have audio which is fed through the Niles system? 4? 10? 20?

I use a custom integrated system from Crestron with about 20 zones of audio distributed in my place, and it uses about 20 year old gear without any issues at all.

If you are just looking to get audio into a few rooms, and the speakers are fine, then you can use something like a Sonos AMP to feed those rooms and it will get you audio out to them as kind of a drop in replacement for the Niles. You would pull all the keypads and just use the app to control the zones.

If you want to keep your single Sonos as the primary source, then consider something like this:

Monoprice 6-Zone Home Audio Multizone Controller and Amplifier Kit, NO LOGO - Monoprice.com

Distribute and control music and other audio material to up to six stereo speaker zones using this 6‑Zone Home Audio Multizone Controller and Amplifier.This multizone controller is a 6x6 matrix

www.monoprice.com

You can change the keypads out from the Niles, for the ones included in the product, and it will power up to 6 stereo zones in a home at a very reasonable price.

Other options are out there like those from Home Theater Direct...

Whole-House Audio | HTD

Whole-house audio systems you can install yourself and control with keypads and smart devices. All HTD electronics include a 30-day guarantee, 2-year warranty.

www.htd.com

So, you have DiY choices you can go with that will swap in one-for-one pretty easily I expect.

 

[dmbgamer]

Here is my wish list in order of importance:
1. Ability to use existing speakers and wiring for all speakers/zones
2. Control music selection in all rooms with Sonos which I currently do. I do not need ability to play different music in zones. Same music in all zones is ok.
3. Control volume in each zone.This is probably not necessary as I could set a base volume on receiver and adjust slightly with volume via Sonos app.

 

[highfigh]

Here is my wish list in order of importance:
1. Ability to use existing speakers and wiring for all speakers/zones
2. Control music selection in all rooms with Sonos which I currently do. I do not need ability to play different music in zones. Same music in all zones is ok.
3. Control volume in each zone.This is probably not necessary as I could set a base volume on receiver and adjust slightly with volume via Sonos app.

My GXR2 based system appears to be failing. The individual touchpads are powered but not functioning to control each zone. Currently, only one zone has a functioning touchpad. I have done a couple of soft resets that helped bring the one working touchpad back to life. This is second time in recent months that this problem has occurred. Based on my internet research (combined with my recent stay at a holiday inn express), it appears that there are few options to replace the GXR2 except buy a used on on EBay.

I am ready to move on if I can find a reasonable cost solution ~$2000 - $2500.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I am a Sonos user and currently have a Connect unit plugged into the Niles unit and I has worked beautifully for several years.

I am a novice with audio but reasonably tech confident.

Or, do I need to bite the bullet and have an audio solutions firm help me.

Thanks in advance.

Remove one of the keypads- if you see speaker cable, you could replace the keypads with volume controls, replace the GXR2 with a power amp and use whatever streaming source you want. You need power amplification that will serve the number of channels you have.

Find the ethernet cable that corresponds to the zone that works and connect it to the other ports on the GXR2- if that keypad still controls each zone, connect one of the zone control keypads to see if it will function the speakers that had been working.

You should be able to remove the working keypad and move it to any other zone, to test the GXR2's operation. If you want to limit your walking distance, you can connect it at the GXR2 and use a regular ethernet cable, then turn the system on and see if it works on each zone.

Also, if you have a multimeter, check the resistance on the speakers to each zone by unplugging the speaker wires. If you see any odd numbers, find out why- you may need to remove speakers in order to check them directly. If you saw something other than 6-7 Ohms on 8 Ohm speakers and the speaker checked out OK, re-measure from the head end- if you see a problem, it will need to be addressed.

You can check the ethernet cables, too- a basic tester isn't expensive since you're not testing network speed.

 

[dmbgamer]

Great advice! Thank you

 

[BMXTRIX]

Here is my wish list in order of importance:
1. Ability to use existing speakers and wiring for all speakers/zones
2. Control music selection in all rooms with Sonos which I currently do. I do not need ability to play different music in zones. Same music in all zones is ok.
3. Control volume in each zone.This is probably not necessary as I could set a base volume on receiver and adjust slightly with volume via Sonos app.

How many zones? This is something I asked before, and continues to be of major importance. Twenty rooms will cost a lot more than 4-6 rooms.

Either way, I'm expecting that because of the design of the Niles system, that the keypads in each room have cat-5 (network) cabling run to them, which means the products that I linked to from Monoprice and HTD will both just drop in as replacements and give you source and volume selection in each room and you can connect your Sonos to them just fine with local volume control as well as iOS or Android control as listed on the product web page.

I'm not a huge fan of integrated amps with distributed audio systems as amplifiers tend to have a bit of a shelf life, while low-voltage source switching, if properly built, can last for far longer.

 

[dmbgamer]

After I turned the unit off for several hours., touchpads in 5 of the 6 zones are working. All have power but one has no text showing on the main selection screen.

I am guessing that the card that controls touchpads in the amplifier/controller is failing?