Hi all,
I'm looking for some good online resources for learning about distributed audio. Let the link-fest begin!
What are you looking to do?
There are dozens or maybe even hundreds of ways to accomplish distributed audio from the cheap (impedence matching volume controls) to the high end (Crestron/Extron). I've taken the high road on this going with Crestron, but have been a part of more typical setups.
With home Ethernet and wi-fi there are now added wireless solutions that can deliver audio to rooms very easily, but the most typical way is still to run speaker wires to the rooms.
My general rundown for new construction:
1. Pick EVERY room you want or MAY POSSIBLY WANT audio in from now until the house is blown away in a tornado. Write it on a list.
2. Run 16/4 or 14/4 speaker wire to all the locations on the list. First run it to a convenient volume control location (by the door for example) then to the two ceiling speaker locations.
3. To the volume control location, run one piece of cat-5 wiring. This may not be used, or may be used for control of the gear, an IR repeater, a control keypad, etc.
4. Pick your level of control, the number of sources, the zone breakout, and the full functionality that you want to achieve in your setup. Each room independent? Control in each room? Rooms zoned together? Multiple surround rooms? etc. You dream it up and write it down, then match it against a price point...
5. Set your price point and match it to your desires. In a setup with 6 stereo zones and all of them independent with 3 different sources you need a proper preamp, switcher, and amplifier setup. Companies like Sonance and Niles make decent boxes that handle all necessary duties to accomplish this for a couple grand (not including speakers!)
A couple grand may not be in your budget so work down and scale your system to match. A few sources through an IR source selector, then to a Sonance 260x3 amplifier can run 12 non-impedence matching volume controls with IR repeaters inside the volume controls to pick the source and adjust the source remotely. Great, just need some universal remotes and speakers and IR embedded volume controls...
Or maybe it's cut and dry simple: One 120 watt amplifier through a manual speaker selector (impedence matching) to several volume controls and up to speakers in the rooms. You gotta start and run everything manually, but it can be done for about 100 bucks a room on the cheap, cheap, cheap side!
Go the other way with something like Crestron and you get full functionality and automation. A single 12 button keypad in every room with up to 8 sources (or more) through a preamp that can then deliver those sources to 8 independent rooms... or stack multiple units to get more rooms. (I use two for 16 rooms) Walk into a room a press 'cable' on the 12 button keypad and the cable box automatically turns on. Press the up arrow and it jumps to your first cable music preset station. Jump on your computer and easily set up your cable, XM, FM, etc. presets. I personally use XM all the time but also have FM, two cable boxes, a dvd player, a dvd 400 disc changer, and my PS3 going through the setup. Probably going to add a digital music server as my 8th and final audio source... for now. All going out to 32 channels of amplification (actually less, I'm not fully utilizing everything yet). Then directly to the speakers in almost every room of my home.
Nifty.
6. Back on topic - put it altogether. It isn't that difficult really once you have a plan, but without the plan, then the headaches can really kick in.
For consideration:
Speakers (pair): $100 quite easily
Volume Control: $70 or so
Amplification (shared): $50
Speaker wire: $25
Speaker selector: $25
Single source: $25
Based on a four zone setup with some shared pricing across rooms it works out to about $295 per room to add distributed audio. Obviously eBay and online can adjust your costs a bit... But, this is for a fairly basic setup.
Mine (MSRP):
Speakers (pair): $325 (sonance symphony 622TR)
Keypads: $260 (Crestron C2N-DBF12W)
Amplification: $200 (Rotel RMB-1048)
Pre-amp: $225 (Crestron Pad-8A)
Control System: $200 (Crestron Pro2)
Sources: $200 (or a lot more... PS3, Sony 400 Disc, Sony DVD, 2 cable boxes (rentals), Crestron XM radio, Crestron FM tuner, etc.)
Cabling: $25 (give or take a bit for Monster CIPRO 16/4)
That works out to what... about $1,435 per room.
No, I didn't spend that much as this is what I do for a living and I know how to work eBay pretty well.
On the other hand, it doesn't include labor... which won't matter for you because I'm sure you are doing it yourself.
