Building a whole-home audio system...need advice

B

BrazenAudio

Audiophyte
Hi all,

I am building a home audio system, 6 rooms. I know this will probably not be possible, but my ideal goal would be to:
-Be able to have multiple sources of audio
-Be able to route any source into any room or rooms
-Ideally, accept audio from a PC/tablet/phone through a wifi/data connection

I know this is technically possible, but may require a PC with custom software running to handle audio coming from over the network; and software running on any PC/wifi/device that I want to send sound from. What I dont know is whether there is any pre-built solutions that already can do this; I would rather have that than something I build myself.

I see this as possibly two different components. First; a PC to receive and manage all audio streams coming from network devices; and second a receiver connected to that PC's sound card outputs which drives the speakers.

This is my first attempt at doing something like this, so I really dont know what is out there. Is there anything else out there that may make this task easier? Any hardware out there that possibly does some of these things? I have seen multi-room receivers, but everything seems to require analog inputs and can not take any type of digital signal coming from the local network.

Thanks all
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
There are tons of whole house audio distribution systems that are out there. The main thing you need to do is actually get the wiring from a central location to the rooms and plan your speakers out accordingly. You also need to decide if you want to put keypads in the room so you have local control, or if you want to force people to go to their phones every single time they want to adjust volume or turn the system on or off or change a source.

Niles, Nuvo, Russound, Crestron, and others also have been making distributed audio systems for YEARS, even decades.

The most common configuration is the 4-6 source system with 6 rooms. So, 12 channel amplifiers combined with a 4x6 pre-amp/amp setup.

Be aware that I recommend at least one Sonos Connect type device as part of the system as that offers excellent stand-alone capabilities for network streaming and playback from a phone through the network. Bluetooth is NOT a networked device and if you go out of range with your phone, you will lose audio. They are fine for in-room use, but not for whole house audio use. Networked solution like Sonos are significantly better.

For reference... I have gone a bit further with things...
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
The Google Home devices have allowed me a sort of Whole Home Audio solution in that I can tell it to play a song and it will play on my chosen player. Some rooms it's the Google Home device, some it's the main audio system that could be hooked to a TV. Highly configurable depending on need.

My needs are pretty basic in that area so it works well for me. A networked solution is a must.
 
B

BrazenAudio

Audiophyte
Thanks for the advice BMXTRIX and panteragstk. Im currently renovating my place and installing the speaker wires from my receiver location to each room. I do want to have 6 zones/rooms.

I will look into those brands you listed BMXTRIX. I also am installing network ports in each room; I know some controllers work from ethernet.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Make sure that if you want local control in the room for volume and such that you pull a network cable to a keypad location. I put them by the doors (as my link shows) and it gives one-touch availability to the system from within the room. It's worth saying that I also have hand held remote controls and iPhone and iPad control available for my home. But, my setup is a bit over the top. :D
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
What dvd unit do you have now, assume it's some sort of all-in-one amp thing if it can power speakers? What speakers? What's your budget? Should really start your own thread, too.

You can advance run speaker wire, suggest you use properly rated in-wall speaker wire and run it in conduits. Something like this https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2817

1/ Yes you will likely need an additional amplifier....or a different base unit to start.

2/3 You envision a single speaker in 5 or 6 rooms or 3 pair in 3 rooms or ? Some use a manual volume control for each room (which would increase needs of advance wiring). With zones and the right amp you could conceivably control things over your wifi with an app otoh.

4/ With a good central unit you plug all your various sources in and simply make selections (and again wifi would be probably the easiest way to do such). I'd never want to need to manually plug in a different source. That could be a limitation of your current gear, tho.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Hi, i am moving into a new house in a few weeks and would like to install a 'simple' home audio system. I dont know much about this sort of thing and so any help would be appreciated.

The house is not complete yet and so while the wiring is going on i want to take this oppertunity to install any necesary audio wiring while i have the chance.

In my living room i will be running speaker wire to my 5.1 surround sound system straight from the dvd player. I would like to add 5 or 6 other speakers in different rooms to this system which i can use to play music throughout the house when people come round and for parties etc...

Questions...
1. How would i go about adding speakers to my system, would i need an amplifier and how would i go about wiring them...?

2. Is there an easy way to control the volume of each speaker seperately For example could i have quiet background music across the house but louder in the living room?

3. If i wanted to control the music from anywhere in the house how would i go about doing this? Would an IR to RF to IR range extender be sufficient to work across two floors?

4. If i want to change the audio source is this easily done? For example if i wanted to change my input from a cd player to the TV audio can i just unplug the CD player from the amp and Plug in the TV audio output or is it not that simple?

Apologies if for any obvious questions but this is all new to me.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
FIRST: Please look up these two terms... Necrobump and Threadjacking

To answer your question, there are many ways to handle whole house audio. But, you want to leave enough space for the equipment that is needed. Make sure the cabinet the equipment is going into is nice and deep and is at least 23" wide so you can get to everything inside of it. Bonus points if you can slide the entire equipment cabinet out and work on the stuff inside of it. AV gear can take up a shocking amount of room and needs proper airflow to cool it. Anything with a sealed front door is an immediate non-starter as you will fry all the gear. Exceptions for spaces like a closet where you can add some air in and out flow of air.

For wiring, you want to decide early on if you want to invest a bit more and maybe have button controllers in each room of your home, or volume controls in each room of your home. A button controller is just that. It allows volume control and source select along with on/off control from a keypad located in each room that you have a speaker pair. The main unit lives back at the equipment location (called the head end). A typical button controller can be run off of standard network cabling (cat-6). So, you run cat-6 to each keypad location in each room. I typically would put the keypad location by the light switch to the room by the door. This is one of the 'best' overall options and also the most expensive. A complete amplifier, keypads, etc. are something like this...
https://www.htd.com/Lync-6v3-Set

Another option is to use volume only controllers in each room. This would require a single amplifier a speaker selector box, and impedance matching volume controls which are placed in each room. Speaker wire would run to the volume control location in each room, then up to the speakers in the room. This is far less money, and you can use a source selector at the head end to switch between sources more easily instead of having to rewire stuff.

The wiring to the speakers is pretty simple. I would use 14/4 wiring for everything. That's 14 gauge, 4 conductor wiring from the head end, to the volume control location, then another piece of 14 gauge cabling to each speaker with TWO speakers (stereo) in each room. Speakers shouldn't be that expensive, at about $75 each, so $150 a pair maximum. Four rooms, that's $600. It's nothing in the grand scheme of things. But, the wiring has to be there and ready to go. All wiring should be run from the head end location. A speaker only needs two conductors to work. A positive and a negative wire. So, running that 4 conductor wiring gives you enough for two speakers to work properly. This is also what volume controls were designed to handle easily. It's also what whole house audio distribution units, like the one linked above and designed to work with.

THE RUB

Surround sound is not stereo and stereo is not surround sound. This is, IMO, a massive issue. But, many modern AV receivers do allow for a zone 2 output which matches the main zone and will convert the surround sound in the main zone to stereo for the second zone. This means that if you're watching TV in a main area with surround sound wiring all in place (14 gauge) and you choose to listen to the same thing out on the deck, or in the garage, or whatever, you can turn on zone 2 on the AV receiver, set it to the same source, and listen to it throughout your home easily.

Stereo audio distribution can also be handled by streaming devices, like Sonos, which offer amplification and source streaming, which is pretty cool, but gets kind of expensive, kind of quickly and you don't necessarily get the flexibility of a single whole house audio system.

I've run 20+ zones of audio in my home for the last decade without any real problems. Watching TV in multiple areas and listening to music wherever. I use a single Sonos unit that's tied into my audio distribution, but can listen to anything I want to from cable television boxes to my Roku streaming boxes to my Blu-ray Disc player if I want to. Just a touch of a button to get things going.
So here we go... 24+ A/V Zones w/10 Sources | Audioholics Home Theater Forums

I have found one gripe is that the stereo audio is sometimes just out of sync with the surround sound audio, and this delay can be a bit irritating at times. We also really love having headphones hooked up to the whole house audio system. That way we can listen wirelessly to anything we want without blasting music through speakers. That's become a primary way for us to enjoy general television viewing in any room at a listening level that we enjoy. Especially nice when doing tasks like dishes where the TV would need to be cranked to hear clearly over the running water.
 
T

Trebdp83

Audioholic Ninja
Hi, i am moving into a new house in a few weeks and would like to install a 'simple' home audio system. I dont know much about this sort of thing and so any help would be appreciated.

The house is not complete yet and so while the wiring is going on i want to take this oppertunity to install any necesary audio wiring while i have the chance.

In my living room i will be running speaker wire to my 5.1 surround sound system straight from the dvd player. I would like to add 5 or 6 other speakers in different rooms to this system which i can use to play music throughout the house when people come round and for parties etc...

Questions...
1. How would i go about adding speakers to my system, would i need an amplifier and how would i go about wiring them...?

2. Is there an easy way to control the volume of each speaker seperately For example could i have quiet background music across the house but louder in the living room?

3. If i wanted to control the music from anywhere in the house how would i go about doing this? Would an IR to RF to IR range extender be sufficient to work across two floors?

4. If i want to change the audio source is this easily done? For example if i wanted to change my input from a cd player to the TV audio can i just unplug the CD player from the amp and Plug in the TV audio output or is it not that simple?

Apologies if for any obvious questions but this is all new to me.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
What is your current 5.1 system exactly?
 

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