I couldn't find any competing products, How else can I get my BT signal from the garage to the server room where the receiver/amp lives? I don't want audio gear in my garage, kitchen, or deck.
I have zero interest in talking to my home. But THAT seems like lower quality than I am after. I want crystal clear sound. The system must be hum-free enough I can't hear it while laying in bed at night with the system powered on. I don't plan on shutting it down and powering it on every day. So class-D appeals to me because it's efficient.
Well complicated is undesirable, but definitely not beyond me. A single receiver would be ideal if it can connect to my wife's phone in the kitchen and play her music, and connect to my phone in the garage, and play me different music at a different volume. It should have remote Bluetooth antennas though, BT isn't going to penetrate all the walls from all directions into the server room.
There's no real budget, but it's going to take some convincing for me to spend more than $1000 per zone.
Ah, the question of where to put the speakers. I had speakers in the ceiling of my last home. It was nice, but because they pointed downward, there was weird coverage. When you were under the right-channel, you heard only the right channel. As you walked, the distances changed from each and they were out-of-phase. So I determined in-wall could solve this by sending the audio ACROSS the room. And the L/R would be on the same wall so speed-of-sound wouldn't be an issue. Stand alone is an option, but I think audio equipment should be heard, not seen. And I also really don't want electronics on a shelf in my kitchen, garage, deck. The server room is available though.
Of all the items in Post#1, that Crown Amp is the only one that I would ever consider in my personal setup.
And, I noticed that the little amp that you linked is a "
Lepy".....which is clearly a knock-off of "
Lepai"!!! They even stole the old Lepai model #!
At the very least, do yourself a favor and get the real-deal Lepai! They have actually (claimed) to have improved the Lepai with the newer TI chipset. I have the legacy model Lepai simply running the speakers on my DIY arcade cabinet build.
Here is the real deal Lepai:
https://www.parts-express.com/lepai-lp-2020ti-digital-hi-fi-audio-mini-class-d-stereo-amplifier-with-power-supply--310-3000
There is indeed no reason that you should be approaching $1000 per zone, and you should still be able to get good quality audio.
Perhaps you need to consider a combination of BT and longer wire runs too.
As far as in-ceiling speakers, we often jokingly call those "the voice of God"......and they are best avoided unless you are a convenience store.
Personally, if I were looking at In-Wall speakers, I would start my search here. I'm not rec'ing these, I'm just saying I am interested in these.
http://www.classicaudioparts.com/index.php/loudspeakers.html
Personally, "multiple zones on a single AVR" is never gonna be my approach. I'm firmly in the camp of "dedicated system and AVR (or pre-amp/amp, or integrated, or powered monitors, etc) for each zone". And, I'm typically gonna have options for plugging in my phone, a CD player, a turntable, a digital streamer, etc, for each dedicated system. I likely won't have ALL of those on each system, but I will have a couple of different source input options for each zone system.
EDIT: You do realize that a BT connection and/or the sources that you are listing are not the best quality sources right out of the gate, right???
What you say you want in the end does not line up very well with the means that you are proposing to try to get there.
It really seems that your first priority is convenience and aesthetics, and audio quality is your 2nd priority.
