Hi everyone - I'm new here. We just moved into a new house in Austin, TX and I'm looking for some ideas on finishing up our home theater setup. The speakers in the main room are the B&W CDM 1NT center and surround speakers (no sub or towers). Below is a description of the system that came with the house when we moved in. I am definitely a novice when it comes to AV setups, but am trying to pick it up as I go here. We are looking for something that is high quality but probably not the most high end setup available - the sort of setup that you can tell is really well designed, but not going to break the bank.
Based on what is already in the house, I believe we still need to purchase:
1. HDMI switching receiver (6 channel)
2. Power amp
3. Sub
The equipment in the house includes:
1. Main room: B&W CDM 1NT surrounds (2)
2. Main room: B&W CDM 1NT center
3. Main room: In wall speakers (2)
4. House: In wall speaker pairs in 5 different rooms
I'm not sure of the in wall speaker brand or models, but feel it's safe to assume they were a good speaker when the house was built in 2001 (when the B&W's were installed in the main room).
Any thoughts on what specific models of equipment I should be looking at? Or advice about tips and things to watch out for when hiring a contractor or trying to tackle this myself?
The in-wall speakers in the 5 rooms- do those rooms have a volume control on the wall in each room? If so, does the control have a button below the control? If so, they may be the kind that mute the audio when the system is turned off and I would leave those in place. They'd also be the kind that manage the speaker load for the amplifier. If there are no controls in each room, you'll need a load managing speaker switching device with level controls, like a Niles SSVC-6 (this is available from other companies with the same model number). To power these speakers, you could use a Behringer A500 power amp, which will be plenty of power and will handle the load. You'll need a receiver that will send signal to the Zone 2 amp, like a Denon AVR-890/2310CI. This will do everything you want and it's not terribly expensive. The CI models are geared toward Custom Installers, with RS-232 control and some other goodies that we like but most people think are a bit geeky, like an ethernet port with GUI menu support. The Denon has a 12V triggered output, which is assignable to one, or all sources and can be used to turn the Zone 2 power amp on if you use a power surge suppressor like the Furman Elite 15i, which has a 1/8" jack that connects to the receiver's triggered output with a standard mono cable.
If you want a receiver that has preamp outputs, you'll need to go up to the AVR-990/3310CI.
If the rooms have a keypad on the wall for speaker control, you can either use the matching control/amp or change to another brand if the existing is too expensive or unavailable. If they took the keypads, they may have put a blank wall plate in place and you may see a Cat5e with a 4 conductor speaker cable or just a Cat5e cable. If it's just the Cat5e, you'll need to get a control system that connects directly to all speakers and the keypad will control the level and possible switch sources for each room. Some systems, like Colorado VNet and ABUS send audio through speaker cable and control via the Cat5e.
As far as the sub, you'll need to describe the room size and layout a bit more for a good recommendation. If a location has been set up with cabling and a wall plate mounted jack, I would try it before deciding that it's not the right place. If the house has a basement, it won't be hard to run new cabling but if it's on a slab, it will be considerably more difficult.
Re: a contractor- get everything in writing and check them out first. Get referrals and use the BBB. Not all of the big guys are particularly good and some of the small operations are pretty technically advanced, so read up on how to buy this kind of equipment here in the AV university to know what kinds of questions to ask. CEDIA certification is nice but it's easy enough to find bad installers who passed the test but can't determine a proper speaker load, like at least one of the guys I used to work with. He was the type who went around saying "They sell the dream, I make it happen", but he was better at running cable than actually connecting the equipment and setting it up. If they have photos of their installations, look for neat, orderly cabling where the equipment is located. Rat's nests and unlabeled wires are a bad thing. Get a written project scope, with details about when payments are due and in what amounts. If they start to ask for money before it's due, ask why and get some kind of guarantee that they won't bail on you once they get the loot.
If they start changing details, get them in writing and if you want to change details, give it to them in writing. If you do this in e-mails, request confirmation in a specified period instead of assuming they got the message and will make said changes.