Midl-life Crisis System

[Nestor]

Hobbling around with a broken leg the past couple of months has made me realize how much of a pain (figuratively and literally) it is to disconnect and reconnect my iPhone from my various receivers located on each floor of my house. Some areas have a dock, some have a bluetooth module and each one requires fiddling with my ooTunes app and dock/bluetooth connection.

Enter the rabbit hole of Whole House Audio (WHA). Hadn't seen this discussed much in this forum, so I thought I'd put my experiences here.

As with home theater, there's a bewildering array of options. The biggest question to answer: "What do I want to accomplish?"

1. Expandability
2. Individual remote control of volume and programming for each zone.
3. System control by iPhone
4. Future addition of keypad control (optional)
5. Integration of my receivers into my WHA system.
6. Uninterrupted streaming of my ooTunes radio app on my phone as I move from zone to zone.
7. Low component count.

So here was my short list:

Sonos.

Advantage:

• Expandable. To add a zone, buy another module. Done.
• Individual control of volume and programming of each module.
• iPhone app
• Will stream my music library.
• One Sonos connect for each receiver and they are tied together.
• Wireless connectivity makes setup quick.

Disadvantage:

• To add a zone, buy another module. The costs quickly add up. Four Connects is $1600.00 and $400.00+ for each additional zone depending on whether I have an amp and speakers.
• No keypads
• Makes my Squeezebox redundant.
• Possible obsolescence. I read rumblings in the Sonos forum that the Sonos Connect may disappear from the product line in the future as they expand their wireless speakers. I was already left high and dry by Logitech with their loss of support of the Squeezebox and I don't want repeat that experience.

HTD Lync6

Advantage:

• 6 zones right out of the box
• Individual control of programming and volume from each zone
• Wireless control from any browser based device.
• Available keypads
• Squeezebox can be integrated as a source and controlled by iPhone (more on that in a bit)
• Separate Processor and amp. I can buy the processor now and use my receivers with future purchase of a multichannel amp as I expand the system to the rest of the house. Thumbs up to HTD as most other WHA systems use a single processor/amp design.
• Centralized components. All zones controlled from one device. No little white boxes scattered around the house.
• Cost. 6 zones for US$700.00. 6 Connects = $2400.00.

Disadvantage:

• Complexity. Component count is decreased, but this does mean pulling cat5 and speaker wire, especially if the keypads are to be installed. Fully expected but crawling in the attic is out of the question for now, given my current condition.
• Only 6 or 12 zone processors is available. I will probably end up with more than 6 zones, but some can be tied together as "subzones" with the HTD.
• Learning curve. Some software required to fully integrate system.
• Browser-based control. While HTD saved on having to make multiple apps to cover the different OS platforms, users claim it is clunky and is at the mercy of the peculiarities of the browser.

I weighed my options and decided that, iPhone control was very important, and I didn't think I could live with the clunky app from HTD. So I ordered 4 Sonos Connects.

THEN I learned about iRule and Roomie. Both are fully customizable universal remote control apps, and with the right interfaces, will control just about anything over TCP/IP. There is a learning curve, and some programming will be in order, but being able to control my Yamaha AVR over LAN is really intriguing.

The Connects just arrived from Sonos today and it looks like they will be heading back to Best Buy. Order placed today for the HTD:



Down the rabbit hole I go!

P.S. Guess I had a lot of time on my hands to think this over, given the size of my post.

 

[Nestor]

Order placed for a couple of interfaces:

Stereo audio balun:



And

The first lets me extend line level audio over cat5 cable up to one km.

The second is an IP to serial interface. This is a requirement to make the HTD controllable over the network. One of these will also allow me to make use of the RS232 com port on my RXV2700 that I use on the main floor. The RX-A3000 is controllable via its network connection.

I've been messing with two different customizable remote apps, iRule and Roomie Remote.

iRule is very powerful. All design and customization of your remote is done via web-based application, then downloaded to your smart device. It's very customizable. Maybe too customizable. There's a huge learning curve, but all of my devices are on their list, including the HTD.

Roomie is more straightforward, and you can get up and running sooner if all of your devices are listed.

They don't list the codes for the HTD Lync.

If not, then you can download their development kit. Sounds simple, but...

The codes are developed in XML, and the recommended editor is XCode. (Others will work but you have to be careful of the formatting).

To use X-Code, I need a Mac. I don't have a Mac.

There's a way of hacking OSX in a Windows environment, but you'll have to download another program via Torrrent.

I don't have Torrent.

Ugh.

So I haven't decided which remote app I'm going to use. Roomie is only 10 bucks on iTunes, but you have to pay to get beyond the two device limit, and I might end up down a programming rabbit hole to create a device profile for the HTD. The auto-detect feature was cool. It found and loaded both my RX-A3000 and Samsung plasma, both of which I had full control over WiFi.

iRule is more expensive out of the box, but there doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of devices, only the number of different "controllers". The biggest issue is the learning curve.

On a side note, I downloaded the Yamaha App to my iPhone. As soon as I fired it up, it auto detected the RX-A3000 and I was able to control it completely. Cool! Oh, and it's free.

And another aside. As per the helpful posts of fellow audioholics, I have an Emotiva XPA-3 on order.

 

[Nestor]

Update.

Baluns are installed and work perfectly. No signal loss and no noise at line level over 80ft of cat5e. Basement Receiver and main floor AVR now fed by AVR in family room.

One iTach connected to RS232 port of RX-V2700. Serial settings not specified in manual but google search found the following:

Protocol: RS232

Baud Rate: 9600

Flow Control: CTS/RTS (Hardware)

Data Bits: 8

Parity: None

Stop Bits: 1

Roomie Remote App was good for quick tests, (I was able to quickly confirm operation of the iTach to the RXV2700) but you have to make extra purchases for each component you wish to control. They also moved to a subscription format, which has not made long time users happy.

iRule it is.

iRule programming. Definitely a learning curve. The tutorials help, but what would be nice is tips on what makes a good layout. After some stumbling and experimentation, I've decided on operating panels by "room", and pare down the controls to only the standard activities. It's pointless to clutter the screen with video controls when I mainly listen to internet radio while in the kitchen. You get the idea.

One nice feature of iRule is programing "gestures". With iRule app running, you can assign commands to taps and swipes on the screen. For example, I can double-tap the iPhone screen with one finger and mute the audio. A one-finger downward swipe drops volume by -20dB. Cool.

My biggest challenge is trying to transmit wireless audio upstairs. Since crawling around the attic with a broken leg on the mend is out of the question, I thought I'd try these:

and

Made by Channel Vision, they are 2.4Ghz transmitter/receivers.

Unfortunately, performance is unacceptable. After several re-locations, source output gain adjustments and channel selections, I just can't get a decent sound quality from them. Well, I did at one point, but they were only 10 feet apart. Sort of defeats the purpose. After extensive searches for an alternative brand, I have to say this method is a bust.

I have an extra Airport Express that I haven't unboxed. I was hoping to return it, but it looks like it will let me stream most of my stations by iphone to my bedroom. Of course, it will only stream Airplay compatible devices, which is mainly Apple products. This will all be moot once I'm able to run the proper wiring,

I have one more iTach to connect to my HTD, but I neglected to order a DB9 M/F serial cable. 10 years ago, this cable would have been easy to purchase at my local computer shop. No more. May as well gone looking for a buggy whip, which given our Mennonite population, would probably be more readily available.

Next step. Garage entertainment.

 

[ImcLoud]

very cool!!!

 

[Nestor]

I discovered an interesting effect from using multi-zones on the RX-A3000: latency. This is especially noticeable between the main floor and family room which are open to each other. I somewhat expected this effect from the "slave" AVR, but what came as a surprise was the main zone of the source AVR lags zone 2 and zone 3 from the same AVR. I suspect the lipsync option and/or cumulative speaker distance settings are responsible. I also notice that "Party" mode doesn't mitigate this effect.

Using the audio delay setting in the "Slave" AVR,I was able to dial things in by ear with about 50ms.

Anyone else notice this effect when using extra zones on their AVR's?

 

[Nestor]

Re: latency

So it seems it's a known problem with Yamaha AVR's. Not sure about other brands. Fortunately, I think it's resolvable with one of these:



Why they can't add such a simple feature to the other zones is beyond me.

 

[Bryceo]

How'd this all turn out


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using Tapatalk

 

[Nestor]

How'd this all turn out


Sent from my iPhone 5
using Tapatalk

Pretty good, actually. Haven't fussed with the iRule app much since I got it up and running. Since I'm the only one who uses it, I don't have to make it "pretty".

I haven't installed the lipsync module yet, since I haven't decided whether the garage or the basement needs the delay more.

The only unresolved issue is getting things connected upstairs, but I think I'm going to just run wiring once my leg is healed. Since it'll be attic work, I figure it can wait until fall.

That's assuming, of course, we ever have summer in Canada.

 

[Bryceo]

Nice good effort


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using Tapatalk