Multiroom Setup

[artiez24]

Hello all, I am new here to the site and sort of a newbie when it comes to home audio. So I am having a new house built and want a multi room audio setup, but have some questions about the best way I can set it up. All the components and speaker home runs will be in the family room. I have no intention to do a surround sound in the family as I will have a dedicated media room. I need to power 4 zones each zone with its own volume control. I already have a spare onkyo 5.1 receiver that I will be using here for the different components. All the zones will be on the same source.

What do I need between the receiver and the speakers to be able to power all 4 zones?

What other concerns should I have with the setup also?

Once again I am still learning all of this please excuse me if I left anything out.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The receiver may or may not be up to the task of providing adequate power to the speakers, but what you need depends really.

If you do NOT have impedence matching volume controls, then you will need a speaker selector box which handles speaker impedence.

That is, you basically need all your speakers to appear as 8 ohms to the receiver or you will fry the receiver. It'll just shut down.

$48 from Amazon for a Monster SS-6 which should do the trick...
http://www.amazon.com/Monster-SS-6-Speaker-Switcher-Speakers/dp/tech-data/B00004Y3UY/ref=de_a_smtd

Product website: http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=1187

If the volume controls are already impedence matching, and you will know this mostly by asking... Then, you could connect the speakers directly to the receiver.

However, you may still want something which will clean up the wiring a bit, like this:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-541

It just makes the connection of the wiring a bit easier and more clean at the wall.

I would add: If you intend to own this house... Live in this house for a LONG time... Then give VERY careful consideration to all the places you truly want audio and consider that perhaps that four zones is not at all adequate for what you really want.

Conduit, pre-wiring, cable access paths, and ALL location considerations are things that very few people are capable of taking care of when there is no drywall.

I have a somewhat typical colonial home (4 bed, 2.5 bath) which I got to prewire through my builder and ended up with about 16 zones of audio prewired along with control, conduit, and video to a bunch of locations.

The one thing I can say... You REALLY don't want this in your family room.

You should consider a RF system which allows you to bury and hide the gear in the basement and control it with remotes from anywhere in the house. You won't have the heat, noise, or wires to deal with in a space of your home that you actually care about, but will have it all nicely tucked away somewhere out of site.

 

[artiez24]

So basically I could purchase a stereo receiver and run that into the speaker selector, and then from the speaker selector to the volume controls and so on. I did consider moving all the equipment somewhere else but space is going to be limited, the only other option would be in a closet but it wont be ventilated. I do though intend to do the wall plates to give it all the finished look. Also this is all going to have to be done after the house is done and I am in it. The builder contracts all the wiring out to a company that is just way to expensive for me to have them do this.

 

[BMXTRIX]

You could just get a stereo amplifier and a source selector box, or you can use a stereo receiver, or you can use your existing surround receiver. You still must have similar impedence (8 ohms) appearing to whatever amplifier you do use, and this impedence matching can occur with EITHER the volume controls or with a speaker selector like the one I linked above.

It is typical for the owner to do this stuff themselves, but the wiring is my main focus for you. Make sure you spend more to get more in all the places you want it. WIRE for speakers in rooms where you may want it, then add speakers later.

Do NOT let the builder put in speakers for you as you can get better ones, for less money, online very easily. Wire to boxes for later use, wire to walls, ceilings, etc. Just make sure, that if this is your place of residence for years to come that you have installed things the way you want them to be.

Not sure what you can do about the equipment going in the family room if that's the only spot you have available.

 

[artiez24]

I have one more question. I was reading somewhere that when you use the impedance protection on the speaker selector that it affects the speaker performance some. So would you say that my best bet is to get volume controls with impedance matching so I can disable the protection on the selector.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Volume controls affect speaker performance as well, just so you know.

The proper way to do audio in any setup is with a preamp and dedicated amplifier channel for each speaker in your system. A speaker selector, or impedence matching volume control. Use one or the other, but not both. Don't worry to much about audio quality degradation as both do negatively affect audio quality, but also represent, by FAR, the lesser expensive way to do things.

 

[artiez24]

Yeah thats the route I am going to take as I dont have a huge budget for this project, I also have to build my home theatre. Thanks for your help.

 

[artiez24]

If I had a receiver that powers 90w per channel, what kind of in wall speakers should I be looking for as far as power goes. Because isnt that 90W being split up some how over the 4 spkr pairs. I dont want to over buy on speakers.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I actually am using the Monoprice speakers in my basement and have been pretty happy with them. They are the 8" models, which are about $60 a pair.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10837

They have a few options, none are great, but none are really bad either.

Something like this would probably be fine...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10837&cs_id=1083702&p_id=4103&seq=1&format=2

 

[artiez24]

Great Monoprice is is exactly where I was going to get them from. I will probably go with the 8" as well. Once again thanks