questions about full home audio??

[iarufe98]

Hello my name is Ian and I am new here. I have been messing with home audio for years and put together some medium range home theater's. and I have done some in wall speakers in the kitchen and patio etc.

my questions are kinda of long and drawn out. I would think with the improving sound quality of inwall speakers that more mulity room theaters would be poping up that dont use real big equipment. Now dont get me wrong I love my equipment and would not give it up, but having equipment in ever room you want music or surround sound just doesnt float my boat anymore, At one time I was like the more the better. I see some equipment out their that allow you to run cat 5 in the walls of your home to a box with inputs and outputs for a signals. I would really like to have a room in my basment that I would like to have a audio and a video server that I can access in rooms with audio and video, using the monitor to control those devices. And say in the kitchen and patio where it is just audio just have access to a audio server or tuner thru a touch panel or what ever. In my smaller rooms like the bedrooms I would like to just have a tv with in wall speakers and one of those input output panels that I could hook a source up once in a while like a xbox or a dvd player. But I was wondering if their is anything out their that could get the dts and ac3 audio to these speakers with out buying big amps and and processers for every rooms, kinda like a multi room processer that could send the audio to say the amplified volume controls. I am looking for all kinds of different options say like creston, or elans, or just putting peices from different manufacturs together. What I am really setting out to do as well is to beable to listen or watch different music and movies in different locations without listening or watching the same as the other zone

Not really sure if this could even be a reality or not, everything I looked at just seams to be just 2 ch audio for the most part


thanks Ian

 

[BMXTRIX]

Ian, without going overboard on a reply, what you are asking about is really difficult because GOOD audio still requires significant amplification. A 20 year old stereo receiver really isn't a ton smaller than the Yamaha 2500 or 1500 receiver (mid-line) which is good for surround audio in a single room.

Sure, it is possible to send digital audio to multple rooms, but then that individual room really needs to be setup, amplified, and properly calibrated for surround audio.

Products like Crestron's PVID8x4
http://www.crestron.com/products/show_products.asp?type=residential&cat=1012&subcat=1052&id=1005
will allow composite, s-vid, and component video switching w/digital audio. It is not simple, and distributed audio & video with discrete control and lots of available sources is a complex concept when using the latest technology and CAT-5 instead of traditional wiring.

Amplification is not going to happen within a volume control and give you a room with 5.1 though. Amplification and digital audio decoding needs to happen inside a decent receiver. The D/A process needs chips that use the latest technology to decode the audio and then that audio can be sent to the various speakers.

Products from the likes of Crestron will allow that, but I'm not sure I would ever do it myself. To many headaches involved and one room with really good surround works for me. There are double 5.1 setup receivers now that I would consider first of all and pair it with a Crestron PAD-8 and if video was important (including HD) I would look at the PVID8x3 matrix switcher and some good multi-channel amps and in-wall/ceiling speakers. That's still very expensive, but will do it on CAT-5 and give excellent results.

 

[calgarianperson]

im looking at similar stuff as well and have a new thread with some of my own questions but heres an idea that an expirienced Crestron user would have to verify... crestron has a 7.1 unit that you could put in for every theater or in theory have the recievers together all controlled by crestron.