Hello everyone. I'm glad to find a community of audio concentric people like myself. I apologize if I've posted in the wrong sub forum, but I did not find one for outdoor systems specifically. So, it was either here or the general A/V forum.
Anyway, my company has been in business for 18 years. We've been getting larger and larger contracts in the last few years, which is good, but it's becoming a bit difficult to stay on top of all the new products and technologies coming out. It's time to update our old ways at this point. Our previous ways of running outdoor sound seem to be obsolete now, so I've come here to see if any of you fine people can shed some light on new approaches to this topic.
As of right now, when we run outdoor sound, it is normally Zone 2 from an existing receiver. We had been using Onkyo exclusively up until late last year when they had tons of issues with their HDMI output on the TX-NR515 and 616 receivers, which were our top sellers. We have since moved to Denon AVR1913 as our main receiver of choice. The downside of these is that they drop output to Zone 2 down to 90W from the 100W on the Onkyo receivers. We've also been pairing those with AudioPlex DC200 with opti-match in wall volume controls rated at 72W with 9 steps. I've noticed that the volume isn't as beefy as most people would like. I found that Niles makes 100W constant volume controls at 12 steps. Speakers are normally Sonance Mariner 62 outdoor speakers or VT61SS indoor speakers, both rated at 135W.
I was wondering if you guys think that changing the volume control would provide a substantial overhead from what we're getting now. Is that 25W improvement significant enough that it would make a noticeable difference? If not, what would you guys suggest to get louder sound outdoors?
Someone else had suggested to start moving up to independent amplifiers with its own receiver coming from the Zone 2 pre out on the main receiver. I like that idea, but was hoping for a less expensive, and space efficient option. Cost is less of an issue as space, normally. Most of our projects are on existing homes, where they aren't able to accommodate a media closet like a new construction home.
It used to be simple when people just wanted ambient sound in Zone 2. Now, everyone wants to be a DJ.
