Whole house audio / Home theater surround sound

[pokrant23]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and please forgive me if this topic has been beaten to death (did some searches but didnt find specific answers). I recently moved into a new (to me) house that has a tv room and bar in the basement. I currently have a 55" tv and am using the speakers in the tv to provide the sound. Although they are pretty good, I want to do a home theater system to provide better sound. I want to be able to use the system when watching games on cable, using my playstation 3 for various things (games, movies, etc.) and when using a bluray/dvd player. In addition to this, I was hoping to place speakers in the ceiling, rather than the typical five speakers that may come in a in the box package. As part of this system, I would like to incorporate a wall mounted ipod dock to play music while entertaining at the bar area. If that wasnt enough, I was also hoping to be able to put speakers in the living room upstairs and have another ipod dock in that area so I wont have to run up and down stairs to keep the tunes going. And possibly some outside speakers on the deck as well. I know this is a ton of stuff to run off of one receiver, but I want to have a clean set up with one central location to run everything off of. Is this too extensive and should I seperate the home theater from the whole house stereo? Or is this a reasonable thing that can be accompolished. If this can be accompolished, suggestions on equipment would be appreciated. I am new to this stuff, but am hoping to get it done without hiring a professional if at all possible. Thanks for taking the time to read.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Receivers such as the Denon AVR-3313 provide 3 separate zones of audio. This will allow you to have your primary surround zone with both audio and video fed off a single HDMI connection. Your second and third zones (family room/outside) will be available to play the same or different sources at the same time. If you are running 5.1 surround sound in the main theater, then you will be able to use the internal amplifier of the Denon to run the second zone speakers. You will need (I believe) an additional 2-channel amplifier to run the outside speakers.

Now, to control your receiver, you can use a Denon control app for your iPhone. Not as easy as a good remote control, but free.

I would avoid the iPod dock in favor of the AppleTV which offers you Airplay. You can stream your music (and videos!) wirelessly from your iPhone in your pocket and always have control right at your fingertips as you need it. It's really convenient and doesn't lock you into an iPod dock which already has been replaced with their NEW type of connector. Of course, nothing wrong with adding RCA jacks for analog audio at any time.

I would recommend against ceiling speakers in general in a theater. They are decent for second/third zone audio, but in your theater, if you want decent sound, then at the VERY least you want to go with in-wall speakers if possible. Bookshelf speakers are often a better solution than in-wall, but you can get acceptable results with in-wall speakers. Almost never the case with in-ceiling speakers, and you get serious bleed-over to other rooms of your home if you aren't dealing with a good sound isolating back can on the ceiling speakers. There are many very nice on-wall and in-wall solutions which will prevent this from occurring.

Of course, you will need to get all the wires in place which will take a few holes in drywall to make it all work.

 

[pokrant23]

Solid. Thanks for the quick response. I was thinking that about the ceiling speakers (vs wall) for home theater. Wasn't sure how big of a difference it would make when using the speakers for TV use vs. Listening to music. I am glad to know that my extravagant plans aren't out of the rhealm of possibility. Any suggestions for cables and or wiring? I am sure all are not created equally. I don't want to put together a Walmart special, but at the same time I'm not trying to build a $10,000 set up.

 

[vekselmanpeter]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum, as well, and just like pokrant23, I'm also interested in whole house audio.

Actually, I'm into real estate, and one of the topics that always come up with potential property buyers is if the home can support whole audio setup.

Looking forward to learning more information about audio setups for the home.

Peter Vekselman
https://www.facebook.com/coachingbypeter

 

[BMXTRIX]

Solid. Thanks for the quick response. I was thinking that about the ceiling speakers (vs wall) for home theater. Wasn't sure how big of a difference it would make when using the speakers for TV use vs. Listening to music. I am glad to know that my extravagant plans aren't out of the rhealm of possibility. Any suggestions for cables and or wiring? I am sure all are not created equally. I don't want to put together a Walmart special, but at the same time I'm not trying to build a $10,000 set up.

For cables, pick up 14 gauge, 4 conductor in-wall rated wiring from Monoprice.com. It's inexpensive and great quality and rated for in-wall use. Do NOT spend more money on anything else. If you are retrofitting the cables in, and having someone else do it, there may be a fair bit of cost associated with the labor of that work by a professional.