Hi everyone!
I just set up a 5-zone Sonos system in my house and have it hooked up to my existing audio systems (hi-fi, home theater, etc).
My wife and I love it so much that we've just decided to get in-ceiling speakers for most of the house, and have Sonos control the music that goes through them. This will allow us to ditch the various hi-fi and boomboxes that we're currently using in each room.
However, I'm faced with a quandary:
Should I run the speaker wire from all the ceiling speakers to just one place in the house, or instead run the wires for each pair to a wall plate in the same room?
I'm sure most of you will understandably say, "Run all the wires to one place! That way you can isolate and hide all your A/V gear in a hidden closet and there's nothing visible in your house other than the speakers!".
That was my first reaction too, especially after reading this month's Sound and Vision magazine, which profiled an 8-zone Sonos setup where all the zone controllers were located in the same closet.
However, there are the following "cons" with this configuration, and I think they are significant:
- There will be significantly longer speaker wire length needed for the distant speakers (and we have a long 1-storey ranch/bungalow) and that may mean degraded sound quality, right?
- If I'm in a room and don't have a Sonos controller at hand, I won't be able to easily mute the house when the phone/doorbell rings. This can be done really easily if the zone controllers are in each room - just hold the mute button for 3 seconds and it mutes the whole house.
- Sonos lets you use their zone controllers as Ethernet extenders of your wireless network, and I could really use that for my TiVo and gaming rig
Of course, putting all the zone players in one place does bring the following benefits:
- Better WiFi connection reliability between each zone box (and perhaps the ability to wire them together instead of using wireless)
- Only one expensive surge protector/power regulator needed
- Less wallplate clutter and behind-wall wiring
So as you can see, I'm torn! :-(
Even if you haven't used Sonos before, I'd appreciate any tips or hints you may have. Thanks a million in advance!
