Wiring new home for sound using HK7300, please help

[Karen12345]

Please have patience as I'm technically challenged when it comes to audio. I do recognize quality sound and hope to have a setup which will allow great sound throughout my loft. I would gladly hire someone to do this but am stranded in the great white north and my physical resources are limited to say the least. I am interested in using A-bus if it is practical. Will A-bus allow me to draw from the same component in multiple rooms as opposed to different components as is its purpose? (ie, allow speakers in all areas to project the same music?)

Am renovating 1900 sq feet that has 4 separate areas as follows:
-a 24' x 27' living/kitchen/eating area which will house a large screen tv
-a 13' x19' theater room which will house a projection tv, the AVR7300, a bluray player, wii, playstation, karaoke machine and satellite receiver.
-a combined 30' x 13' bedroom/master bath
-a 40' hallway along one side which includes a laundry area.

First, is it advisable to hook up the satellite to the tv in the living room with A-bus or should I get a separate receiver and/or sound system? The main use for this tv is regular satellite broadcasting and I intend to use a couple of small speakers in this room. If A-Bus is not used for the tv should I just use a speaker selector and build in separate speakers to project sound into this room when looking for ambiance?

Secondly, I will be purchasing an Optoma projector to be installed on the theater room ceiling.

Thirdly, in the hall and bed/bath areas I,m only interested in audio. The hall is only for ambiance and would like to build some speakers into the ceiling. Is A-Bus a good idea for the bed/bath? Can 2 A-buses be used?

There are times I will want the same music to project through the whole loft without using loads of volume.

What is the best way to achieve what I want and what wires or cables should I build into the walls? Detailed suggestions on this and any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Btw, there will be hardwood throughout and hope to dampen the sound with area rugs. I understand a fabric on the wall, such as a linen is also a good idea. Is there anything better to use on the walls in the theater room that looks nice?

Hope I've explained myself, looking forward to your suggestions!

 

[TLS Guy]

Please have patience as I'm technically challenged when it comes to audio. I do recognize quality sound and hope to have a setup which will allow great sound throughout my loft. I would gladly hire someone to do this but am stranded in the great white north and my physical resources are limited to say the least. I am interested in using A-bus if it is practical. Will A-bus allow me to draw from the same component in multiple rooms as opposed to different components as is its purpose? (ie, allow speakers in all areas to project the same music?)

Am renovating 1900 sq feet that has 4 separate areas as follows:
-a 24' x 27' living/kitchen/eating area which will house a large screen tv
-a 13' x19' theater room which will house a projection tv, the AVR7300, a bluray player, wii, playstation, karaoke machine and satellite receiver.
-a combined 30' x 13' bedroom/master bath
-a 40' hallway along one side which includes a laundry area.

First, is it advisable to hook up the satellite to the tv in the living room with A-bus or should I get a separate receiver and/or sound system? The main use for this tv is regular satellite broadcasting and I intend to use a couple of small speakers in this room. If A-Bus is not used for the tv should I just use a speaker selector and build in separate speakers to project sound into this room when looking for ambiance?

Secondly, I will be purchasing an Optoma projector to be installed on the theater room ceiling.

Thirdly, in the hall and bed/bath areas I,m only interested in audio. The hall is only for ambiance and would like to build some speakers into the ceiling. Is A-Bus a good idea for the bed/bath? Can 2 A-buses be used?

There are times I will want the same music to project through the whole loft without using loads of volume.

What is the best way to achieve what I want and what wires or cables should I build into the walls? Detailed suggestions on this and any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Btw, there will be hardwood throughout and hope to dampen the sound with area rugs. I understand a fabric on the wall, such as a linen is also a good idea. Is there anything better to use on the walls in the theater room that looks nice?

Hope I've explained myself, looking forward to your suggestions!

I had never heard of A Bus before. However all house audio and quality are not really compatible. That system is a complex system with amplified volume controls. If you are a neophyte I think you will have a lot of problems.

I personally counsel against whole house systems which I regard as an abomination.

I personally would put two good systems together. I would put a 5.1 or 7.1 system together for you home theater, and a 2 or 2.1 system together for your living room. I would have the rest of the place quiet zones, to keep your sanity.

I think having eating areas quiet zones important. At the turn of the last century, G.K. Chesterton spilled a lot of ink on the fad for employing musicians in restaurants. His view was that eating and music tended to indigestion.

Where are you located in the North Country? I'm in the North Woods Forest area of Minnesota.

 

[markw]

you're asking for a fairly complex system there and expecting one receiver to be able to handle it all is asking a bit much.

You might be better off checking with some local professionals.

 

[jinjuku]

You are potentially getting into Extron/Crestron/AMX/Savant home AV distribution territory.

I did Creston/AMX for a # of years and can tell you this: If you are at all serious it's time to hire a pro.

 

[highfigh]

Please have patience as I'm technically challenged when it comes to audio. I do recognize quality sound and hope to have a setup which will allow great sound throughout my loft. I would gladly hire someone to do this but am stranded in the great white north and my physical resources are limited to say the least. I am interested in using A-bus if it is practical. Will A-bus allow me to draw from the same component in multiple rooms as opposed to different components as is its purpose? (ie, allow speakers in all areas to project the same music?)

Am renovating 1900 sq feet that has 4 separate areas as follows:
-a 24' x 27' living/kitchen/eating area which will house a large screen tv
-a 13' x19' theater room which will house a projection tv, the AVR7300, a bluray player, wii, playstation, karaoke machine and satellite receiver.
-a combined 30' x 13' bedroom/master bath
-a 40' hallway along one side which includes a laundry area.

First, is it advisable to hook up the satellite to the tv in the living room with A-bus or should I get a separate receiver and/or sound system? The main use for this tv is regular satellite broadcasting and I intend to use a couple of small speakers in this room. If A-Bus is not used for the tv should I just use a speaker selector and build in separate speakers to project sound into this room when looking for ambiance?

Secondly, I will be purchasing an Optoma projector to be installed on the theater room ceiling.

Thirdly, in the hall and bed/bath areas I,m only interested in audio. The hall is only for ambiance and would like to build some speakers into the ceiling. Is A-Bus a good idea for the bed/bath? Can 2 A-buses be used?

There are times I will want the same music to project through the whole loft without using loads of volume.

What is the best way to achieve what I want and what wires or cables should I build into the walls? Detailed suggestions on this and any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Btw, there will be hardwood throughout and hope to dampen the sound with area rugs. I understand a fabric on the wall, such as a linen is also a good idea. Is there anything better to use on the walls in the theater room that looks nice?

Hope I've explained myself, looking forward to your suggestions!

The first thing I would do is avoid designing the system with one receiver in mind. That can severely limit your options if that receiver decides to stop working. You really want to be able to use any available equipment at a later date with a minimum of re-wiring and hassles. A-Bus would require a 4 conductor speaker cable and a Cat5e cable to each location and even if you decide against A-Bus, I would recommend doing this anyway. Also, I would recommend creating a way to run cables later to any location where a TV is likely to be located. SInce you want to use a projector, I would definitely recommend using some kind of conduit for the cables because A) HDMI is a pain in the butt, B) if they stop using it, you'll need some other way to get the signal to the projector, and C) you don't have the ability to pull a defective cable out if it was stapled or tied in place.

Rather than use A-Bus to control what is heard, where and at what level, I would buy a second receiver and use the analog audio outputs on the sources to feed the signal to this receiver. If at all possible, locate all of the electronics in a central part of the building so the wire runs and cable connections from one piece of equipment to another will be as short as possible. One universal remote with Radio Frequency capability will allow you to control the system without bad interactions regarding the commands. I would avoid Harmony for a sytem like this because those want to operate using activities, not per device or using user/programmer defined macros. The URC MX-450 with an MRF-260 would be a good choice, or if you can find one, the MX-850 with the same RF receiver would work and you don't need to deal with custom graphics. With those, you would be able to have a Watch button, which sets up all of the equipment for Satellite, DVD and any other video source and a separate Listen button for controlling audio sources. In a second page on Watch or Listen, you can have a button for each individual device so you can create buttons that will allow specific commands that would be clumsy otherwise. Then, you would press the Watch or Listen button to go back to what you need. You would create a button for Whole House, which would allow you to change sources, set levels, etc without disrupting the Watch section.

If you use muting volume controls in each room, the sound in each room of the Whole House audio system would be silent when the system turns on, instead of waking or startling someone in one of the rooms. To turn the sound on in those rooms, you would only need to go there and press the mute button and it will turn those speakers on at the previous volume level. If you want to use one pair of speakers for distributed audio AND a local small system, like in a bedroom, you can. Niles makes a piece called TVA-50 (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-zJNDyvgMJlt/p_190TVA50/Niles-TVA50.html) that has an amplifier in it for the local sources and an input from the whole house system volume control with a variable threshold control. It also allows you to determine which source is the default, so you can turn the local source on and it till play the audio through the speakers, but if you turn the wall-mounted whole House volume control up from minimum, it senses the voltage and switches to allow the house audio to come through, bypassing the TVA-50. One example for this is if you have ceiling mounted rear speakers for the theater and you want to use them for Whole House audio- a wall-mounted volume control would allow switching the source for that pair without needing to turn the main system on and switching sources.