Multi room sound system options

Multi room sound system options

Author
Discussion

CSJXX

Original Poster:

291 posts

191 months

Saturday 29th March 2014
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Hello,

I've just finished my refurb and now have speaker cables ran to all rooms to ceiling speakers. All the cables run back to one central location where my coax, sat, cat6 and telephone lines all run too.

I would like to know what options I have for multi room systems such as sonos. From what I understand about sonos is that I would be wasting my money as it's best suited when you haven't got all the cables in place? Correct me if I'm wrong and what components I would require?

Also which ceiling speakers would I be best to install? Don't want high end as I require 16 speakers, just entry level quality speakers would do me!

Help appreciated! Thanks!




CSJXX

Original Poster:

291 posts

191 months

Saturday 29th March 2014
quotequote all
Thanks toxicnerve. Yeah just looking for multi room music system at the moment. Music is stored on my mac and external hard drive at the moment

Which components would I require for a 8 zone system? Would I require a separate amp for each zone?

I'll get in touch with VEX regarding the speakers.

Thanks again.


talkssense

1,336 posts

201 months

Saturday 29th March 2014
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8 zones....16 speakers....budget.

My advice would be to select a brand of speaker and then split the budget across the 8 zones deeding on how much you will use them, and what type of listening it will be.

The speakers in our kitchen and Lounge get considerably more use than some of the others. The Dining room is used infrequently and is always very low volume, so the kitchen deserves more budget than the dining room in our case.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Saturday 29th March 2014
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If you want to do it cheaply, PM me. I've done mine the same, 15 quid an amp, 20 a pair of speakers, 10.5 for a distribution amplifier (6 way). Loads of switces to select sources and a pile of solder.

You can see what I did on my build thread.

I suspect if you speak to anyone that specialises in this stuff you'll be told cheap is crap and end up spending thousands more than you need to.

CSJXX

Original Poster:

291 posts

191 months

Sunday 30th March 2014
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That's what I was afraid of, at £400 per amp, that's £3200 just on amp's. I thought for this money there may be another brand on the market that's not talked about that often?

Looks like I might have to build the system gradually over time!

talkssense

1,336 posts

201 months

Sunday 30th March 2014
quotequote all
Depends how many of you are in the house, but pretty sure you could do a control4 controller, 8 way amp, and a Sonos connect per family member for less than that. Gives you options to control other kit as well.

You wouldn't even need the Sonos kit as c4 has it's own multi room music built in.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Sunday 30th March 2014
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Ha ha, as predicted, the first recommendation is 3 grand on amps, just to play music in your bedrooms. Madness!

ASK1974

254 posts

131 months

Monday 31st March 2014
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paulrockliffe said:
Ha ha, as predicted, the first recommendation is 3 grand on amps, just to play music in your bedrooms. Madness!
I tried to find the thread you mentioned, the one one that seemed to solve for a tenner what others spend thousands on. Perhaps you could link to it. I'm curious how you solved your user interface. For example when you enter a room what mechanism do you have to go through to get music playing? What handset do you use etc. You've mentioned cheap speakers and amps but that's half the system, what do you advise for the important bit, the bit that makes the system easy to use?

Thanks.

ASK1974

254 posts

131 months

Monday 31st March 2014
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
What a great idea, from what was being described I thought some kind of mind control was required but the idea of using the kids is genius.... :-)

The most cost effective Control4 solution (for eight zones) would be around £3,245 ex VAT and that's hardware only, at that price it requires an HC250 for control which unless you're under four zones is not advised, so you'd really need an HC800 and that's another £600. You'd also need proffesional installation so it's a lot more expensive. If you did this the iOS interface is fine but the interface is still not as good as Sonos and you'd only have one one source.

No, for a music only solution there really is no better solution than Sonos, there simply isn't a system to compete on user interface and intuitiveness, plus as the OP observes you can build zone by zone if the initial outlay is too great. There are one or two competitors to Sonos but they're much more expensive, certainly nothing cheaper. About the only thing that could be argued for everyday folks (i.e. doesn't need expert installation) would be Apple Airport Express (as zone players) with power amps and control via iOS again. This kind of works but again is not a multi-room system in the sense that you can manage playback in multiple rooms simultaneously. If you need to integrate video then I'd use Control4 for the video system and tie together with Sonos if required, but that's a little off topic.

Every brand has it's moment in the sun and right now that's Sonos, I'm looking forward to the day something better arrives as that will be very, very good. I hear Samsung are gearing up to go after this market but I would be very surprised if they achieve it, their track record with user interface is not brilliant and that's the corner stone of a good multi-room system.


Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Monday 31st March 2014
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Might be worth dropping fellow PHer "VEX" a line - this is his bag.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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I use my phone to control everything, Yatse is the user interface, with raspberry Pi running xbmc control is over the WiFi network. Cheaper alternative is the Bluetooth connection I have added.

There's some manual switching if you want to change what source plays where, but that's not somethin I need and not something that's worth the extra 3 grand.

z4chris99

11,221 posts

178 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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Apple TV? connected to cheapy amps?

Siscar

6,315 posts

128 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Err, why? I have five zones and two of them are just a single Sonos One, you don't need a Connect Amp per zone, in fact you don't need one at all.

To start with I had a Sonos Soundbar in one room and the two Ones in two other rooms as separate zones. I have more now but any component can be in a zone on it's own.

mini me

1,435 posts

192 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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Ive always wanted to be able to stream musica around my house and this looks to be an appealing option. Especially using wireless speakers. But how does the system access your music? Do you need a hard drive connected all the time or laptop?

What i have now is a bluetooth dongle connected ot teh amp in the living room. I have to crank it up so i can hear it int he kitchen but then its too loud in the living room and the bluetooth signal doesnt reach the kitchen so i have to leave my phone in the living room and so cannot change what im listening to.

I guess what i want is to be able to acces the music on my phone and stream to my stereo in the living room and to some seperate speakers in the kitechen or wherever?

Can this system do that or does it need to be connected to a laptop or something?

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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You might be happy with a Bluetooth connection from your phone. Connect to the room you want and play whatever is on your phone. I have the Logitech one, it's pretty good and £25-30.

mini me

1,435 posts

192 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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yeah I guess the thing is that I want to connect with my phone but I want the music streamed wirelessly to two or more different rooms and to be able to keep my phone on me wherever i go in the house. Bluetooth doesnt reach everywhere and you can only connect to one bluetooth device at a time.


paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
quotequote all
You could connect your phone to a network share, though I've struggled to find an easy way of doing this as non of the mainstream players support it. I can make it work using ESFile Explorer, but it's not designed for music libraries.

Next option is to use a distribution amplifier and some switches like I've done, then the next step up is the Sonus stuff, which is mega money.

Siscar

6,315 posts

128 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Sorry I was picking up on the one Connect Amp per zone, one unit per zone, yes, but it doesn't need to include a Connect Amp anywhere let alone one per zone.

Siscar

6,315 posts

128 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I think you were breaking the tradition of a forum and telling him things based on what he wrote and asked for, that's not the way most people work going off down sidelanes of describing things that aren't what the OP was asking for in the first place. So yes, with ceiling speakers a Connect per zone is probably the way, but meanwhile I was talking about stuff he hadn't asked for without reading what he wrote properly.

So you are correct, but I do think I followed the tradition of a forum more closely by posting crap that wasn't what was asked for.

smile

ASK1974

254 posts

131 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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paulrockliffe said:
You could connect your phone to a network share, though I've struggled to find an easy way of doing this as non of the mainstream players support it. I can make it work using ESFile Explorer, but it's not designed for music libraries.

Next option is to use a distribution amplifier and some switches like I've done, then the next step up is the Sonus stuff, which is mega money.
Paul I don't want to seem churlish mate but what you're describing would be a nightmare to setup and maintain. You clearly have a decent knowledge of computing and understand how these things can be put together but to suggest this is a good idea for others is nuts, I can't speak for the OP but everyone I meet wants a nice simple solution that just works and doesn't require a degree in electronics or computing to set up and manage, this is about as far from simple as you can possibly get. Creating a Frankenstein that's completely unsupported is a fast route to dispair, one must salute your intent to keep costs down but really?

And believe me Sonos isn't expensive. The Connect Amp is around the same price (with speakers) as a half decent Midi system just much, much better. There's a good reason Sonos are turning over $535m a year and it's not because they're expensive, compared to most of the competition they're actually pretty affordable.