Multi room smart speaker setup
Discussion
Good morning,
Currently renovating my house from bare stone so doing my best to future proof it as much as possible. I'd love an integrated smart speaker setup, I'm going to have 2 mono ceiling speakers in each bathroom and a set of stereo ceiling speakers in the master bedroom. Upstairs is the main living area which is one big open space with the TV going in the middle. Would love something like a 7.1 setup for the TV that would double up as a music setup for when we're not using the TV as well. Bonus points if individual speakers from the 7.1 could be used in isolation like when I'm on the far side (ie the kitchen).
I've considered these options so far:
Sonos
Denon Heos
Yamaha Music Cast
Amazon Echo Amp
One of the things I'm trying to achieve, and I'm struggling to see if it's possible is specifically for the 7.1 system to use traditional speakers but then be connected to some form of smart amp for connection to the TV or for playing music. I'm aware each of the above brands (Amazon excepted) do all in one speakers with everything built in so I could eg connect 7 play 1's from Sonos etc for the TV. This is however something I'm keen to avoid, I'm a little concerned about built in redundancy for modern technology that will brick Sonos and other brands and has done the same to my old iPad and MacBook. If it's possible I'd love to separate the elements as IMO a good quality speaker will remain so, and if the amp gets bricked in say 8 years I'll just buy the new equivalent at the time.
Is this possible and if so, any suggestions?
Just to add my existing speakers consist of an old play 1 and a Bose computer speaker (companion 5) so at this point I'm not heavily invested in any system.
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance!
Currently renovating my house from bare stone so doing my best to future proof it as much as possible. I'd love an integrated smart speaker setup, I'm going to have 2 mono ceiling speakers in each bathroom and a set of stereo ceiling speakers in the master bedroom. Upstairs is the main living area which is one big open space with the TV going in the middle. Would love something like a 7.1 setup for the TV that would double up as a music setup for when we're not using the TV as well. Bonus points if individual speakers from the 7.1 could be used in isolation like when I'm on the far side (ie the kitchen).
I've considered these options so far:
Sonos
Denon Heos
Yamaha Music Cast
Amazon Echo Amp
One of the things I'm trying to achieve, and I'm struggling to see if it's possible is specifically for the 7.1 system to use traditional speakers but then be connected to some form of smart amp for connection to the TV or for playing music. I'm aware each of the above brands (Amazon excepted) do all in one speakers with everything built in so I could eg connect 7 play 1's from Sonos etc for the TV. This is however something I'm keen to avoid, I'm a little concerned about built in redundancy for modern technology that will brick Sonos and other brands and has done the same to my old iPad and MacBook. If it's possible I'd love to separate the elements as IMO a good quality speaker will remain so, and if the amp gets bricked in say 8 years I'll just buy the new equivalent at the time.
Is this possible and if so, any suggestions?
Just to add my existing speakers consist of an old play 1 and a Bose computer speaker (companion 5) so at this point I'm not heavily invested in any system.
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance!
Ok, this is an installers bread and butter so in my mind quite easy to piece together.
Professionally one of the hardest things to do is sync every thing together, usually easy, but especially hard when you have a AVR processor in the middle. IMHO this is where Sonos fails, you can not get music synced between a Play1 and separate AVR with a Sonos source playing into it, I have that exact issue here at home. So much so I am thinking of dumping Sonos for either Yamaha (the AVR I currently have) or NAD BlueSound.
So at this point my choices would be Yamaha MusicCast, Denon Heos or (one you’ve missed) NAD / BlueSound.
However, you next issue would be trying to drive individual speakers from the AVR if you just wanted the Kitchen on, as you have described. Without serious menu / setting re-working each time this would be hard to do in anything even with some top end control kit and automation. My suggestion would be go lighter on the surround sound kit to allow you to add in a little stand alone player for the little sub-group areas, or have an AVR that has a second / third zone option, however even these can be difficult to control simply. (Not to self must check App control on AVRs)
Finally, Bathroom speakers, don’t go mono in the bathroom. There are plenty of ‘dual stereo’ speakers that have left and right inputs & tweeters in a single speaker. So for the same real estate & look as a single mono you can still have stereo.
Think that is all, other than Fire Hoods as part of Building Control.
V.
(Of course these are all available from dealers / installers here if you know who to ask
)
Professionally one of the hardest things to do is sync every thing together, usually easy, but especially hard when you have a AVR processor in the middle. IMHO this is where Sonos fails, you can not get music synced between a Play1 and separate AVR with a Sonos source playing into it, I have that exact issue here at home. So much so I am thinking of dumping Sonos for either Yamaha (the AVR I currently have) or NAD BlueSound.
So at this point my choices would be Yamaha MusicCast, Denon Heos or (one you’ve missed) NAD / BlueSound.
However, you next issue would be trying to drive individual speakers from the AVR if you just wanted the Kitchen on, as you have described. Without serious menu / setting re-working each time this would be hard to do in anything even with some top end control kit and automation. My suggestion would be go lighter on the surround sound kit to allow you to add in a little stand alone player for the little sub-group areas, or have an AVR that has a second / third zone option, however even these can be difficult to control simply. (Not to self must check App control on AVRs)
Finally, Bathroom speakers, don’t go mono in the bathroom. There are plenty of ‘dual stereo’ speakers that have left and right inputs & tweeters in a single speaker. So for the same real estate & look as a single mono you can still have stereo.
Think that is all, other than Fire Hoods as part of Building Control.
V.
(Of course these are all available from dealers / installers here if you know who to ask
)Edited by VEX on Sunday 17th May 13:45
Edited by VEX on Sunday 17th May 23:47
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