Multi room options.

[waihekedawn]

Currently have Apple TV linked to tv, dac and stereo amp, with secondary zone in dining room speakers using the amps facility. Amp and dac need replacing so looking at options. Seems like an opportunity to address the big drawbacks, mainly that if you want to listen to music in dining room it has to be playing in the living room.

Also want to introduce third zone in kitchen and potentially beyond. The music I want to listen to would not vary by zone, so I'd want the option to have the tv In one room and music in the remainder, preferably selectable by room. I think that a 2 source 2 zone av receiver would allow me to have surround sound tv in the living room, and a different music source in a second zone. would this allow music streamed via Apple TV, assuming it wasn't being used to watch tv?

This obviously leads to how I achieve the further zones. Could I employ some sort of speaker splitter/selector to split the second zone.. I could then use switches on this speaker selector to determine where to play the music. I assume this couldn't be done remotely and would involve pressing switches but would be cheap using existing speakers?? What are the impedance implications/issues??

Ultimately I think a sonos connect amp or sonos connect and av receiver would be the best option with play 1/3/5 elsewhere but I'm currently put off by the cost implications.

Essentially just thinking out loud, but is my solution outlined above viable, with music streamed to a single atv distributed by wires around the house via speaker selector? Is sonos inevitable? What other solutions are there?

Thanks in advance.

[ASK1974]

If you asked your question to pretty much any custom install specialist (I'm one of them) they would confirm your suspicion that Sonos is the answer. There might be some alternative suggestions put forward such as Linn, Nuvo etc, but in principle these are just more expensive versions of the same product type. A streaming music solution is your answer and Sonos is the best one out there when all is considered.

The other 'cheaper' designs you hint at are not multi-room systems and you'd be constantly walking from room to system to make it work, awful. Bite the bullet and get Sonos, you'll love it.

[zed4]

Apple Airport Express is a great little bit of kit for this. You can fit them to amplifiers on various inputs to work as zones. They're cheap enough to buy several, one for each room. They will output audio via the 3.5mm jack or digital optical. I have an Apple TV in the lounge, Zeppelin Air in the bedroom and a couple of Airport Expresses around the house for multiroom. All controlled from the iPhone, iPad or iMac. Easy.

[CC07 PEU]

A two source 2 zone av receiver would allow you to have surround sound tv in the living room, and a different music source in a second zone. I’ve recently set up my own system like this, however, many receivers are limited by the fact that they can only take analogue signals for the zone 2. This means having to buy a separate set of cables for each device. Annoyingly it also means that you can't use your receiver's internet radio in zone 2 since that is a digital signal.

[sparkyhx]

realistically as you probably already suspect the Sonos is the best answer.

[CC07 PEU]

sparkyhx said:

realistically as you probably already suspect the Sonos is the best answer.

The problem with Sonos though is that you need a power socket for each speaker as far as I'm aware. That's not very practical especially if you want to mount the speakers on the wall in your hallway, for example. It's also stupidly expensive compared to conventional systems and is reliant on a strong WiFi signal in every room.

[VEX]

Also Sonos builds its own Wifi network rather than rely on your own one. So no real need to be techie and re-work your wifi coverage.

V.

[sparkyhx]

VEX said:

Also Sonos builds its own Wifi network rather than rely on your own one. So no real need to be techie and re-work your wifi coverage.

V.

Sonos is better than Wifi, thats one of the advantages over the rest of the systems which are Wifi

- agree about the power socket, but equally you still need speaker cables

Sonos does wireless a bit differently from your standard 802.11x network, which lets the Sonosnet system overcome some distance limitations. In standard WiFi, there is one centralized access point and range is limited to the distance from it. In the Sonosenet each ZP is, effectively, acting as an access point; signal is bounced from ZP to ZP, creating a 'mesh' of radio signals. In theory, if the WiFi signal only carries 75 feet, you can put four ZPs 50 feet apart and, effectively, have a range of up to 225 feet from the first ZP. Each ZP acts as a repeater of sorts, bouncing the signal from one to the next.

In principle, the more ZPs you have, the stronger the mesh signals will become. If your goal is distance, multiple ZPs arranged sequentially could distribute a very strong signal over a linear distance many times greater than that supported by standard WiFi.

Although the SONOS transmissions are based on 802.11g protocols, the use of the hardware in a mesh network increases the distance that the network can cover, according to the company. The coding used by Sonos is proprietary, and doesn't communicate with standard 802.11x. equipment.

Edited by sparkyhx on Monday 9th December 14:22

[sparkyhx]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Sorry, It was mainly aimed at CC07.......... I was adding to Vex's, clarifying the Wifi bit

Not tried that yet - wonder where its hidden in the app. That will certainly help battery life as Wifi is pretty draining.

Edited by sparkyhx on Tuesday 10th December 16:01

[JimbobVFR]

sparkyhx said:

Sorry, It was mainly aimed at CC07.......... I was adding to Vex's, clarifying the Wifi bit

Not tried that yet - wonder where its hidden in the app. That will certainly help battery life as Wifi is pretty draining.

Edited by sparkyhx on Tuesday 10th December 16:01

You'll still be using wifi on the Android device but connected to the Sonos network, not your usual network. Could be good for battery I guess as the mesh network of the Sonos could have a better signal but nowhere near as much as turning wifi off.