Driving an old wired multi-room speaker system
Discussion
We recently bought a house that must have been previously owned by fans of classic rock - quite a few oddball band-related decoration choices and in-wall speakers in almost every room of the house. The speaker kit is Boston Acoustics and seems reasonably decent from online reviews.
The question i have is what kind of a receiver or amp is right to drive all those speakers? How does one set up L/R stereo when there are multiple speakers per room? The audio source will be Spotify 99% of the time.
I need to make a decision pretty quickly whether to keep the system or patch up the walls, but I'm inclined to keep it - its quirky.
(Ignore the awful hacked up electrical socket in shot...thats coming out ASAP)
The question i have is what kind of a receiver or amp is right to drive all those speakers? How does one set up L/R stereo when there are multiple speakers per room? The audio source will be Spotify 99% of the time.
I need to make a decision pretty quickly whether to keep the system or patch up the walls, but I'm inclined to keep it - its quirky.
(Ignore the awful hacked up electrical socket in shot...thats coming out ASAP)
Wadeski said:
Any specifics specs I can look up for the amp(s)?
Wondering if it is some kit i can get second hand on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Can also pull it out - contractors are still there for another week.
You need nine stereo amplifiers (eighteen channels) to drive the nine pairs of speakers. Wondering if it is some kit i can get second hand on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Can also pull it out - contractors are still there for another week.
You need nine zone players, so each area can appear and be separately selected for music.
So Sonos, Bluesound, Yamaha Musicast etc make these players / amps combined, from around £400 each.
You can buy them in stages and sprayed the cost.
You can buy zone players separately from under £150 from Yamaha, but then you need lots of power amps, which cost a lot more!
Also, you need to remove al of those speaker wall plates to check for shorts. Never trust that all is well behind there!
There is a halfway house solution too. It makes no sense to pull all speakers out, if they are good.
However, some zones might never need such speakers / amps for your use.
So you could buy a few amplified zone players for your wiring hub location, then get all in one smart speakers from the same brand for the secondary areas.
Remover the in wall speakers from those secondary areas and keep for spares.
What do you think of these options?
Getting my head around it....
One thing i want to avoid is over-speccing for my needs...i don't need AV (the speaker setup is in no way positioned for AV surround, and i don't need to play different music in different rooms of the house).
However, if there is no simple way to, say, stack a couple of second hand power amps and run a Chromecast Audio as the input, I think I would just have the contractors patch the holes.
One thing i want to avoid is over-speccing for my needs...i don't need AV (the speaker setup is in no way positioned for AV surround, and i don't need to play different music in different rooms of the house).
However, if there is no simple way to, say, stack a couple of second hand power amps and run a Chromecast Audio as the input, I think I would just have the contractors patch the holes.
Wadeski said:
Getting my head around it....
One thing i want to avoid is over-speccing for my needs...i don't need AV (the speaker setup is in no way positioned for AV surround, and i don't need to play different music in different rooms of the house).
However, if there is no simple way to, say, stack a couple of second hand power amps and run a Chromecast Audio as the input, I think I would just have the contractors patch the holes.
In that case, buy a second hand integrated Hi-Fi amp and an impedance balanced speaker switch box. Get a few zones working with the C’Cast into an aux input. One thing i want to avoid is over-speccing for my needs...i don't need AV (the speaker setup is in no way positioned for AV surround, and i don't need to play different music in different rooms of the house).
However, if there is no simple way to, say, stack a couple of second hand power amps and run a Chromecast Audio as the input, I think I would just have the contractors patch the holes.
Get some sounds going around the place for £200ish.
You’ll be able to switch zones on / off with the buttons and try out all the areas to see what you like.
If you use more zones, or want more can expand from there.
Depends how complex/up to date/expensive you want to get...I mean, you could network the whole thing with soundweb, but from what you say it would be massive overkill and you don't want to spend much.
The simplest/cheapest way would be your chromecast into a single amp, then a speaker switching system feeding whichever sets of speakers you want hooked up.
All in one place by that panel, take up a couple of rack spaces and not expensive.
Before you spend a single $, do inspect & test all of the cables/speakers first!
The simplest/cheapest way would be your chromecast into a single amp, then a speaker switching system feeding whichever sets of speakers you want hooked up.
All in one place by that panel, take up a couple of rack spaces and not expensive.
Before you spend a single $, do inspect & test all of the cables/speakers first!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dayton-MA1240a-Multi-Zone...
Something like this would do six rooms and it’s cheap . If you look in the questions someone has written a comprehensive write up , you could connect chrome audio as your source .
I have multi room audio , (Sonos) but I almost never have different music in different rooms . It’s always just the same everywhere
Something like this would do six rooms and it’s cheap . If you look in the questions someone has written a comprehensive write up , you could connect chrome audio as your source .
I have multi room audio , (Sonos) but I almost never have different music in different rooms . It’s always just the same everywhere
Do you actually need the ability to play in each room? Why not just buy a Sonos Amp and make a room live at a time? See how you like it and then add another if you need it? You could even search for Sonos connect amps on ebay. They are end of life I think but will give you a few years of Spotify at least and should be quite cheap.
Realistically doing them all at once, cheap, is going to end in a sub standard system which will probably annoy and be more hassle than it is worth.
You have the hard bit done - the cabling and speakers - so just gradually liven things up.
Realistically doing them all at once, cheap, is going to end in a sub standard system which will probably annoy and be more hassle than it is worth.
You have the hard bit done - the cabling and speakers - so just gradually liven things up.
I have one sonos connect amp running 13 ceiling speakers. Surprisingly, it is good enough for background music. I may add to the system in the future but it would be more about control than volume.
On the flip side, the sonos connect amp I have running the outdoor speakers is a little under powered so I may use a spare pioneer amp to boost the volume.
On the flip side, the sonos connect amp I have running the outdoor speakers is a little under powered so I may use a spare pioneer amp to boost the volume.
h0b0 said:
I have one sonos connect amp running 13 ceiling speakers.
Physics says that shouldn't work but I'm glad it does for you. I guess you can't put much volume through it?It's a good point though - one amp should easily be able to drive 4 speakers which might be a couple of rooms.
It certainly is not a recommendation to run 10+ speakers on one sonos amp. Mine is the older connect amp which I think may have a little more power and they are only small speakers for background noise. It will cut out when trying to do a dance party though.
The original set up was 5 decent ceiling speakers in the lounge for surround and then a couple of speakers in the kitchen, master bath and bedroom. I don't need surround sound in the lounge so had them all hooked up to a speaker box.
The original set up was 5 decent ceiling speakers in the lounge for surround and then a couple of speakers in the kitchen, master bath and bedroom. I don't need surround sound in the lounge so had them all hooked up to a speaker box.
If you're browsing craiglist and ebay - you'll need a multizone amplifier and a controller of some sort.
Usually, these are sold as pairs on the second hand market - it's not terribly complicated to set up. Each zone is individually controllable - from your post it seems as if there are more than 1 pair of speakers in a room?
Usually, these are sold as pairs on the second hand market - it's not terribly complicated to set up. Each zone is individually controllable - from your post it seems as if there are more than 1 pair of speakers in a room?
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