Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Distributed home audio

Sounds like an interesting setup PSpee.

Are the Leviton controls in each room hard wired? How do you control the source remotely from each zone? (i.e. cable box, AVR etc...)

Thanks.

The Leviton does seem like an interesting option. Would love to know the answer to Michael_D's question as well. If I have the Leviton in the basement (which I would) how would I control it upstairs?

For the theater itself are you running the speakers through the Leviton, or just directly connecting to the AVR?

Chicagojmw,
Forgot to mention that you can control all Sonos zones with your iPhone or iPod Touch. It's a free app from Sonos. In fact, if you end up going the Sonos route, don't bother with the dedicated Sonos remote as it's just as expensive if not more $$ than an iTouch and doesn't offer any real advantage over the free app. I use an iTouch myself. (wait that just sounds wrong! )

When I built my home, I pulled speaker wire and Cat5 to each "zone" and home ran the wires back to my office. I had planned to pick up a multi zone / multi input amp like this Leviton, but never got around to buying the speakers or the electronics. I was disappointed with the speaker choices, so I abandoned the idea. I am reconsidering that now.

Years ago, when I pulled all these wires, you could buy control pads that you install at each zone. The key pads required 8 pair wires (Cat5). They would control the amp. I haven’t looked to see what’s available for at least five years now. I suspect there are better gadgets out there now.

There is a completely different method to running a whole home audio set sup than the Sonos / Squeeze Box option. I am strictly interested in the wired option.

I bought a Sonos for my father-in-law, including the original fancy remote. Suffice to say he hasn't really even used it...

I'm w/ Efalardeau...iphones/touches and Airport Express. As long as you are willing to commit to Apple stuff (love 'em or hate 'em), then you have a VERY viable and relatively 'cheap' solution.

W/ the iTunes running on a PC/Mac, every Airport express can access your itunes library and you can control it from your iphone/Touch. You can use iTunes to direct the music to the appropriate Airport Express, including AppleTV. I use both configs in my house. It's all wireless and range is VERY good. If you are worried about 2.4GHz interference (which you have w/ Sonos) you can have your Airports run at 5GHz, though range will decrease. The Expresses output optical so you can run digital to any amp in another room.

ALSO, you can stream Pandora or other streams on top of it.

http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

I can guarantee that this is cheaper than Sonos or Leviton or any of the other fancy distributed audio systems. If you are wiring your house, my suggestion would be to wire extra Cat 5E and you could use wired w/ the Airport express and not worry about Wifi range.

Agreed, I'd always go wired given the choice no matter which distribution solution is chosen. When I renovated I also ran Cat5e most places, even duplicate runs in a coupe of places - you just never know what you might want in the future!

I work for a company who's primary business is wireless communications--I still wire everything I can.

I hear ya Chris. I use wireless for convenience like most do, but I always plug in when I can!

Just saw this thread again and realized there were a couple questions for me! Sorry for the long delay----

I plan to control the Leviton using the in-wall (wired) controllers. It does support RS232 control codes but I don't think an automated solution adds much in my case. The wired controllers require an Ethernet cable to each location - something that was easy for me to install given it is a new house.

I'll control the sources from the room they are in or via my ipod touch in the case of iTunes running on my PC.

For the home theater itself, I'll use my new Denon 4310. I don't think the Leviton has enough oomph for me.