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

Hi all,

I've been lurking on and off for years, and am finally moving to a new house where I'll be able to set up some real AV equipment. I have lots of decisions to make, but I was hoping to get your advice on the best ways to get pump music into several different rooms.

For the basement media room I think I'm pretty set on W22/W150/QS8/EP500. It's a 19x16 room. WAF is very key in all of this, so don't bother suggesting M80s

I am thinking Algonquins for the deck, but everywhere else in the house (family room, bedrooms, etc.) speakers will need to be in ceiling.

Anyway, my main question is how would you recommend getting music to all these different speakers? I want something easy to use, and not a ridiculously expensive automation system. So:

- Do I need a seperate receiver and/or amp for each room?
- Is Sonos a good answer here?

Sorry for the long/open ended post, but I am working with a blank slate here and want to make sure i get something that works together well

Welcome to the Axiom forum Chicagojmw.

The W22/W150/QS8/EP500 is an excellent choice! This should provide you with plenty "wow" factor. Any of the modern 7.1 recievers these days should have a zone 2 capability which would allow you to power a 5.1 system along with your outdoor speakers. I have never used the zone 2 capability but I believe you would have to install the speaker wire hooked up to the outdoor speakers to the surround back speaker terminals of the receiver and change the settings in the menu of the receiver accordingly so it is setup for 5.1+zone 2 instead of 7.1.

If you have a usable zone2 or zone3, then the solutions below are overkill. Otherwise...

I don't know much about Sonos (apart from the price) so I cannot say much. The two solutions with which I am familiar (i.e. using) involve a PC.

The first variation makes sense if you already own an iPhone or iTouch or would like to justify buying one!
1. PC + iTunes (Wi-Fi remote controlled by iPhone) + as many 100$ AirPort express (which then serves as "remote speakers") as you have receivers in your home.

2. PC + SqueezeBox duet (which comes with a Wi-Fi remote + player) + as many 200$ remote player you have receivers.

Solution 1 is a bit less user friendly (because of Apple's strange notion of what a useful remote control is), but is about 50% less expensive.

We would never do that, however, the Architectural 80s would be ideal for that situation.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

For receivers with zone 2/zone 3 capabilities, how does that work? Would I have to play both zones at the same time or could I have different volume levels / songs going in the different zones. Also if the deck is far away from the receiver how would I control it?

I do own an iphone, so I have definitely looked into the Airport Express and Squeezebox options. Both might work for me, although I had been leaning towards Sonos because 1) I don't have a lot of music so easy access to Pandora/internet radio is a big plus and 2) it lets you play different songs in different zones while I think you can't do that with the others. Who knows how often I'll use that feature, but it sounds cool...

Do note that most receivers with multiple zones only allow the analog inputs to be routed to the additional zone or zones. They do not have the ability to play digital (optical, coax, or HDMI) inputs on those outputs. Make sure you check the manual before you invest in a receiver, if that is your plan.

But yes, they do have their own volume control, and allow different content--with the restriction noted above.

SqueezeBoxes would give you ultra-easy access to internet radio (they are quite good at it), but not playing different things in different room unless you have more than one computer, in which case you can bind different players/source.

For both your needs, I would take iTunes/iPhone out of the picture completely (no internet streaming worth mentioning and it is painful to setup multiple iTunes with the same music to play different things at the same time).

Welcome! I have the exact W-series arrangement you plan on getting, you will not be disappointed!

I also use Sonos and highly recommend it for the very reasons you mention. As you already know, Squeezebox and Airport will do most of what Sonos does, so it's all about what's worth it to you. For me an expandable system that can play different songs in different rooms was the selling factor for Sonos vs. the other systems (plus my wife surprised me with it for Christmas)!

I am just building a house and went thru all of this pain in the last few months.

I bought a bunch of T2 in wall speakers (I think they renamed them) and the Outdoor variation for the deck & garage, and am hooking them up to a Leviton amp. The Leviton amp has 7 inputs and six powered zone outputs with a controller in each output zone (room).

For the inputs, I'm going with my Cable Box (music channels), my AVR, Two computers, and an Apple Airport Express.

Basically I'll be able to send any of my inputs to any of the output rooms and control everything in each room.

The Leviton amp is pretty slick, 50W/channel * 12 channels.

They don't really market to retail, more a custom installer item. However, its easy to set up and you can pick it up online.

Have a look here:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=127530§ion=22381

In this way you have easier control of your system than running everything from a single unit which was not designed to be controlled from the speaker locations.

Just my 2c

How do you plan to control the Leviton remotely?

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.