A little advice for home audio

Dan Darby

Dan Darby

Dan Darby

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12 Jun 2017
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Hello all, buying my first house very soon and want to fit some ceiling speakers and connect them via an amp to the Amazon echo/dot. Now, I've read up a lot but am still at a loss, I only want 6 speakers in total, 3 pairs, 2 in the kitchen, 2 in the bedroom and 2 in the lounge, relatively small floors as it's a town house. I have read up about the impedance a little. My question is what parameters should I be looking at for the speakers and the amp, does running multiple speakers effect the wattage required? I would also like to use a speaker selector switch which I saw on a website that people said were a good idea. I don't mind if I can't adjust the volume on individual speakers but I would like to turn the zones on and off which I believe can be done via the selector switch.
Sorry for the essay. Thanks in advance for time taken to read and hopefully reply !
 
Ideally you want to use a 6 channel power amplifier, and for every stereo zone, that stereo zone has volume control. That way you can use 4ohm or 8ohm speakers and no worries about impedance, or power.

If you use multiple speakers on a stereo amplifier, then the load will half everytime.

Stereo 8 ohm pair= 8 ohm
Two stereo 8 ohm pairs = 4 ohm
Three stereo 8 ohm pairs = 2 ohm

If you have a good amplifier then two pairs will be possible, as long as the speakers are very easy to drive and high impedence, and dB levels are normal and not party levels.

A speaker switch that only outputs to one set of speakers will be second best, as only driving one set of speakers.


Another option would be three T-Amplifiers, one for each room.
 
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There must be a more elegant way of doing this than a speaker selector switch? Can you get a remote controlled or an app controlled one?

I really don't like the idea of running lots of speakers in parallel from a single amplifier unless it's a very specific piece of kit designed for this purpose. The chance of overheating it and causing clipping is quite significant I think.

I would look into an AV amp with multiple output zones and go from there. Modern ones can be controlled from an app usually and are pretty straightforward to use. It may not be the ideal solution and certainly wouldn't be what a professional installer would use, but I can't think of a better way to do this whilst retaining a decent central user interface. The key here will be how much money you want to throw at the problem! The cheapest option might be three identical second hand integrated amplifiers, a universal remote and an IR magic eye device. You'd then have to look into RCA splitters for the source material.

Are you only looking to have one source playing on all the speakers at any one time or are you keen to have different sources for different rooms?
 
Oh god this is sounding a lot more complicated than I hoped! Only need one source playing at a time. Thanks for the quick replies btw! Very much appreciated!!
 
you want a multi room audio setup on a budget? it's just not possible. ceiling speakers are also very expensive for what you get.

buy sonos, forget the amp and ceiling speakers unless you can afford a proper setup.
 
The AV amp that you have found only has 5 amplifiers so you'd lose one speaker somewhere. If you've only got one source then something like this would do the trick, but controlling the volume independently for all different rooms will be a challenge. You could probably find a reasonable switch solution for cutting power to individual rooms.

It is possible to achieve a system on a budget, but you need to think more carefully about exactly what you want and how many corners you're willing to cut.

Sonos is a very good workaround for this but still isn't cheap!
 
AV amp isn't the right solution either. it sends different sounds to different speakers.

centre channel would become redundant in a stereo solution. so he needs a 7.1 AVR.

he then somehow needs to wire that all up so he can cut off certain channels. he will also be limited to always having the same thing playing in all rooms whereas with sonos he can have the same or different.

he could wire 1 up different as a multi room setup but 2 rooms will always have to have the same content playing.

sonos just seems like a no brainer here
 
It's possible to use a AVR, if that AVR has a quad stereo DSP. For example, if I play stereo music and use music surround, the side left is the same signal as front left, side right is the same signal as front right.

Some AVR's have zone 2 but unsure if they can play another input at the same time, like the record/listen on stereo amps.
 
hornetstinger said:
It's possible to use a AVR, if that AVR has a quad stereo DSP. For example, if I play stereo music and use music surround, the side left is the same signal as front left, side right is the same signal as front right.

Some AVR's have zone 2 but unsure if they can play another input at the same time, like the record/listen on stereo amps.
Click to expand...

yeah but that would play the same source through to every room it wouldn't allow different sources to each room. he would also need to find a way of turning any 1 or 2 of the 3 rooms off which would invole some sort of remote controlled switches. just seems a lot of faff to overcome what sonos is designed for
 
Did you already buy the Amazon echo/dot ?

If not get a google home and 3 chromecast audios/CCA + active speakers for the kitchen/bedroom and existing(?) hifi amp in lounge.
can also control the chromecast's from a plex client inside chrome browser on a tablet, or maybe phone
no wiring required, providing wifi is ok.
only downside is probably physically turning off speakers &CCA manually when you will not need it in room for a while.

Google Home can also initiate multi-room audio streaming on its own. Once you have your Cast-ready speakers grouped by name, just say "OK Google, play [music] on [audio group name]" and the audio will start up synchronized across multiple speakers. This will work both for groups that include the Home and those that don't
Click to expand...
 
Psycho Sonny said:
yeah but that would play the same source through to every room it wouldn't allow different sources to each room. he would also need to find a way of turning any 1 or 2 of the 3 rooms off which would invole some sort of remote controlled switches. just seems a lot of faff to overcome what sonos is designed for
Click to expand...

The OP was only interested in a single source for all the rooms, so an all channel "stereo" mode would work quite well. The centre speaker would be redundant, granted. The speaker switching is the thing I can't get my head around and would need some extra thought, as would individual volume controls for each room.

A second hand AV amp was my suggestion as it's a pretty easy way of getting hold of a multichannel power amp with a few extra bells and whistles which might be useful (eg a second zone).

Three Sonos would be great, but I'm not sure if that's the ideal solution as they're not all that discrete and they rely on the speakers within the unit. Also very expensive!

OP will have to make do with some quirks with the system unless big bucks are spent.

Another suggestion (second hand): 3 x Apple TV (+cheap DAC)/Airport Express (no need for DAC) --> 3 integrated amplifiers --> whatever speakers. I'm an Apple whore recently and I've found that airplay works really nicely with multi-room. I'm lead to believe that from a computer (rather than a phone or tablet), itunes can airplay to all apple TVs simultaneously in a "house party" mode. You can use the apple TV as a pre amp of sorts too and control the volume from your phone or digital source. Might be a bit fiddly but that would definitely give a true multiroom setup! I've not got experience with chromecast, but I reckon a similar setup could be achieved with that too... although I think chromecast lacks dedicated audio outputs.
 
Chromecast might work well then... is there an option to link all of them together like airplay devices?

An IR magic eye and a universal remote would also be a good idea so that you can hide everything away.

There are lots of solutions if you're willing to play about a bit!
 
as I implied - Chromecast audio is only working from a google home - yes ?
the grouping/linking command was ref'd in the post.
 
Get three sonos play:1's will be a lot less hassle and once you've factored in amp, speakers, cabling and install costs it will probably be cheaper not to mention better!
 
jpaul said:
as I implied - Chromecast audio is only working from a google home - yes ?
the grouping/linking command was ref'd in the post.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean but just about any device can cast to a Chromecast or group of Chromecast audios. You don't need a Google home device at all :)
 
(if you want voice control) The amazon echo cannot control chromecast
However, the Google Home does have one major advantage: it can control your Chromecast. You can ask Home to play a particular show or open an app on your Chromecast and it will load automatically. If something’s already playing, you can pause, stop, or skip with your voice. Currently, the Echo cannot do this.
Click to expand...


or have they fixed that now ? (not in aamzon's interest ? funny do not seem to eable to buy chromecast audio on amazon)
that was why I said need a google home OR
you have to buy Sonos ($$$) OR
you have to have aniother device phone/tablet in the loop (if your media is on plex would need that anyway)

[another interesting question - when a google home controls a chromecast does the google home send it the stream or does it work autonomously ? ]
 
Could you not just install the speakers as you like, then run them back to 3 x Sonos Connect:Amps? I believe they have phono in's on them too, so you could hook the Echo etc into that to distribute round the house. Gives you full control of all the volumes etc all via the app.
 
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