Distributed AV in the home

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
We are are currently in the process of purchasing a house. All going well we will essentially own a shell I can install lots of goodies into!

Ideally I want to do all this as cheaply as possible but this kind of thing doesn't scream "cheap", especially if you want reasonable sound quality...

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I'm tempted to install a matrix system for HDMI over Cat but not sure if it's really worth it at the moment as we will probably only be streaming content to a couple of TV's/projectors and we don't do cable TV.

I do want to put the cabling in for it however, going to a central point, just in case I do (or the next people do). There seems to be two different types, one that needs two Cat5/6 cables and ones that need only one? Is it a brand specific thing?

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I also want to install ceiling speakers in several rooms. I'm currently anticipating 5 zones, but the other half may want one or two more! Zones I'm anticipating are:

Garden - 2-4 speakers?
Living/Dining/Kitchen area - Open plan ish - 3?
Master Bedroom - 12x12 ft - 2?
Rec Room - approx 30x14ft - 2-4?
Garage - away from house so probably seperate system - 2

Possible other - Bathroom -1

There seem to be a multitude of options available for this, including multi zone amps, Sonos Connect:Amps, Apple Airport Express(?). Ideally I want a system that I can adjust the volume and pick source and songs easily from every room, either using an App or a wall system.

Music would be coming from spotify/streaming radio and personal music collection stored on a Synology Nas. There are two of us in the house and we both currently have iPhones and iPads. I'm also not sure how much speaker power I would need in each room.

The multi zone amps that fit the bill best would be 6 zone 12 channel amps I believe. From the research I have done I would then need to connect something like the (or several) Airport Express to it and use that as a source?

I like the idea of a Sonos for the seperate Garage system (the garage is about 70 feet from the house), or at least something similar. I'm not sure they would be economical for the rest of the house though? Do they also need be visible or can I hide them away. I understand they have a good app though and can be used as both a source and amp?

As you can see I'm floundering around a little here - it's not really my forte - but any input would be great. If you have a system I'd love to know what setup you have.

TLDR: Spec me an in ceiling speaker system.:)
 
Thanks for the reply.

My plan is to colour code the Cat cable, Red (for example) for network, Blue for video and grey for any automation I do. That way there is no chance of me plugging the wrong wire into the wrong network... And hopefully easy to understand for the next people as well.

There are only two people in the house so many of the issues shouldn't be a problem, which is actually why I'm probably just going to install the cables and not the matrix, at least yet. My thinking is we will have free to air, streamed content and maybe a Blu Ray player, all going to one TV and one projector/large TV (in different rooms). Not sure it's worth it for £1000 on the matrix, especially when the vast majority will be streamed through a couple of Amazon Fire boxes! :)

WRT the Sonos system, they thing that's putting me off about them is the fact they will cost about £2k, just for the amps. I'm also not sure how we could control all of them with a tablet/phone. Is it just a case of the Sonos app listing all 5 and you name them to the room?

Having Sonos would help in many ways but I'm also not sure where to put them. I assume they need to be accessible (to turn on and off) but just stacking them in the media room/cupboard seems a waste as the same cable length would be needed as a 6 zone amp. For example I couldn't store the Amp in the bathroom.

My understanding with using the 12 channel amp is that you would then plug multiple Airport expresses into the amp to get your multi channel. It does seem a bit messier than the songs but it would be cheaper and (at a guess) the expresses would be controlled by phone and we could have one each. It would also be more expandable in the future.

Do you have any recommendations for in ceiling speakers that would fit the rooms I mentioned above? I've been looking around and a few US only companies keep popping up (the house is in North America) but I know little about more worldwide companies and their products at the moment. Same with the Amp.

Any non background music will be played through dedicated speakers, for example I'm going to eventually install a 7.1 system made up of wall/floor speakers with the projector/large TV and the second TV will just be playing through a sounder or integrated speakers.
 
Is there any benefit of using HDMI cable over CAT for the projector, other than cost? My first thought was to connect the projector with CAT as I really want to hide all the AV equipment in a seperate room, which will probably be too far for HDMI.

Sonos does look very promising and does appear to do all that would be needed. I 'll have a look into it in more detail. :) I guess I could easily set up a console for the whole system just using a cheap android tablet as well, if I wanted something physical on the wall.

The bathroom isn't actually attached to the Bedroom, but is right next door. Setting up as a single zone is not something I'm keen on as (for example) it wouldn't work when the other half was having a shower and I was still in bed. However if I attached a nice three way switch between the amp and speakers that may solve that issue. I think something like a single stereo in the bathroom and a single stereo or twin singles in the bedroom (12'x12') and then the switch between the rooms so you can choose to route the sound between either the bedroom or the bathroom, or both (I assume you'd lose half the volume - or is this where 8/4 Ohm switching comes in?) would work.

There seems to be lots of options for Polk speakers, along with a few KEF and Yamaha speakers. I'm sure I could probably get many of the others though. Do you have any links for websites that review in ceiling speakers? I guess the biggest question I have now is what sort of quality do I want. Would you also recommend sticking with only one speaker brand or is mixing and matching fairly common (individual rooms).
 
I take it you have sonos speakers? One thing I thought of earlier was how seamless is the sonos system when going form one zone to another? For example when moving from the living room to the bedroom/downstairs can you just flick from one zone to another halfway through a song, like you would with the 12 channel amp or do you have to turn one zone off and then find the song you were listening to in the other zone?
 
First off, thanks Lucid for that last reply, as usual very useful! :)

I'm now much further down the line with the designs for the house, although unfortunately not yet moving into the house. I now have some pretty set plans for the basement and rest of the house which means I can actually get to the final stages of planning the AV!

I've taken a lot of what was said earlier in to consideration and I think I'll be using a combination of Sonos Amps and players for the audio part. The current feeling is:

Rec Room - 26x16ft - A Sonos Connect: Amp and 4 mono(?) ceiling speakers evenly spread (see second image)
Bathroom 1 - 9x6ft - Sonos Play 1
Bathroom 2 - 10x6ft - Sonos Play 1
Bedroom - 12x12ft - Sonos Play 3/5(?)
Office - 12x10ft - Sonos Play 3/5(?) (see below)
Garden - Sonos Connect: Amp and speakers

The area I'm undecided on at the moment is the Living/Dining/Kitchen area. It's semi open plan and I'm not sure whether to go for a Sonos Amp and ceiling speakers like downstairs or move to a selection of Sonos Plays. The latter would be cheaper but I assume the former would provide more even sound distribution?

I guess I could install 4 ceiling speakers - one in the kitchen, one dining and two in above the sofa, or I could stick to a couple of play 5's, or I could buy 4 Play 1s and dot them around the area, one by the TV, two at either ends of the bookshelf and one in the kitchen. Any opinions from those with Sonos would be great, thanks. :)

All that said, perhaps one/two Play 3/5s downstairs in the Rec room may be a better option. If I build a couple of shelves for them they can be out of the way. Would two Play 3/5s provide better sound quality than 4 in ceiling speakers? I haven't yet actually listened to any of the Sonos stuff. It's on my to do list..:o

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It looks like if I get an Airport Express and plug it into a Play device then I can also Airplay sound from my Mac. Is it as simple as I'm assuming? From a windows computer it sounds more complicated. I assume the easiest option is just to buy a Play 5 for the office and use the line in?

So TL: DR -
Sonos Play:1s reasonable for small rooms?
What Sonos Plays for bedroom/office?
Multiple Sonos Devices rather than Sonos Connect:Amp and in ceiling speakers for two main rooms?
Best way to be able to use Sonos as speakers for Windows computer?

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Back to the distributed visual - I'm now erring towards HDMI to both TV locations. With HDMI 2.0 it looks like I will be able to get 4k over the distances I need so I could store all my AV stuff in a cupboard (Green circle in image below) and then put an HDMI cable through the walls to the main TV/Projector location (it's either TV or projector downstairs). For upstairs the TV will be virtually on top of the cupboard. If I stick a couple of Cat 6 cables along with the HDMI I should get a degree of future proofing if I need more bandwidth later on.

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Slowly getting there I think!
 
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