Whats a good multi room Home Cinema Amp?

[Mallers]

Hello, I am looking at getting a home cinema amp for 5.1.2. Ideally would also like to be able to run pairs of speakers (wand waving here, so ideally if poss!) into bedroom, spare room and kitchen (can bin the kitchen, not wholly fussed there. So, 5.1.2 + 2 (3 if poss but not essential) more zones each with 2 speakers. Is there any reasonable home cinema amp that could do that please? Budget in region of 2k, can manoeuvre a bit round that but if the only answer is eg a 10k amp then its a hard no.
Should add, i realise i can get HEOS/Sonos etc, but im a little space constrained and dont want speakers sat on bookshelves, hanging off walls, or on window sills if possible. Have a loft so can run wiring around to different rooms so would have been looking at in ceiling mounts

 

[hornetstinger]

If you want second output, you'll want zone 2. Three outputs, zone 3.

Look at the range, and see which has one zone, two zone or three zones, move up the models until one is suitable. Ie checkout the Denon 1800, 2800, 3800, 4800, 6800, 8500 in that order until the back panel looks ok.

Another option is a AVR in the main zone and a second and third amplifier in those zones, ie Denon 1800 plus two Wiim amps. Those wiims are stereo integrated amp with DAC and audio streamer.

I'm unsure if with the AVR you can have the audio streamer and other inputs playing on other zones, I've never used that feature. ie you want CD on zone 1, the audio streamer inside the denon on zone 2, and record on zone 3.

 

[Firegod]

From one of the Denon manuals:

Playback in ZONE2 (Another room)​

You can operate this unit to enjoy audio in a room (ZONE2) that is different from the room where this unit is placed (MAIN ZONE).
You can simultaneously play back the same source in both the MAIN ZONE and ZONE2. You can also play back separate sources in the MAIN ZONE and ZONE2.
If the input for ZONE2 is set to “Source”, both digital and analog connected devices can be listened to from ZONE2.
If the input for ZONE2 is set to a specific source (like CBL/SAT), only connected analog devices can be listened to from ZONE2.

 

[Mallers]

Many thanks both! ill take a look. I was mainly after something so that i could stream music, podcasts from phone to amp then to which ever room im in. Would mainly be only in that room, so not bothered about playing to multiple rooms at once. A cheaper was i guess would be getting individual portable speakers etc but apart from space my place is a dust trap so anything that doesnt sit around would be better, hence after in ceiling speakers and run off one amp (any comedians who suggest cheaper speakers and a decent feather duster, ive heard it all already

 

[hornetstinger]

Many thanks both! ill take a look. I was mainly after something so that i could stream music, podcasts from phone to amp then to which ever room im in. Would mainly be only in that room, so not bothered about playing to multiple rooms at once. A cheaper was i guess would be getting individual portable speakers etc but apart from space my place is a dust trap so anything that doesnt sit around would be better, hence after in ceiling speakers and run off one amp (any comedians who suggest cheaper speakers and a decent feather duster, ive heard it all already

Ceiling speakers for stereo music will be crap. They're designed for atmos, or general commercial background music use. Best to get some regular stereo speakers.

 

[jaybee]

Have you considered multi room by using a bunch of Amazon Echo/Alexa speaker devices? This would save the complexity of cable runs from the main AVR into your multiroom locations. As an example setup in our house when we have parties I just start playing something on say my phone on Spotify, then just select the "Downstairs" group for it to play on. Music then starts playing in the Lounge, Kitchen and Shed. You can obviously extend this to as many rooms as you have devices.

For the lounge and shed, I have a very cheap old generation echo device, like the hockey puck style size (very small). Then I have the AUX cable out of those going into the lounge AVR and shed class D amp, which then obviously play on nice speakers.
For the kitchen device it's a Yamaha sound bar/sub with Alexa built in so it's directly selectable and the sound is decent.

The ease of use is lovely and the sound always in sync and very reliable. Just something to consider.

 

[hornetstinger]

Have you considered multi room by using a bunch of Amazon Echo/Alexa speaker devices? This would save the complexity of cable runs from the main AVR into your multiroom locations. As an example setup in our house when we have parties I just start playing something on say my phone on Spotify, then just select the "Downstairs" group for it to play on. Music then starts playing in the Lounge, Kitchen and Shed. You can obviously extend this to as many rooms as you have devices.

For the lounge and shed, I have a very cheap old generation echo device, like the hockey puck style size (very small). Then I have the AUX cable out of those going into the lounge AVR and shed class D amp, which then obviously play on nice speakers.
For the kitchen device it's a Yamaha sound bar/sub with Alexa built in so it's directly selectable and the sound is decent.

The ease of use is lovely and the sound always in sync and very reliable. Just something to consider.

There's wiim mini, and those have sync feature, where each device listens to the other one and adds a delay, so if you play the same track they are both in time and not half second behind

 

[jaybee]

Something I noticed on my Spotify is that my Yamaha RX-V485 always shows up as a device I can direct stream to, but the same AVR does not show up as selectable as a device I can add to an Alexa Multi Room (speaker combined) Group. I can only add my echos, echo dots, echo flex's and my Yamaha sound bar. Not sure why that is. If I can fix that, I don't even need the little echo dot AUX'd into my main AVR for multi room.