setting up multi-speaker setup through out my house... i need input

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agent4256

Weaksauce
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May 24, 2005
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Ok, here is the deal. For christmas this year, we are putting speakers in several different rooms of our one story house. Speakers need to be in wall or ceiling, white is perfered. There will be 7 rooms including 2 sections of outdoor speakers, we would like the volume to be controlled by inwall controls. What equipment should we be looking for. Everything will be played through a computer in mp3 files (i'm converting the vinyls to mp3 this summer).

What would we need to do the system? We already have speakers for 3 of the rooms. and 1 sub in one of the rooms.

Thanks!
 
What are you looking to spend? Will you want different material in each room? What equipment do you have on hand? Will all rooms be stereo, or would you like some to be surround capable?
 
First things first, get a Parts Express catalog. Its free.

The whole house audio products are towards the front of the catalog.

It sounds like you understand the basics of what is needed. You will need at least one speaker in each room, two would probably be fine. Volume controlls can be purchased that fit into single gang boxes like light switches. Although you can buy amplifiers designed specifically for whole house applications, they are very expensive. It may be more economical to buy a regular amplifier (like pro-sound ones) and use series-parrellel wiring. You could safely wire 4 speakers to one channel and maintain an 8 ohm load. So a typical stereo amplifier could give you 8 speakers worth, thats enough for 2 stereo speakers in 4 rooms. You may also look at used equipment, a 5 channel amplifier would be good. I have a Harman Kardon PA5800 5ch amplifier that is pretty good, you can find them used for about $3-400.

I would run the wire above the ceiling obviously for the speakers, since it sounds like the ceiling will open to the attic. Running the wire down the walls for the volume controlls will be fun, but its do-able. Alot of times there is a stud that runs horizontally half way down the wall that can make wire runs difficult. Use 14 gauge wire to keep the resistance down. Here is some in wall approved 14 awg wire (500 ft).

For the MP3 aspect I'm not sure what you have in mind. You can use a computer for sure. You could also try a networkable MP3 player. Something from Slim Devices, or Roku Labs. These would allow to have control at either the player or the server PC, plus would require less power and can work on WiFi for less wire clutter. They also are standalone meaning no monitor or keyboard.

And just in case you want to really have some fun you may want to look into infinite baffle subwoofers :D
 
funny you mention the parts express catalogue.. its sitting here on my desk at work, i use them all the time to buy parts.

i greatly appreciate your input. Basically you helped me out alot. I don't know the budget my parents(the ones buying the system, its their house, i live there when i'm not in school) but i'm guessing they wouldn't mind going somewhat high end.

As for the mp3 part of it. i was thinking of getting a shuttle PC and throwing in a 400 gig hdd or so because the music collection is that big, and my dad comments on it daily. The shuttle would then be connected up to the 26" LCD tv my parents are thinking of buying. Power isn't an issue (we have photovoltaic cells, *solar panels*) on our roof. But i will looking into Slim Devices and Roku Labs.

Thanks for the feedback, it helps me out a ton!
 
A wireless Slimdevices Squeezebox would be a very good tool for this application. There would be no need to buy a second computer.
 
westrock2000 said:
Running the wire down the walls for the volume controlls will be fun, but its do-able. Alot of times there is a stud that runs horizontally half way down the wall that can make wire runs difficult.
Click to expand...
I run wire as my primary job. The tool to do this is a skinny green fiberglass stick, affectionately known as a "fish stick". Cut a hole in the drywall where you want the volume control, stick it up the wall. If you're lucky, you have a) drop ceilings or b) open tops on the walls. You probably don't have either, though, so drill a hole in the 2x4 at the top of the wall. Swing the fish stick around until it comes out the top of the hole. Then electrical tape the cable to the top and pull it back down. Wire it into the wall and you're done.

You may want to look into a system that'll let you cut off the audio in a particular room altogether; I don't know if the newer volume control knows have some magic built in, but the old one I have works with a resistor, and that sucker can get pretty warm if you leave the system turned down all the way for any length of time.

The Slimdevices are fine if you don't care about what format it is. I don't think those deal with flac, so it wouldn't work for me.
 
A pro installer! Great. I've been considering fishing some network cable in my house. Thanks for your impressions about the in-wall volume controls, et al. However, I hope you don't mind if I correct your statement about FLAC on the slimdevices doohickies.

Slimdevices' Slimp3 and Squeezebox 1 couldn't decode FLAC natively, however the software could transcode everything to WAV, which the device could interpret. The Squeezebox 2 decodes FLAC, OGG, WAV and MP3 natively inside the device. It supports nearly everything else (non-DRM) via software transcoding to WAV in the server software. It's very light on CPU and memory, so, given enough disk space, the server can run on something like a P133/64MB computer. Both the device firmware and the server software are long running open source projects with (obvious) commercial support as well as an enthusiastic user community, so the sotware is quite feature rich and stable.
 
Also I forgot to mention to try and avoid tweeters that use mylar. Mylar can work in certain applications, however when used as a tweeter it is generally as a cost effective product. I have never seen a dome mylar tweeter that even had a reasonable frequency response. They generally break up pretty bad below 3-4K Hz and don't do the top end great either. Fabric (cloth, silk, etc...) or Metal (titanium, aluminum, etc...) would be better here.
 
My local Chipotle uses Mirage Omnisats for the sound system. Thier omnipolar tweeter design makes them a great choice for a difuse suondstage for room filling sound. I always enjoy the sound when I'm in there, at least when the store is quiet enough to hear it properly. They do need a subwoofer for bass support. For an ambient effect take a look at the Mirage speakers.
 
GMC: I'm in MD too, Laurel. I'd trade helping you with the network cable (advice on parts, help, etc) for a look at some of that audio hardware... :D I could just do it myself (free), or get the Boss involved (not free, but support!). PM if you're interested.

I'm glad to take the correction; I was under the impression that none of those network music players could deal with flac. I use a little fanless, lanbooting celeron box running geexbox for my network music stuff. Nice to know there's an alternative.
 
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