Whole Home Speaker Help

[Sineater]

My house has a speaker in the ceiling of every single room (it was a showhome in early 2000s). What is the bestest cheapest way to control these speakers?

[suchamoneypit]

Are they wireless? Are they wired? Where do the wires go? You would first have to figure out how they are connected and then route them all to something that will control them appropriately. I would guess there is a central location somewhere in the house they are all connected to.

[Rallenhayestime]

1 hour ago, Rev Games said:

My house has a speaker in the ceiling of every single room (it was a showhome in early 2000s). What is the bestest cheapest way to control these speakers?

A receiver? depends on how many there are, and where they hook into anything.

[Sineater]

1 hour ago, suchamoneypit said:

Are they wireless? Are they wired? Where do the wires go? You would first have to figure out how they are connected and then route them all to something that will control them appropriately. I would guess there is a central location somewhere in the house they are all connected to.

sorry I should've been more detailed. they are all wired, and run to my laundry room. they dont connect to anything. they were formerly connected to a wall plate to plug in left and right rca audio. I was just looking for a cheap reciever to control them all with. 

[circeseye]

look for a multi room receiver. then you can have control of what speakers is on.....you can grab some used ones on amazon for under 200 and new ones low 200s to 500
https://www.amazon.com/AV-Receivers-Amplifiers-Multi-Room/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A3213035011%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A4794828011

[NickTheMajin]

On 11/10/2018 at 1:36 AM, circeseye said:

look for a multi room receiver. then you can have control of what speakers is on.....you can grab some used ones on amazon for under 200 and new ones low 200s to 500
https://www.amazon.com/AV-Receivers-Amplifiers-Multi-Room/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A3213035011%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A4794828011

 

Those are all AVRs that, at most, have two zones and almost all of them require a screen to set them up. TC isn't going to find what he wants here. 

 

TC, you need to find where the speaker wires go. They are definitely not wireless speakers. They should have been run to one central location. Buy a multi room amplifier not a receiver. You then need to choose a platform with which to control everything. The old school way was analog volum controls in every room. We don't use those anymore. Pick something like Sonos, Bose, Heos, etc as the platform with which to control each room. Example, if you want to use Sonos you buy one sonos connect per zone. (So if you have a speaker in your bedroom and in your bathroom and you want independent control over each room you buy two sonos connects). 

 

There really is no good way to do it cheaply. 

[TechyBen]

53 minutes ago, NickTheMajin said:

 

Those are all AVRs that, at most, have two zones and almost all of them require a screen to set them up. TC isn't going to find what he wants here. 

 

TC, you need to find where the speaker wires go. They are definitely not wireless speakers. They should have been run to one central location. Buy a multi room amplifier not a receiver. You then need to choose a platform with which to control everything. The old school way was analog volum controls in every room. We don't use those anymore. Pick something like Sonos, Bose, Heos, etc as the platform with which to control each room. Example, if you want to use Sonos you buy one sonos connect per zone. (So if you have a speaker in your bedroom and in your bathroom and you want independent control over each room you buy two sonos connects). 

 

There really is no good way to do it cheaply. 

Yeah. When I worked in a store, for anything over a couple of rooms using Sonos... it was a customer quote, layout and fitting with a few staff doing the fitting and stuff. Usually in the thousands in cost (but could be as low as £2000 or so).

 

An existing system is going to need an Amp and a smart link up (or a smart Amp ). If a new setup, you can at least go it alone now and just use smart speakers. But a control from one central room and wired in speakers (say if someone wants Monitors) is going to be more complicated. See Linus help for iJustin in just getting a PC hooked up... that woman has a great flat with RJ45 in every room! 

[Sineater]

would a surround sound reciever work?

[NickTheMajin]

22 hours ago, TechyBen said:

Yeah. When I worked in a store, for anything over a couple of rooms using Sonos... it was a customer quote, layout and fitting with a few staff doing the fitting and stuff. Usually in the thousands in cost (but could be as low as £2000 or so).

 

An existing system is going to need an Amp and a smart link up (or a smart Amp ). If a new setup, you can at least go it alone now and just use smart speakers. But a control from one central room and wired in speakers (say if someone wants Monitors) is going to be more complicated. See Linus help for iJustin in just getting a PC hooked up... that woman has a great flat with RJ45 in every room! 

 

I'm a custom integrator so what TC wants to do is literally my bread and butter. 

[NickTheMajin]

14 hours ago, Rev Games said:

would a surround sound reciever work?

Not really. 

 

1. The receiver will be in the basement most likely, because that is most likely where the speaker wires were run. How are you going to control what is playing? Do you have Android or iPhone. If Android you are out of luck because at that point bluetooth is your only option and that isn't going to reach the basement. If iPhone at least you can airplay, but even that will be spotty depending on where you are in the house. 

 

2. With a surround receiver, the only way you will get sound to every room will be in multi channel stereo. This will only work if you want every room to play the same thing at the same volume. This might sound good, but in practice this sucks, especially if its not just you in the house. One way around this is to install volume knobs in each room, but these require more wires to be run and if the walls are already up that is not going to happen. And even then, say you go to start playing something and there is a speaker in someone's room who doesn't want to hear it. They then have to get up and manually lower the volume on the knob. You also probably want to play different things in different rooms. 

 

3. Surround receivers require a screen for setup because receivers are primarily for surround sound. Not multi room audio. 

[sebastianshaw1]

That's a tough choice. You can get several portable speakers as well. It's a good thing that they can connect to each other and make the party louder. Otherwise, take a look at Marshall products, now they have even more excellent speakers released. There are many options but you have to know what are your preferences. Anyway, go to ReviewPosition - it will help you. Hope it helps! 

[Sineater]

I dont need to control each room individually. Each room does have a volume knob. the wires all run to my laundry room like stated before. 

[spwath]

20 hours ago, Rev Games said:

I dont need to control each room individually. Each room does have a volume knob. the wires all run to my laundry room like stated before. 

Then a surround receiver would work