Whole house DIY solution

[mrbmason]

First post.

I read this thread and it is very similar to what I want to do.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2273290

I will have 8 zones to start. 3 with 4 speakers and the rest with 2 for a total of 22 speakers (maybe a subwoofer or 2 in certain areas). I will want to have in zone source/volume controls since my wife is not very technical and I will want to have a web based source/volume control as well.

I am willing to attempt to build out the amps/controller or other parts of the system but I am not really sure what all I need and if it will really save me any money. I like the Home Theater Direct solution.

I have looked at these types of parts on Parts Express

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=320-334

I am also willing to piece together software solutions to control it.

We are remodeling the house and I pulled 12/2 speaker wire to all locations and I have them all pulled up to my attic which will be the control center. I have cat pulled to the walls where I would put volume/source controllers. All I need to do now is figure out what the system will be made up of.

Sources will be:
music from my computers
cds
dvds
internet sources (may add a sonos to get that)
stereo

I would like to have 2 of the 4 speaker rooms have surround sound for movie watching if possible.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Brian

 

[Kaido]

Okay so to recap:

1. 8 zones to start (2 or 4 speakers, with or without subwoofer)
2. 5 sources to start (actually more, if there is more than one computer source)
3. Controls (source, volume) in zone area
4. Willing to DIY

Some questions:

1. What budget do you have in mind?
2. What brand and model speakers are you looking at? (power requirements to drive them)
3. How do you envision controlling the system? Do you want something like an in-wall panel with a bunch of push-buttons to switch between sources, or a touchscreen controller?

 

[Kaido]

To recap from the other thread:

1. Sonos is by far the easiest way to do this, but is also fairly expensive. It uses wireless mesh networking and can accept audio input into any box to stream to any other box, so it's completely distributed. They have amplified and unamplified player/receivers, depending on if you want to bring your own amps to the party.

2. There are a bunch of whole-house audio & home automation/smarthome vendors that have pre-existing systems for this type of thing, such as Russound, Nuvo, Home Theater Direct (HTD Lync), Control4, Savant and Crestron to name a few

3. Airplay from Apple is a nice system that can be easily managed via iPod remotes and computer software (Airfoil & Airfoil Remote)

4. Another option is to hardwire everything to pushbuttons and just have it be completely manual

Based on your inputs list:

1. Music from computers: Analog or digital physical output, or software output over the network
2. CD discs: Analog or digital physical output
3. DVD discs: Analog or digital physical output
4. Internet sources: Computer or tablet/portable media receiver
5. Stereo: Analog physical output

So it sounds like you're going to have a lot of stereo output sources within particular zones that need to be distributed out to other zones. Option number one is to have a central hardwired distribution system, like the HTD link:

http://www.htd.com/Products/Lync

Option number two is to have a decentralized system like the Sonos:

http://blog.sonos.com/tips-and-tricks/tip-using-line-in-on-sonos/

For your needs, I'd probably lean towards the Lync system since they have input panels with both analog & digital inputs (such as SPDIF from a high-quality CD player or DVD player):

http://www.htd.com/Products/Input-Panels

And also because Lync has in-zone wall panel controllers:

http://www.htd.com/Products/Lync/LyncPad-Keypad

It all depends on how you want to have everything setup. Sonos is pretty easy because everything can be hidden and you just whip out your phone to control any source in any zone(s), but if you want in-zone physical controls, then you'll either need to stick a tablet on each wall for control via an app or have a physical wall panel. There are plenty of neat wall mounts for iPad & Android tablets available:

http://www.iomounts.com/collections/frontpage/products/iowall

Zillions of options, hard part is narrowing down exactly how you want to control & distribute everything, and then making it all work within your budget

 

[mrbmason]

1. What budget do you have in mind? - as low as I can go. Looked at Sonos but it will add up too quickly.
2. What brand and model speakers are you looking at? (power requirements to drive them) - would like to have mid line speakers for most places. Maybe higher end for the 4 speaker zones since that is the game room and master bed room. I will have a TV in the master and would like decent sound. The rest of the zones are just for nice listening.
3. How do you envision controlling the system? Do you want something like an in-wall panel with a bunch of push-buttons to switch between sources, or a touchscreen controller? - I think controlling will need to be either buttons or a digital "buttons" to select the source. Touch screen would be too much for my wife. Would also like to have web access to control from iPhone/Droid. Doesn't need to be an app, just a web page to select zones/source/volume would be awesome.

Thanks for the reply.

Brian

 

[mrbmason]

Sonos is going to add up quickly. I like their stuff but too pricey.

I am leaning toward the Home Theater Direct (HTD Lync). I think it will do everything that I want and at a decent price. I have read good reviews about their gear and the customer support.

As for sources, I will have a computer racked up in the attic in the same rack as the whole house system. That computer will be the source of all computer based music. I may have a cd/dvd player in the game room in the basement that will need to be plugged in as a source. And most likely a dvd/cd/blueray player in the master bed room as a source. All other sources will be in the rack with the whole house system.

Can I build a HTD type system from parts off of Parts Express and would it really save me anything? It would need to save me about 50% to be worth the headache of building it wrong and everything else that comes along with the first time DIY job.

Thanks again for you help.

Brian

 

[Kaido]

Sonos is going to add up quickly. I like their stuff but too pricey.

I am leaning toward the Home Theater Direct (HTD Lync). I think it will do everything that I want and at a decent price. I have read good reviews about their gear and the customer support.

As for sources, I will have a computer racked up in the attic in the same rack as the whole house system. That computer will be the source of all computer based music. I may have a cd/dvd player in the game room in the basement that will need to be plugged in as a source. And most likely a dvd/cd/blueray player in the master bed room as a source. All other sources will be in the rack with the whole house system.

Can I build a HTD type system from parts off of Parts Express and would it really save me anything? It would need to save me about 50% to be worth the headache of building it wrong and everything else that comes along with the first time DIY job.

Thanks again for you help.

Brian

Well, the Lync system handles both amplification and routing in a centralized unit stack. So it handles in-zone input (like CD player in a room to a wall jack) and can route that to the other zones, as well as wallpanel control inputs (volume, source, etc.). Plus it has smartphone adapters and stuff like that. So you'd have to do quite a bit of electronics engineering to get all of that functionality. Parts Express has stuff a lot more...basic - like a multi-zone amplifier that has a couple inputs, or a physical volume knob for the wall. Not as much "smarts" in it for routing audio creatively. So you don't get all of the capabilities of being able to send audio to different rooms, or multiple different streams to multiple different rooms simultaneously. I mean, if you wanna go nuts, you can do stuff like Arduino for total DIY project:

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1056614

As far as your computer source, if you don't have an audio PC in mind already, check out the Intel NUC (aka Gigabyte Brix) - it uses less than 30 watts at full-load and is under 5" x 5". Basically it's just laptop guts inside a tiny box. The newer ones have USB 3.0, so you can throw on like a 2TB bus-powered drive and have tons of music storage plus all of the web-based sources like Spotify and stuff, but have a very lower 24/7 operational power draw:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/nuc.html

Like I said, zillions of options. Different price points, difficulty factors, feature sets, etc. You can do "everything", but you can also go broke doing it

 

[mrbmason]

Wow, that DIY project sounds cool, but that is the exact situation I don't want to get into. I don't have time to play around with all of the pieces nor the expertise to make it work. I would end up spending $500 and 3 years to have something that kind of works and sounds like crap (not that his would but mine would for sure). So it looks like a checkbook solution is in order. I will dig more into the HTD setup and see what I can get going. I may end up doing it piecemeal to limit the total up front cost.

What speakers do you recommend. I want to keep the cost down to under $100 a pair if I could but would be willing to go higher for game room and master since that will be where the TV's are. I am used to a Bose 5.1 surround sound speaker system that I bought back in 2000. It was driven by a pioneer receiver with 200-400 watts. I would tell you the details but it has been in storage for over a year now with our move and remodeling.

Thanks again.