Duncan
The wiring and installation would not be an issue as I am having a large renovation done on the both storeys of my house, and want to install a SONOS system throughout a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen, through Bose wall-mounted cube speakers. I would prefer to use my iPhone, iPod or Mac as a controller, and also have a wireless router located next to the living room. As the price of these SONOS systems are very expensive, I was wondering what components I would need and how much each would cost?
Answer
You're going to love the Sonos! I have four zone players, one dedicated for my home theatre and three more as sources into an existing distributed audio system. The iPhone works ok to control it but it seems the iPhone has trouble maintaining connection with the wi-fi, the iPad works much better for a controller.
Where are the wires for your in-wall speakers? All coming together in a closet some place? If so, you can just put all your Sonos players there. You will need the Sonos zone bridge to connect to your router with a wire, not wireless. Or you can connect one Sonos zone player to the router with a wire and it can function as the bridge. Personally I have a network HDD down stairs connected to the router and the Sonos Zone bridge also connected to the router. The zone players are all four upstairs in the control closet for the home theatre and distributed audio system. All that is wireless, only the Zone bridge needs to be connected to the router.
They make zone players with preamp output like mine and they also make them with built in amplifiers. In your case you may want to just get the ones with the amplifiers built in to connect to your existing wall speakers. Alternatively if all the speaker wires do come together at one place you could buy a multi channel amplifier and use it to drive the speakers and use the Sonos Zone player with preamp output. In my case I have two twelve channel amplifiers powering eleven zones. Two six zone controllers are connected to the two amplifiers. The controllers have eight sources, three of the sources are supplied by Sonos Zone players. I can have different music on the three Sonos Zone players and the distributed audio controllers can send any one of those three to any room. They can also send anything from the remaining five sources to any room. Eventually I would like to eliminate the old system and just get more Sonos Zone players and make the whole system Sonos but as you mentioned, Sonos is not cheap! The upgrade is on the wish list however:-)
Probably the best solution for you is to just use the Sonos players with amplifiers built in. Although, your Bose cubes have no bass and I do not believe the Sonos with the amplifier has any sort of subwoofer output. You may want to think about that. If you get the Sonos with preamp output you can route that through a crossover and send bass to a separate subwoofer. You may want to add wall mounted subwoofers to go with those cubes. In that case definitely get the Sonos players with preamp output. You may want to check, the Sonos with an amp may also have preamp out so in that case that would be ideal.
Have fun, you will be amazed at how well Sonos works!
mk
You're going to love the Sonos! I have four zone players, one dedicated for my home theatre and three more as sources into an existing distributed audio system. The iPhone works ok to control it but it seems the iPhone has trouble maintaining connection with the wi-fi, the iPad works much better for a controller.
Where are the wires for your in-wall speakers? All coming together in a closet some place? If so, you can just put all your Sonos players there. You will need the Sonos zone bridge to connect to your router with a wire, not wireless. Or you can connect one Sonos zone player to the router with a wire and it can function as the bridge. Personally I have a network HDD down stairs connected to the router and the Sonos Zone bridge also connected to the router. The zone players are all four upstairs in the control closet for the home theatre and distributed audio system. All that is wireless, only the Zone bridge needs to be connected to the router.
They make zone players with preamp output like mine and they also make them with built in amplifiers. In your case you may want to just get the ones with the amplifiers built in to connect to your existing wall speakers. Alternatively if all the speaker wires do come together at one place you could buy a multi channel amplifier and use it to drive the speakers and use the Sonos Zone player with preamp output. In my case I have two twelve channel amplifiers powering eleven zones. Two six zone controllers are connected to the two amplifiers. The controllers have eight sources, three of the sources are supplied by Sonos Zone players. I can have different music on the three Sonos Zone players and the distributed audio controllers can send any one of those three to any room. They can also send anything from the remaining five sources to any room. Eventually I would like to eliminate the old system and just get more Sonos Zone players and make the whole system Sonos but as you mentioned, Sonos is not cheap! The upgrade is on the wish list however:-)
Probably the best solution for you is to just use the Sonos players with amplifiers built in. Although, your Bose cubes have no bass and I do not believe the Sonos with the amplifier has any sort of subwoofer output. You may want to think about that. If you get the Sonos with preamp output you can route that through a crossover and send bass to a separate subwoofer. You may want to add wall mounted subwoofers to go with those cubes. In that case definitely get the Sonos players with preamp output. You may want to check, the Sonos with an amp may also have preamp out so in that case that would be ideal.
Have fun, you will be amazed at how well Sonos works!
mk
Hot to set up a sound system throughout the house?
kitty98
This house is already pre-wired: it has in-ceiling speakers in the master bedroom, bathroom, garage, and patio (these are 80W). Every set of speakers has its own volume control. Plus there are also 6 speaker hook ups in the living room.
I want to set up capable of playing different things at the same time, ie. if I want to hear music in my bedroom, while my roommate watches a movie in the living room. How can I do this? what good receiver can handle this? I need a receiver capable of handling 2 or more different sources at the same time.
I also need a surround sound sys for the living room. It has the cables, but not the speakers. Recomendations?
Do I need an amplifier too, or the receiver alone can deal w this?
I'm pretty new w all this, so info w baby steps will be greatly appreciated :-)
Answer
I have provided links below with tutorials and diagrams for multi room applications. You will need a receiver with dual zone capabilities. You do not say if your volume controls have impedance matching. If they are impedance matching controls you will only need to add a fairly beefy two channel amp (which you will connect to your receiver's zone two preamp outputs) to drive the speakers in the bedroom, bathroom, garage, and patio. If these volume controls do not do impedance matching I recommend you get a multi channel amplifier (you will need at least eight channels) which you will connect to the zone two preamp outputs. This will give you MUCH better performance in your bedroom, bathroom, garage, and patio than trying to drive all 4 pairs of speakers by your receiver's zone 2 output (low power). You do not need a speaker selector (switch) since you have volume controls unless you want to use this for impedance matching. I would not recommend it for that purpose though (signal loss). Either go with an impedance matching block or (BETTER) go with the multi channel amp. Since volume controls usually don't provide much information on the front and since you are pretty new to this you may need to find out who installed the system to find out if these controllers are impedance matching. Worst case scenario an installer can look at the back of the controllers to tell you if they are impedance matching. People who do multi-room on the cheap usually go back eventually to upgrade their system. Best to do it right to begin with.
Recommendations for your home theater:
1) Do a lot of comparison listening and pick what sounds best to you.
2) Be sure to listen to brands such as M&K (I like these alot), Monitor Audio, and B&W on the higher end. On the slightly lower end try brands such as Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, and Paradigm.
3) Recievers: I like Denon (sound quality). Onkyo, Yamaha, and Harmon Kardon are good too.
I have provided links below with tutorials and diagrams for multi room applications. You will need a receiver with dual zone capabilities. You do not say if your volume controls have impedance matching. If they are impedance matching controls you will only need to add a fairly beefy two channel amp (which you will connect to your receiver's zone two preamp outputs) to drive the speakers in the bedroom, bathroom, garage, and patio. If these volume controls do not do impedance matching I recommend you get a multi channel amplifier (you will need at least eight channels) which you will connect to the zone two preamp outputs. This will give you MUCH better performance in your bedroom, bathroom, garage, and patio than trying to drive all 4 pairs of speakers by your receiver's zone 2 output (low power). You do not need a speaker selector (switch) since you have volume controls unless you want to use this for impedance matching. I would not recommend it for that purpose though (signal loss). Either go with an impedance matching block or (BETTER) go with the multi channel amp. Since volume controls usually don't provide much information on the front and since you are pretty new to this you may need to find out who installed the system to find out if these controllers are impedance matching. Worst case scenario an installer can look at the back of the controllers to tell you if they are impedance matching. People who do multi-room on the cheap usually go back eventually to upgrade their system. Best to do it right to begin with.
Recommendations for your home theater:
1) Do a lot of comparison listening and pick what sounds best to you.
2) Be sure to listen to brands such as M&K (I like these alot), Monitor Audio, and B&W on the higher end. On the slightly lower end try brands such as Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, and Paradigm.
3) Recievers: I like Denon (sound quality). Onkyo, Yamaha, and Harmon Kardon are good too.
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Title Post: Installing SONOS a whole-house speaker system with wall mounted speakers?
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Author: Yukie
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