Whole-House Audio

Sep 17, 2005 2 Replies

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So'n'so 21 years ago

I am about to wire a large apartment with dual Cat5/RG6 wires to the 2+2 boxes. Is there any audio system that can use this, or must I run a separate set of Cat5/speaker wire to handle each company's proprietary way of handling the data/audio? I am currently drawn to the Nuvo Simplesse system for audio, as it is inexpensive and provides the zoning I need for the apartment. However, it requires that all audio components sit in the same location (at the patch panel), so that I can't feed TV sound, as an example. The Zon system allows for routing an audio source back to another room. So I guess I'd like a system that:

a) allows for input from various rooms b) allows for control of the sound level in each of those various rooms c) allows for MP3 play by way of either PC or a dedicated media server.

Thanks in advance!

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wkearney99 21 years ago

It's common to install speaker wire from the central amp location to the wall junction boxes. A single 4 conductor 14 gauge wire is good. Then run

2 conductor wire from there to each left/right speaker.

Most, if not all, distribution systems require central sources. Use RF remotes or IR repeater networks to move the control signals to remote devices. The TV itself isn't providing the sound, it's the components (tivo, vcr, dvd, etc). Those can be quite easily controlled remotely.

Few systems allow this. It's not a matter of getting the signal as much as it's about being able to control the source.

From within the rooms themselves? Most systems allow this.

That depends on where you store the MP3 files.

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