Multi-room audio installation

[ThomasBrentnall]

Hello, I'm after some advice.

My dad has brought a house which he is currently renovating then will be moving into. I'm looking to do a complete AV install for him. I'm currently looking into multi-room audio systems, so far I have looked at Sonos and Simple audio however these are way over our budget.

So basically what we want is 1 speaker (2 in living room) in the ceiling in each room. Excluding the utility room, bathroom & on-suite. With the option to control each room individually so different music sources can be played, different volume levels etc.


Also are there and good distro's for using a pi as music receiver (dnla) such as raspbmc.


I will upload plans of the house in a min. There is a central cupboard where the patch panel, switch, router, amp's etc will be.

DannyR you seem good at this stuff!

Thanks in advance

Tom

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

House plan: http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?file_id=21717955736042470823&t=2171795573604247082322521

 

[DannyR]

Hello!

You need a pair of speakers in each room as everything will be stereo whatever you use. A single stereo-mono speaker is more expensive than two in most cases.

Nothing is as good as Sonos, for the price. Simple audio is still a bit clunky but sound quality is better.

If it were me I'd put a pair in all rooms you want. Run the cables in all back to one point where your router is. Then when boarded and plastered get the speakers in. Then just add one or two Sonos boxes at a time to split the cost.

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

Hello!

You need a pair of speakers in each room as everything will be stereo whatever you use. A single stereo-mono speaker is more expensive than two in most cases.

Nothing is as good as Sonos, for the price. Simple audio is still a bit clunky but sound quality is better.

If it were me I'd put a pair in all rooms you want. Run the cables in all back to one point where your router is. Then when boarded and plastered get the speakers in. Then just add one or two Sonos boxes at a time to split the cost.

Okay cheers, will go for two in each room!

Sonos Connect:Amp's are the ones I need?

Thanks again

 

[DannyR]

Correct.

What kind of speakers are you thinking? Entry level B&W are £200 a pair.

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

Correct.

What kind of speakers are you thinking? Entry level B&W are £200 a pair.

Not sure to be honest, some that aren't too expensive again due to budget. Sound quality will be most important in the living room and two of the bedrooms. The other rooms aren't too important as it will mainly just be the radio that's being played through them!

 

[sn00p]

I'm confused!

First post sonos is way over budget, next you're talking about sonos connect:amp which is expensive on its own and requires you to add your own speakers?!

You also don't need everything to be connected to Ethernet, just one device in the system (you can buy a bridge specifically for this job for about 40 quid) - the system then creates its own wireless network. Just power needs routing to the sonos endpoint.

The sonos play:1 is cheap(ish), sounds great can be used as a mono speaker or paired with another play:1 to create a stereo setup, which makes them less of a hit when putting in a system as you can add one at a time. They're (AFAIK) also moisture proof.

Lots of older sonos users don't like the new controller app, but sonos have said that they're working on ui improvements rather than new products this year. I personally love the new app as it unifies search, we have Spotify and google all access so we pretty much have anything on demand when we want it.

Sonos is awesome. When I see the work raspberry pi in the first post it just conjures up images of clunky software that doesn't ever work quite right. Even my wife can use the sonos app happily, and friends when they come around.

 

[DannyR]

If your renovating a house the better job is to put fixed speakers in.

Any of the Play units just look a bit out of place except maybe in bedrooms.

 

[sn00p]

I guess that's true for the play:3 and play:5, but the play:1 speakers look pretty darned good and we've got them in our lounge! it's nice to be able just to unplug them and move them into the garden as well!

I guess its down to personal taste, and if you're using the connect:amp then you could use ceiling mounted speakers to hide them...but its most definitely not a budget friendly solution!

 

[DannyR]

Then you have the issue of the Play 1 not being as good sound wise as two 6" speakers. Its horses for courses really.

But we would only use Play's as retro fit or additional children's rooms etc..

If doing a brand new renovation I think you'd be silly to not at least get the cables in.

 

[sn00p]

Sure. I totally get that.

Without knowing what the original posters idea of budget is then its hard to know what's a reasonable cost, but when I see raspberry pi mentioned I start seeing pence signs rather than pound signs!

I'll go back to my children's room now.

 

[sn00p]

Out of interest Danny, seeing as you have lots of knowledge on the sonos stuff, what are your thoughts on the connect:amp? Price/sound quality?

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

I'm confused!

First post sonos is way over budget, next you're talking about sonos connect:amp which is expensive on its own and requires you to add your own speakers?!

You also don't need everything to be connected to Ethernet, just one device in the system (you can buy a bridge specifically for this job for about 40 quid) - the system then creates its own wireless network. Just power needs routing to the sonos endpoint.

The sonos play:1 is cheap(ish), sounds great can be used as a mono speaker or paired with another play:1 to create a stereo setup, which makes them less of a hit when putting in a system as you can add one at a time. They're (AFAIK) also moisture proof.

Lots of older sonos users don't like the new controller app, but sonos have said that they're working on ui improvements rather than new products this year. I personally love the new app as it unifies search, we have Spotify and google all access so we pretty much have anything on demand when we want it.

Sonos is awesome. When I see the work raspberry pi in the first post it just conjures up images of clunky software that doesn't ever work quite right. Even my wife can use the sonos app happily, and friends when they come around.

It's over budget, but if nothing else will do the job then we'll have to just do two rooms at a time to keep cost down like danny mentioned!

We don't want any of the play speakers, idea is for the speakers to be in the ceiling, so will be needing the connect:amp as it's the only option! Raspberry pi's are brilliant in my opinion, there's a lot you can do with them, especially using breakout boards.

If your renovating a house the better job is to put fixed speakers in.

Any of the Play units just look a bit out of place except maybe in bedrooms.

This!

Sure. I totally get that.

Without knowing what the original posters idea of budget is then its hard to know what's a reasonable cost, but when I see raspberry pi mentioned I start seeing pence signs rather than pound signs!

I'll go back to my children's room now.

Again, nothing wrong with pi's

 

[sn00p]

Show me a piece of software that works as well as the sonos interface that uses the pi and I'll agree with you!

Don't get me wrong, I've used Linux and embedded devices (I work on embedded systems) since the first release of Linux....all those years ago and as much as I love open source stuff, it rarely matches the slickness of commercial stuff, feature wise they often surpass but by god there's a lot of clunky software out there. Even things like xbmc are clunky!

I have a car stereo (empeg) that's probably getting on for 15 years old (mp3 head unit), it runs Linux and was a commercial product (they were around £1500 quid when they came out), had a hard drive, quality DACs but without amps. The killer was the software, I've still yet to come across a better and simpler interface for playing audio on anything, however the closest I've cone across is the sonos interface!

Sonos is slick, very slick - but then the product is their company, so it has to be slick. If the software was s**t, it doesn't matter what the hardware is like because they wouldn't be selling any!

Definitely go sonos, don't skimp, a room at a time. You won't be disappointed or frustrated.

 

[Ben.Block]

Sorry to hijack, I'm looking to power 2 ceiling mounted speakers for my ensuite, 2 Bose outdoor speakers mounted on the side of my garage, and stream music to my pioneer amp in my front room.

Will 2 sonos connect amps, and 1 Sonos connect be all I need?