Multi-room Setup

[Highlander67]

I am hoping someone here can give me a bit of insight to what I might need to make this work. I have a cabin in the mountains and each room has two speakers in it. Now I have a total of 18 speakers and all the cables run to a main room and was curious how I can get them all connected to a receiver to play music through them. I'm not sure that any company would make a 18-speaker connection setup, but how could I get them all connected in? Any suggestions? My main purpose is just to play music through them.

[StateDJ85]

I am hoping someone here can give me a bit of insight to what I might need to make this work. I have a cabin in the mountains and each room has two speakers in it. Now I have a total of 18 speakers and all the cables run to a main room and was curious how I can get them all connected to a receiver to play music through them. I'm not sure that any company would make a 18-speaker connection setup, but how could I get them all connected in? Any suggestions? My main purpose is just to play music through them.


If possible, you should install a multi-source system with multi-zone amps. With that many speakers in that many places I think you would benefit greatly from having individual controls in each room. If you do this, look at Russound CAM/CAV systems. They are great for the price. You can also check out Nuvo which is a little cheaper. With that many speakers, it isnt a good idea (if its even possible) to run them off of your receiver, so you'll need atleast a few more amps and some serious speaker switching boxes. For that much, yyou should invest in a multi-zone multi-source control system. The only problem with that is that aside from the speaker wire, you need a 2 gang box with cat 5/cat 6 wire run to each room with the speakerrs. If you can do this, it'll make life a lot easier than having all those speakers running off of 1 source or 1 amp. If you do run it off of 1 amp, make sure you have impedence matching volume controls or a speaker switcher. Good luck!!

[M-D]

Let's start with the basics... how is the cabin wired?
Answer these questions:
> Does the speaker wire run directly from the EQ to the speakers?
> Does it run from the EQ to a local, or in room volume control, usually, but not always,
located near the light switch as you walk into the room?
> Are there other types of wires (besides the speaker feeds) at the EQ location?
> If so, what are they, and where do the go? Perhaps to the remote rooms, along with
the speaker feeds?

And:
> What type of music do you listen to, and how loud?
> Are there outdoor speakers among the nine pair?

M.

[Highlander67]

Morning,

Okay, Her is how the setup is in the cabin.

There are a total of 18 Speakers. 4 are outside and teh rest are inside. All the wiring from each speaker throughout the house goes into a small room where the 9 pair of speaker wires end up at. As for each room. There is a volume knob setup that can turn up and down the volume of the speakers. I'm sure there isn't a 9 pair speaker amp made but I'm looking to play any type of music but not super loud. Normal volume I guess? All I basically want to do is play music from time to time. I'm not sure what to look for but I'm looking for the easiest and simplest setup that I can setup without going overboard. And hopefully I can keep the cost down as well.

[M-D]

Highlander,

There are two types of volume controls. The first being your basic, don't do nothin' but volume up and down, and the other being an impedance magnifying type. Pull a couple of the VC's and check. It might say "impedance magnifying", or there will be some type of bussing clips saying 1x,2x,4x,8x, or something like that. Also, how many VC's are there?
For instance, there may be two pairs of speakers outside, but they could be running off of one VC.

OK then. Let's say they're IM type. From here, unless you want to pull the entire batch, we must assume that they're all IM type and they're all set properly. If this is the case, then you can simply wire all the speaker feeds into your amp or receiver. I usually use large wire nuts to step down the multiple conductors into a single wire for hook up.

Gotta run... more in a little while.

M.

[Highlander67]

I'll have to look at the VC boxes. I would imagine they are regular VC boxes that you can turn the volume up or down but I will make sure. As for the speakers. I have a total of 18 speakers. In each room, there is a pair of speakers and one VC that controls the volume for them both. As for the speaker runs that end up in the small room, I can connect multiple wires to one post on an amp? I thought that was not a good thing to do. All I am basically looking to do is have them all play the same source and be able if I can to turn on and off the speakers assuming I dont want a couple of rooms to play music.

[M-D]

>"I can connect multiple wires to one post on an amp?"
As a general rule, no.

>"I thought that was not a good thing to do."
Correct. And certainly not nine. However, if the VC's are IM (impedance magnifying), then you can connect multiple wires.

If the VC's are standard, non IM type, then you're going to need some sort of speaker distribution system. With nine pairs of speakers, you might consider this:
http://www.nilesaudio.com/products/hp_impedance_matching.html

There is of course, the speaker selector box.
http://www.nilesaudio.com/products/speaker_selection_systems.html

How many VC's?