I am looking to install a multi room audio system in my home that I prewired for 12 different audio zones. I have been looking at a few different choices including Nuvo, HTD and Control4 and am looking for feedback on which would best satisfy my desires. What I am looking for is the ability to have multiple independant source choices but most importantly being able to control these from the wall mounted controls. What I really like about the Nuvo system is that it appears as it is the only one that will provide data from the source to the wall control. Such as if listening to sat radio it will display the channel and song title or allow you to browse your Ipod music lists on the wall control. As far as I can tell it is the only system to provide this? I really liked the control4 but it seems like this is only available via a TV or through a handheld device. From what I can gather with the HTD systems is that it will provide data from its built in MP3 player only on the wall units. Am I missing any alternatives and is the Nuvo Grand Concerto my best option?
Just came across this thread and wanted to get some ideas...
Looking at 10-12 zone systems for new construction.
Some unique requests are;
Need to incorporate baby grand player piano in a formal room for distribution to entire system; a "local zone source"
Additional home music studio in finished basement needs to have a "source out" from mixer to the multi-system network available to entire system...(for live music distribution throughout house during parties).
Two porches and pool area zones, I need suggestions on controllability since I will not have a control pad in these areas.
How to add a powered sub to certain zones.
Looking hard at the HTD Lync12 because of the local zone source concept. This allows the piano and mixer in the studio to be a local zone source or entire system source. This "local zone source" is available in all zones giving the system tremendous flexibility.
I will have a Sonos as one main source for streaming itunes and pandora etc...
Can I control everything from my Iphone while outside via Sonos and the wireless network?
I will be pre-wiring the house myself...lots of Cat5 and 14/16 gauge I know... Love the idea of wireless, but want all connections from amps/ speakers/ and sources to be hard wired.
Thanks for any advice or any additional system ideas...
Just to throw my two cents into the discussion. I looked at Sonos, and love the specs and look of the system, but . . .
What I ended up doing at my house is central iTunes computer playing to several Airport Express base stations around the house, some wired, some wireless, connected to amps and speakers. Good quality powered speakers could be used if the cost/space of a full size amp and speakers isn't wanted or required. Other computers with iTunes can see the speakers as well, so a single computer can play to all speakers in the house, or different computers can play to different zones if desired.
iPhone and/or iPads can be used as remote controls.
Not as fancy or slick as Sonos and some of the others, but can be done at a fraction of the cost, especially in rooms that already have amplifiers and speakers in them for other applications. And the Airport Express devices can be connected with either stereo RCA cables or digital toslink cables, so it's up to you how much you want to spend and what quality of sound reproduction you want in a zone.
i tried using itunes myself between 3 computers and could never get the audio in sync. maybe with airport expresses thats not an issue .
i ended up using logitec squeezebox server + a program called softsqueeze. could sync up my rooms without issue and was free. if you wanted to do 12 zones youd need a big plate amp and a bunch of sound cards in a pc. on the plus side it could laso be your media server and would work with iphone/android phones or pc's without issue.
But im not sure i would recomend it for 12 zones. the Sono's systems are REALY impressive for there simplicity.
I currently have my main Home Theater area in my family room with HTPC and receiver, a separate receiver in the living room wired to a pair of speakers, and two outdoor speakers that are run off a third receiver. My wife and I are doing an addition and I am thinking of adding speakers for the master bedroom and the deck. Can someone tell me what the required hardware would be to add a Sonos system to this?
The HTPC has my music collection on it and is plugged directly to our router and sits next to the main receiver. the others are all satellites.
Do the wireless Sonos speakers work well enough or should I do in wall or ceilings of better quality with the connect amp? Would it be better to run a Cat 6 to each box - as we are renovating and it would be easy enough for me to do and avoid the wireless all together?
What I ended up doing at my house is central iTunes computer playing to several Airport Express base stations around the house, some wired, some wireless, connected to amps and speakers....Not as fancy or slick as Sonos and some of the others, but can be done at a fraction of the cost, especially in rooms that already have amplifiers and speakers in them for other applications.
An Apple AirPlay based system is a pretty good alternative to Sonos, but unfortunately it has its limitations (i.e. can only play from iTunes/iOS and multi-zone support is a kludge). If you want a solution that has AirPlay support but with features more like Sonos, you may want to check out Plethra's audio|acacia (still in beta).
redzone said:
i tried using itunes myself between 3 computers and could never get the audio in sync. maybe with airport expresses thats not an issue .
Not sure exactly what you tried here, but iTunes itself will not play in sync with other iTunes on the network. iTunes can only play in sync with AirPlay devices such as the AirPort Express, Apple TV, etc. A full list of AirPlay devices can be found here.
Arcanum said:
I currently have my main Home Theater area in my family room with HTPC and receiver, a separate receiver in the living room wired to a pair of speakers, and two outdoor speakers that are run off a third receiver. My wife and I are doing an addition and I am thinking of adding speakers for the master bedroom and the deck. Can someone tell me what the required hardware would be to add a Sonos system to this?
If you want to continue to use your existing speakers and amplified receivers, the cheapest option would be to purchase a "CONNECT" (aka the ZP90) to connect to each receiver.
Arcanum said:
Do the wireless Sonos speakers work well enough or should I do in wall or ceilings of better quality with the connect amp? Would it be better to run a Cat 6 to each box - as we are renovating and it would be easy enough for me to do and avoid the wireless all together?
The Sonos speakers work very well in my experience, but you can't mount them in the ceiling. So you'll just have to decide what is your preferred setup. If your already renovating, I would most definitely use that opportunity to pull Cat6 even if you end up not using it. A wired connection is always more stable than a wireless connection, plus cable is pretty cheap.
I would be interested to hear what you've tried to see why they weren't in sync. Maybe its something peculiar in your network/hardware configuration. Where is this thread you speak of?
basicly even with 1 airplay device and the pc you are playing music from you cant sync the music. I tried many many ways without success.
If itunes/air play requires that all locations are airplay devices its kind of silly to have to have a 2nd "airplay" specific device in the same room as the pc thats running itunes since it is capable of filling that room with music.
EDIT* i realize i never finished the thread with my solution lol. i now use logitec media server and softsqueeze players on my devices. works great!
I responded to that thread with an explanation to your AirPlay woes.
If itunes/air play requires that all locations are airplay devices its kind of silly to have to have a 2nd "airplay" specific device in the same room as the pc thats running itunes since it is capable of filling that room with music.
It doesn't require this. iTunes itself should be able to stay in sync with the AirPlay devices it is playing to. I was under the impression you were trying to get multiple instances of iTunes running on different computers on the network in sync (which is not possible).
I'm using Airplay with pretty good success, certainly no challenges with syncing. My zones range from a basic room with PC speakers (2+1), to a home theatre room with an Apple TV driving an AVR to a fully professional grade outdoor system with Klipsch all weathers (incl sub) driven by a club-grade amplifier.
Everyone in my house has an iPhone, plus we have a couple iPads we leave sitting around, so the system is very accessible.
Hi ,Just joined this forum and have some questions on what to look for hooking up our new house. All wiring was put in when house was built with wires ran for cinema room and ceiling speakers in every room,. Wherw do i start looking for systems ? Do i look at a receiver or a computer in the tv room that feeds music to all rooms that have a location to put in controls ready to connect? Looks like your budget determins a lot about the system you can put in . Any advice for where to order these controls,what option is there etc. I am just starting to research this stuff as i am tired of the MiMouse stereo in one room.Time to set up properly.Thanks Daniel
Budget will always determine what kind of system you can put in. Sonos is a great solution for the "average joe" that wants to listen to music in different rooms, house wasn't preired, and doesnt care about sound quality. However if your home has been prewired properly with proper audio video distribution then there is a plethora of solutions available ranging in price some starting at a price point that would make Sonos blush. I would suggest contacting your local custom audio video installers. They usually have a wealth of knowledge regarding this stuff (It's what I do for a living) and hopefully can steer you in the right direction. Hope ths helps
Sonos is a great solution for the "average joe" that wants to listen to music in different rooms, house wasn't preired, and doesnt care about sound quality.
Can you please explain how a audio could be delivered to a amp in such a way that would have better sound quality than a ZP90 using s/pdif? Or even using a ZP120?
The vast majority of distortion happens at speakers, so I don't see how a digital audio signal distribution system could really affect the audio quality in a way that humans could notice.
Sure we can discuss signal flow and which cables we need to use, however I was merely suggesting that Sonos isn't for everyone. What about the person that wants more then 55watts a channel. Sure we can use a Sonos system and feed sources into distribution amps however there are Lots of different options out there and I was just trying to make readers aware.
There's a lot more to be said about sound quality then just the cables we're using, how about the quality of the speaker replicating the sound? As I see your an avid fan of quoting and asking for explanations I will digress... For now
That page gives a pretty definitive answer on what gauge of speaker wire you should use based on the length of the run. Getting thicker wire than what is recommended in that table doesn't provide a tangible benefit.
It all depends on how much you are looking to spend and more detail on what you are wanting to get out of the system. The Nuvo Grand Concerto sounds great but every system has it's own benefits and special features. I may have missed a comment as there are a lot of responses to you, but what are you looking to configure your sound system with?
Looks like there are some people here who can really help me. Here's my situation: single woman with limited technical know-how; recently completed a major renovation and, with the help of a freelance AV guy, put in ceiling speakers in nearly every room and ran cat-5 in nearly every room. All speaker wires and cat-5 terminate to a central location and the idea was to go with a NuVo system, with the cat-5 for wall controls. Fast forward a year and my AV guy has moved away and my budget no longer can afford a NuVo--and I wonder whether that was too much of an audiophile system for me anyway. What I would like to do: stream my iTunes (in a previous life used Airport Express hooked up to a receiver for this), Pandora (and other Internet radio), and Sirius. And I would ideally like 3-6 zones to play different things in different areas--although this may be a feature I can live without for now, until I have a bigger budget again someday. Lots of raves on this thread for Sonos, obviously, and I'm wondering whether that is a potential solution for me--but I can't tell whether it would be stupid to use a wireless system for a hardwired application. I feel like I've spent all this money installing it, might as well use it. And with many of the posts here being at least a couple years old, I'm wondering if there are any new developments re Sonos (or anything!) applicable to my situation. Appreciate any help/advice you can give me!
I'm in the same boat. I'm building anew house, and am trying to decide between the HTD Lync system, Sonos, and Nuvo.
Since I'm starting from scratch, I'd like to wire everything to one central spot in the basement.
I love the interface of the Sonos app, but I'd have to buy 5 or 6 of their amps at over $500 each.
I was considering Nuvo, but the cost seems high for what seems like an outdated interface. I just saw their new P3100 system which looks nice, but its only three zones, so I'd have to buy 2 at $1600 each
I was a bit unsure of HTD, but now I'm leaning more towards them. They offer a six zone system with local wall mount controls plus the option to control wirelessly from an iOS device or laptop. I could hook a Sonos up to the HTD as a source and get the best of both worlds.
The one thing that has really interested me in the HTD is the local input in each zone. For example, in my bedroom, I can wall mount a TV and install a $20 zone input behind the TV and plug the audio out from the TV into this. This is then connected to the local wall control, which then goes down to your central amp. You can now listen to the TV in the bedroom with the ceiling mounted speakers. This is a big one for me, as I could use that as a serious audio upgrade in the bedroom and the home office.
Does anyone have any experience with the HTD Lync setup? Pros and cons I may have missed?
I'm sorry to hear about your sunk cost in NuVo. If you're on a tight budget, I'd just get some Apple gear so you can do the Airplay thing with iOS products (since it appears that is what you have).
If you have a bigger budget, I'd recommend a Sonos setup, but only if you would actually use the advantages Sonos brings over Airplay gear.
@madmic23,
I have some HTD gear with Sonos plugged into it. It's not bad, but I would only do the HTD + Sonos thing if it would yield significant savings over a pure-Sonos setup.
Also, I'm don't think it makes sense to have a central wiring location. It makes the wiring job more complex. Plus, running non-shielded/non-twisted-pair speaker wires is always tricky when you need to combat issues like induction and there are AC wires less than a couple feet away from where you want to go. In other words, it's likely you would get better sound quality keeping speaker wire lengths to a minimum by just having systems send data to each "node", and having it get translated from digital to analog at that point (which is how Sonos works).
Another disadvantage of central wiring configurations: you can't have distributed line-in inputs without a lot of extra wiring. With Sonos, you can just plug devices into the line-in in your zone player, and that source could be played in any other zone. Again, this is without the long analog cable runs which tend to reduce audio quality.
@Audacity, thanks for the input. I really like the Sonos interface, but we really want to go with in ceiling speakers throughout the house. The central wiring seems to make sense for this rather than having multiple Sonos amps strewn about the house.
I do like the flexibility of Sonos though, where if I didn't plan for something, I can just hook up another wireless zone.
What HTD equipment do you currently have and what do you think of it?
It's a well built amp. I think my main criticism is that when you try and use the input sensitivity which would turn the amp on or off, the line-level input level needs to be pretty high. So, for Sonos alarms (i.e. the radio that wakes me up in the morning) it doesn't fade-in when I turn on that HTD power saving feature like it normally would. It just turns on suddenly at full blast once the line-in level gets to full blast, which is a pretty rude awakening.
So, I no longer use the power saving feature in the HTD amp.
You can run 4 speakers off each ZP-120 though. So, I think I only saved about $100 or so by going with the HTD plus a ZP-90 when compared to a pair ZP-120.
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