Multi-Zone Receiver

audiocr381ve

My parents just moved in to a home with 4 stereo zones which include 2 ceiling mounted speakers in the Living Room, Family Room, Master Bedroom, and outdoors. To be clear, 4 rooms with 2 speakers each, equals 8 speakers total.

The brand of the speakers is Sonance. They don't need anything crazy but I want to get them something solid that can deliver some good sound. They do use HDMI sources (DVD player & PS3).

Can somebody recommend and educate me on these types of receivers? I've never had the need as I am a 2 Channel listener.

By the way, I should mention that everything is already installed, and each "zone" has it's own volume control installed.

Glowrdr

Is there wiring existing already? I'm kind of in the same situation (helping a family friend)

Basically the dual-zone receiver is similar to the old A/B switches, except you can select another source from the different zone (i.e. TV in one room, Radio in another). Sometimes the zones are amplified, other receivers just add a zone 2 output, that you run into an amplifier/amplified speakers in another area.

I'm looking at 3-4 zones, but they are not prewired. Speakers are wired, but I have no way of getting sound from one zone to another.

Wireless solutions you can look at Bose or Sonos for audio/video solutions. Otherwise if everything has been wired to a centralized location - just need the dual zone receiver. Are you looking at just wiring sound, or would you be looking for full AVR functionality in each zone?

audiocr381ve

Thanks for the reply Glow.

All of the speakers are wired to a centralized location which is the Living Room. My parents would probably at the most want 2 sources going at the same time. Maybe 1 source being a Blu-Ray and the other playing an ipod or something for all the other zones (Outdoors, Family Room, Master Bedroom)

Can you recommend any products?

Glowrdr

Unfortunately, recommending any product opens a whole can of worms around here. Basically, you're just asking Ford or Chevy.

I would do a little research on your own for 2-zone receivers (dual zone, multi-zone - not sure what they are officially called). My previous receiver was an HK. Those used a fancy wall plate that had an IR port on it, so you could use the zone II remote. I believe the wallplate was actually a small amp with the IR port.

I've currently got the Pioneer SC-37 which I know does the multiple zones, as well as A/B sets of speakers, but i do not have anything configured for multiple zones.

I'm sure someone will chime in soon with some things to look for. You may want to find out what price range you are interested in as well. You can easily spend thousands if you felt like it.

unc2701

Important question:
Do you know if the volume controls are impedance matching? post the model, or unscrew one from the wallbox and see if it has jumpers on it to adjust the impedance.

If they are, you can push them off a 2 zone receiver or stereo amp. If they aren't, you'll need to get a multichannel zone amp like a Niles, Xantech, etc (or buy volume controls that are). Running them off a receiver or a stereo amp means that they'll all have to be playing the same thing (but you can still turn them off individually using the volume controls); the advantage of a multizone amp is that you can independently select sources in each room.

Another thing to watch out for- on most receivers, the zone 2 RCA analog line out frequently will NOT output digital sources. So you'll need to have BOTH HDMI and the red/white analog cable hooked up from the blu-ray.

Oh and BEFORE you hook up anything, make sure that they actually installed them right. If they set the jumpers on the volume controls wrong or wired non-matching volume controls in parallel, you can get a load that will melt anything short of a Krell.

tonyb

Is everything wired to one point in the house ? Do they just want music in all zones or movies too ?
Another option is the Sonos system, check it out and see if it fits your needs.

cascius

I hope it's ok for me to jump into this thread since I'm looking for a similar setup.
It's also for my parents' house

They have 2 set of in-wall stereo speakers wired to the same location. All they need is an amp that can drive 1 source of music (such as an ipod) on either or both set of speakers.
They're not looking for stellar sound quality, and I'm thinking a budget of $200 is about right.

Any suggestions?

PS: they don't want to play movies, just stereo audio.

Thanks,

- Olivier

unc2701

Two of these?

http://dealnews.com/Audio-Source-Stereo-Power-Amplifier-for-79-8-s-h/460415.html

There's about 100 different answers, but I just saw those on sale.