Whole-house audio system?

disneyjoe7

Fine, check around many cables are RG6 based.

If RG6 can pass dc 0hz to 3Ghz I don't think 20hz to 20khz is an issue.

amulford

Get quad shielded...

disneyjoe7

I should say I used RG6 also for some source feeds to a "Whole House Audio" closet, I used stuff from AudioQuest like that I posted.

Serendipity

I'll try to pick some RG6 Quad Shield and terminate the ends w/RCA to plug into the amp(s).

Just wanted to say - you guys have been a GREAT help and I learned a lot!!

So now I'm left with figuring out how to set up the sources and connect everything...then I've got draw some preliminary sketches to plan everything out.

Serendipity

Dangnit

I guess this isn't going to happen, as I just found out that we will be building a new house so any improvements made to the current one will be torn down along with the house.

disneyjoe7

So you're not much in the loop huh

Serendipity

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

So you're not much in the loop huh

I live on campus.

Face

Lol!

amulford

That's a good thing. You get in while the walls aren't rocked and run your wire. Gives you time to sell the idea and plan your system correctly. Get a set of plans...

disneyjoe7

amulford wrote: »

That's a good thing. You get in while the walls aren't rocked and run your wire. Gives you time to sell the idea and plan your system correctly. Get a set of plans...

What's a matter? You don't like to fish wire?

amulford

Screw that...

Serendipity

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

What's a matter? You don't like to fish wire?

I'd rather wire the place before the walls go up instead of fishing wire.

disneyjoe7

So would I just never really had an opportunity or at least not many of them. So its always "Go Fish" for me.

Serendipity

Well, I've come to the conclusion that...

I'm going to plan out the entire system first, and then when the house gets built I'll have the contractor run all the cables and terminate them with the proper wallplates. Then after everything is built, install all the gear in a closet and wire things up. Hopefully this will simplify things and eliminate the need for running wire in a pre-existing house.

I'm excited!

amulford

atta boy. Be careful bout having the contractor do it. Have him give you a price and you give final OK for the materials used or supply them. You want to make sure you get what you want, not bare minimum. Best thing is to do it yourself, it isn't all that difficult...

unc2701

You'll be far better off talking to the contractor about putting in your own wiring. If it's low voltage and you don't terminate anything or put in boxes, he shouldn't care.

Basically the only issue he'll have is you pissing off the electrician he'll hire... the one that's going to charge 18x what it's worth and use crap cables. As long as you're subtle about it, don't drill a hole in a LVL or leave something that his electrician is going to notice and ask questions about, he won't care.

In my neighborhood, they were charging $150 per cable drop in a new house. That right: I worked it out to be about $5 worth of cable, $1 of termination, $3 of boxes, couple cents worth of staple and they wanted $150. Each one I pulled took maybe 10 minutes.

Serendipity

amulford wrote: »

atta boy. Be careful bout having the contractor do it. Have him give you a price and you give final OK for the materials used or supply them. You want to make sure you get what you want, not bare minimum. Best thing is to do it yourself, it isn't all that difficult...

Sure, I can do it myself no problem. I've run plenty of low voltage wiring before (alarm system, HT, home network, telephone wiring) in this house so I am confident that I can tackle this myself.

The thing is...I'm currently in college and live on campus, so it would be a major inconvenience to go back home every so often to do the wiring. But I guess I'll have to do that if I want to do things the right way.

What do you guys think?

Serendipity

Just to give you guys an update -

A while back I was doing a lot of planning for this project and had some great ideas. Thus the seed was planted.

A few weeks ago this seed suddenly germinated and I started demoing inwall speakers for the project. For the backyard I am going to install Polk Atrium 45's, and Polk RC65/85i's for the bedrooms. I heard them before Circuit City closed and they were exactly what I was looking for. Polk rocks!

Serendipity

I am interested in the following amp to power the speakers:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102919

You may wonder, why do I want a pro amp for a whole-house audio system? Well, the reason is because I don't like the protection circuitry in most home amps; they shut off the amp in the event of a short/overload/etc. However, most pro amps use a feedback loop to determine output and load, so in case of an overload the unit will lower its output to safe levels and in the event of a short will simply mute the output, not shut off or blow a fuse.

So - what's the consensus on using a unit like this? Will PA gear sound acceptable in a hi-fi application?

disneyjoe7

I run a whole house audio system 4 zone setup with impedance matching volume controls. The AVR I using now nothing expensive a Carver 895 which is turned up volume wise to max volume before distortion, about a 12 o'clock position. The volume controls are used to set volume in that area that they control. I never had a overload or short in the system, so your concern maybe a bit overkill where your sound could be lessen.

Just a little background I used before the Carver AVR, an Adcom pre with HK2000a amp in bridge 2 channel mode. Never an issue with that setup either, I like the sound of the 895 over the other.

Serendipity

I was just concerned that if one of the volume controls failed shorted, then it would take out the amplifier too. Pro amps are really tough with regards to this.

The other option is an Onkyo TX-SR506, but you get less power than the pro amp (listed above) and it's the same price.

Will be using a Niles 4-zone, volume controlled speaker selector so each zone can have its volume limited to a certain level. For example the backyard speakers will be set lower than the rest so as to not disturb the neighbors. Also inwall volume controls for each zone except for the yard which will be playing at a very low level.

How does this sound? Should I plan for anything else?