AVR's and Zones?

MikeC78

Hello,

I have a co-worker that is wanting to zone a total of 3 different areas with a receiver and was curious as to which type/features I should be looking for?

His main rig is a 5.1 system in the living room, he wants to be able to additionally run 2 speakers in the office and another 2 speakers in the dining room. How exactly does he go about doing this, and which AVR should he be looking at? I'm sure 'mantis' knows the quick answer if he sees this thread. BTW, speakers are all 8 ohm.

Thanks for the answers.

Mike

shawn474

I have the same set-up. I am pretty sure that most AVR's now have a Zone 2 setting, but some require the use of a separate amplifier (some have built in Zone 2/3 amps). With my AVR, I had to have a separate amplifier to run the Zone 2 speakers. I hooked the amplifier cables to Zone 2 output of the AVR. Then on the amp, I ran the A speakers to the Kitchen and the B speakers to our patio. When listening to Zone 2, you just switched between the A and B selector switch depending on where you wanted to listen. My AVR would only allow analog signals to be routed to the Zone 2. You could actually watch TV downstairs in the living room and listen to a cd on the patio or kitchen. My wife loves it when she is cooking or reading on the patio.

unc2701

Onkyo 876- he'll need an outboard amp for the third zone, but he can do 5.1 with the fronts biamped and a powered zone 2. Each zone can independently select a different audio source. Zone 2 also has composite video.

MikeC78

Thanks for all the responses. Is there any AVR on the market in which he will not need a seperate amplifier for the third set, is there such an AVR which could do all this?

BTW, he was looking at the Denon 988 if that would work.

bikezappa

If the 5.1 rec has 3 separate stereo speaker terminals just connect the wires to the speakers.

If not then get an 5.1 rec that has preouts that allow you to connect a separate intergrated amp to the preouts. This amp should allow separate volume control between the rooms.

Also get a Radio Shack repeater system on ebay for $20 each and this will allow him to change volume, FM stations and cd options from any of the three rooms.

I did this and it works well.

Have a blast.

Peter

unc2701

That denon only does 2 zones. The onkyo is the closest one to my knowledge- he probably doesn't need too much power in the dining room so any variety of zone amps would do the trick.

unc2701

The other option is to get an AVR without zones, then use a B&K, Xantech or Niles whole-house system to handle all the switching and zone amplification. That's what I've got going on, but it's way more complicated and it'll get expensive.

bikezappa

unc2701 wrote: »

The other option is to get an AVR without zones, then use a B&K, Xantech or Niles whole-house system to handle all the switching and zone amplification. That's what I've got going on, but it's way more complicated and it'll get expensive.

This is the best solution for a new home. But running the wires is a major time and cost issue. The Radio Shack repeaters can do the same thing for less than $100 for 4 rooms. There are other repeaters on the market also.