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Anonymous | Can anyone recommend a good way to distribute audio throughout a house? Ideally, I would like some sort of centralized control system to patch various audio sources to various rooms. I don't want to have amps in every room if possible. It would be better if I could just run the speaker wire to small hidden speaker systems. Thanks for any advice. |
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New member Username: FeotHouston, TX USA Post Number: 9 Registered: Apr-04 | Supposing you are building a new home, keeping the electrical and alarm wire out of this discussion, you need to decide on a central or safe room in your house. Beginning there, you install a Modular Home Network Center Enclosure, (http://www.greyfox.com/products_enclosures.htm) like the Foxbox Plus. Have your main phone line, main cable/satellite, and 1 single gang electrical ran to this box. Decide if you would ever desire to have surveillance cameras or door/gate cameras anywhere inside or outside the house. Beginning at the enclosure, run CAT5 to those areas. GreyFox cameras, (http://www.greyfox.com/products_camera.htm) will operate power, video and audio from this one wire. Beginning at the enclosure, run a bundled single wire consisting of two RG6 Quad shielded cables and two CAT5 or better cables to every room's lower wall plate or floor plate. Again, beginning at the enclosure, in every room you want sound, TV, small 7" in wall TV with touch screen like Elan's via, (http://www.elanhomesystems.com/products/via/) or simply a volume control, you would run two RG6 Quad shielded cables, two CAT5 or better cables and 1 14/4 (14 gauge, 2 cond.) shielded speaker wire to a single or double gang wall plate depending on the system you decide on. Run two sets of these to your theater room. Every room you want flush mount in wall speakers like NHT iw3 (http://www.nhthifi.com/2004/products/product_index.asp?ProductLineID=3&SubjectID =4), or by a pool or garage or kid play area, you would run 2 CAT5 and 2 14/2 (1 to each speaker), unless you know what type of system you will be wiring then you would only do one or the other. After home completion, have all wall plates installed in a single gang, using GreyFox, (http://www.greyfox.com/products_wallplates.htm) or Leviton. At the main enclosure, you wire the cable and phone block (see GreyFox again) http://www.greyfox.com/products_phonevideo.htm Hook your high speed internet at the enclosure and use a GreyFox 10/100 switch and distribute the CAT5. Let me know if you have more questions but I think this should get you started. If you find any interest in any of the products I mentioned above or want to learn more, let me know. Shelby |
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Anonymous | Shelby Good information but not exactly what I'm looking for. I actually need information on stuff like this... http://www.smarthome.com/8270CE.html I've never heard of NuVo though, and I figure there have to be more products like this out there. I just have had a hard time finding any reviews on such products. If you can give me alternatives to this product or like products I would appreciate it. I'm more of a computer geek than an audiophile, so a product that I can control with some sort of TCP/IP based interface means more to me than having outstanding audio. I don't want the audio to suck by any means, but If I can get a reasonable system that I can control with a hand-rolled program written for a PC that would be great. Thanks again. |
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New member Username: FeotHouston, TX USA Post Number: 10 Registered: Apr-04 | Anony: Good choice, I have sold and installed dozens on NuVo Concerto and Essentia systems. The wiring layout is a bit different. After you choose where you want your equipment, run 16/2 or better speaker wire from there to each room getting sound. Then run CAT5 from equipment area to each room getting sound. If you think you may want to control the unit from an area that won't have speakers or a NuVo wall plate, run a CAT5 to this area and you can set up an IR Receiver to repeat the signal back at your equipment. See Essentia at http://www.nuvotechnologies.com/2_2.html . If you are building a new house, I would still wire it similar to my first response but without the speaker wire. Running the cable now costs about $1/foot whereas if you need a line dropped later, you're looking at $4-7 per foot. I usually sell the Essentia for $1500 and the Concerto for $2300. Before you make a decision, please see these following brands. You will spend more overall for the system with these brands. Elan home systems: http://www.elanhomesystems.com This is more along the lines of a computer driven system. Matrix Audio: http://www.matrixaudiodesigns.com/ There are many other brands and types of whole house distribution but I think these are some of the easiest to understand and provide overall best quality of sound and video. Hope this has helped. Shelby |
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Anonymous | Thanks again. How does A-BUS fit into the equation? Is it worth looking at? |
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Bronze Member Username: FeotTexas USA Post Number: 14 Registered: Apr-04 | Personally, I would not recommend just from past setup experience but some swear by A-Bus. One of my distributors used to carry this product but since the introduction of much easier products to operate and setup has since ceased stocking the A-Bus family. This is just MY personal opinion on the products I have installed and sold. NuVo Simplese/Essentia: Great for whole house music, easy to use, good quality sound, both offering upgradeability. Matrix Audio: Offers higher amplification than above without the ease of use factor. Elan: Offers more computer related options such as phone paging, intercom system through phone, remote door unlock, easy touch pannels/operation, camera system incorporation, and more. A-Bus: very simular to the Elan but w/o easy touch pannels and operation. S |