I'm moving into a new house and I have an odd arrangement I'd like to set up. I'll be having a living room, office, and downstairs "rec" room that I'd like to all have access to the music played in the living room. What I'm trying to figure out is...I'd like to make an arrangement like this:
Living Room: Master Amp, 400 Cd Changer, and speakers.
Office and Rec Room: Amp and speakers in each one.
How can I get the music played in the living room to each of the amps in the other 2? The reason I want another amp in each room (as compared to just running speakers) is so the volume can be adjusted for each person in each room. I could simultaneously have all 3 rooms playing music, just 2, or just the master depending on the situation.
Running the wires is not a problem, but I want to know the best way to do this without downgrading the signal much on the master and in a way that would allow, if I wanted, all 3 sources to be playing each with their own amp and speakers.
Any ideas?
geekboy
Posted on
I just bought a new home. I had it prewired and based on the OnQ (Leviton) structure wiring system. If you get an "A-Bus" (Audio Bus) capable receiver (like the H/K 525 -- which I have) this is simple.
It also helps if you have centralized your low voltage connections (like network, telephone, cable/tv, etc), then this would be easy. (Structured wiring systems like Leviton / OnQ)
Even if it's not that easy, I'd probably look at "Audio Bus" (A-Bus) type wiring. I don't know what others think. With A-Bus, a multi-room capable (and A-Bus capable) receiver would just connect a single RJ-45 into the receiver to the A-Bus distribution unit. You can then use in-wall amplifiers (even H/K makes some of these, or even Niles) or other Units to route your music to the other rooms.
I prefer this over running wire to speakers being powered by my H/K. I'm building a pool in a couple of months and will add outdoor music (of course) to the deck. This will be done on A-Bus with my H/K 525 as the receiver.
Q #1: how remote amps are connected with data source? Is it unbalanced line level (typically, RCA jacks) or balanced (TSR or XLR jacks), or something else?
If you use balanced connection you should be OK.
If it's unbalanced you _may_ (but not necessarily should) have a problem; a lot depends on length of cables and, most importantly, level of ambient noise and grounding scheme.
So I'd try first regular unbalaned connection; if it doesn't work install input audio transformer/insulator. The best [=transparent] are made by Jensens Transformers; you'll need CI-1RR/CI-2RR.