Jason Unger
04-18-07, 08:38 AM
Setting Up a Multiroom A/V System
by Fred Harding
Multiroom audio/video systems often are referred to by the number of sources and the number of zones they offer. A four source/four zone system, for example, could offer an AM/FM tuner, a CD player, an iPod dock and a satellite receiver as potential sources. The four zones could be the master bedroom suite, the kitchen/dining area, the patio and the home office.
Let's say we are building a multiroom audio system starting with nothing in a house. The first zone is the home theater. Some receivers offer A/B speaker switching off of the amplifier, but using the B speakers is generally not a good idea.
http://www.cepro.com/asset/7229.jpg (http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/18155.html)
The amplifier generally doesn't have enough current to drive the B set satisfactorily. If you want to run multiple sets of speakers off the B set, even with speaker selectors or other impedance matching devices in place, the results will likely be short lived.
Resist the temptation to put a selector on the A speakers. When you use a home theater (surround) style of receiver for that purpose, you're asking your customer to remember to turn settings on or off.
An option that some folks try off a single-zone system is taking an amplifier and connecting it to the "tape out" jacks on the receiver. Since the tape outputs are placed in the circuit path of the receiver before the surround sound decoder, only two-channel audio appears at those jacks. Tape outputs also send a fixed level of signal out, regardless of the receivers volume control settings.
This allows the theater to be at whatever level the user wants, while the balance of the house is listening to the source at whatever the level the second amp is set to play.
For more on setting up a multiroom A/V system, check out
http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/18155.html
by Fred Harding
Multiroom audio/video systems often are referred to by the number of sources and the number of zones they offer. A four source/four zone system, for example, could offer an AM/FM tuner, a CD player, an iPod dock and a satellite receiver as potential sources. The four zones could be the master bedroom suite, the kitchen/dining area, the patio and the home office.
Let's say we are building a multiroom audio system starting with nothing in a house. The first zone is the home theater. Some receivers offer A/B speaker switching off of the amplifier, but using the B speakers is generally not a good idea.
http://www.cepro.com/asset/7229.jpg (http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/18155.html)
The amplifier generally doesn't have enough current to drive the B set satisfactorily. If you want to run multiple sets of speakers off the B set, even with speaker selectors or other impedance matching devices in place, the results will likely be short lived.
Resist the temptation to put a selector on the A speakers. When you use a home theater (surround) style of receiver for that purpose, you're asking your customer to remember to turn settings on or off.
An option that some folks try off a single-zone system is taking an amplifier and connecting it to the "tape out" jacks on the receiver. Since the tape outputs are placed in the circuit path of the receiver before the surround sound decoder, only two-channel audio appears at those jacks. Tape outputs also send a fixed level of signal out, regardless of the receivers volume control settings.
This allows the theater to be at whatever level the user wants, while the balance of the house is listening to the source at whatever the level the second amp is set to play.
For more on setting up a multiroom A/V system, check out
http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/18155.html