Whole house audio - retrofit options

Well, I would consider that a fact... Having no access from above makes it "difficult" to get speakers into the ceiling... But certainly can be done. Just plan for some drywall repair. If you haven't painted the rooms (meaning - are they all "builder neutral beige"), you might take the opportunity to do that as the repairs are done...

Yeah, we don't hear much about it - but it does seem to fit your needs quite well. The Renovia amp sits flush on the wall in the zone and is wired to A/C power, speakers, and any one of the NuVo keypad (single/double gang, even the color LCD). You can see this in the Renovia brochure on their website.

Keep kicking. A few more times should do it. Then kick yourself in the wallet.

Jeff

I've been looking hard at the HTD stuff. I have a split level, so I have some attic access. It will still be difficult, but do-able, I hope

The only difference between a retrofit and "new construction" is that the drywall is in place, and has been textured and painted. The level of difficulty is in how much of that do you have to tear into to get the wires run. Impossible to say how much work that is without seeing the plans/space. If folks are turning down that business, it's probably because they expect you to balk at the cost to do it.

If you can get a good / cheap drywall guy lined up, then you can let the A/V guys off the hook as to drywall repair. Which is why I asked if the rooms had been really painted / decorated. Running the wire isn't the problem - repairing the mess it makes is what will scare the guys away - since it could become an unbounded cost problem for them. So if you take the repairs off their hands (not their problem), you might get a different answer.

Nope, sorry, no help on either topic. There are members around from the Dallas area though, that hopefully can chime in... (hint: put your location in your use profile so folks can know your location without you having to mention it to get local advice)

Yeah, if you're going to go through all the retrofit wiring cost/trouble to get keypads, not getting full metadata would be a shame.

Jeff

As jautor said, the main obstacle to retrofitting cables is paint and texture. If I'm going to have a room painted, I'll tear up the walls as much as I please to add cables; I have a good and cheap drywall repair guy available.

I too wouldn't be surprised if the installers change their mind about the retrofit, if you take care of the drywall repairs and painting.

I'm very happy with my Nuvo system, much of which was retrofitted.

ABus and Digi-5 use a category cable to the KP, and then speaker wires from the KP to the speakers. Retrofitting this would be more difficult than another more conventional system.

Do you have a basement or crawlspace?

Feasability of a retrofit depends much on your house and room layouts.

In wall speakers might be easier than in-ceiling speakers, for some of the rooms.

ANY house is amenable to retrofitting any cables. It just depends on how many holes need to be cut, and how tolerant you are of repair work.

The installer can take his time, and carefully plan each cable run to minimize the amount of damage. Could take several days' work if he's super careful. Or he could do it all in day, with complete disregard for drywall. Drywall repair is prob much cheaper than the added cost of the CI's careful planning.

+1... Having category cable to the room may not be helpful for a WHA retrofit. The cables have to be where you'll want the keypads. It may help by removing some difficult runs, but as Neurorad said, can't really say without seeing the house...

The Digi-5 stuff is "better" and newer than the A-Bus, but I'm not aware of any of those systems that have display keypads - certainly nothing with metadata support.

Jeff