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Need some advice on in-ceiling speaker placement - background music

post #1 of 4
8/28/12 at 5:55am
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I'm in the process of building a new home and was hoping to get some input/advice on in-ceiling speaker placement. I've made an initial diagram of the main floor of our house. We will be going fairly low-budget with this - I'm planning on using my Onkyo AV receiver (TX-NR809) Zone 2 to power the ceiling speakers (total of 6 zones), using separate volume controls in each zone. The audio equipment will reside in the closet between the kitchen and living room. Note that I have no idea what I am doing - but I have decent knowledge of AV equipment and I can Google like an MF'er!

Total footprint of the first floor is 1500 sq ft. The ceiling speakers behind the sofa will be surround speakers for a 5.1 setup (front bookshelf speakers and a sub). All other ceiling speakers will be run for background music.

A few things I'm hoping to gain feedback on:

1. Can I run 6 zones off of my AV receiver Zone 2? Power is 135 WPC X 2 channels. It can handle 4 ohms.
2. All of the porches are covered - do I need to use indoor/outdoor speakers or anything special for these areas?
3. Does the speaker placement seem logcial given the size of the home

Thanks in advance for any input - this is an amazing forum and I've gathered a wealth of knowledge reading for the past few weeks.

Thanks,
Darren

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post #2 of 4
8/28/12 at 5:56am
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Sorry the pic is so small! Will try to embed a larger version...
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post #3 of 4
8/28/12 at 5:58am
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123dbw.png
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post #4 of 4
8/28/12 at 9:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dhearsch View Post

1. Can I run 6 zones off of my AV receiver Zone 2? Power is 135 WPC X 2 channels. It can handle 4 ohms.

At a minimum you'll need either a speaker selector or volume controls with impedance matching to handle that many pairs. I'd recommend a speaker selector with impedance matching as they seem to function better (aka work as advertised) than many low-priced volume controls.
Quote:
2. All of the porches are covered - do I need to use indoor/outdoor speakers or anything special for these areas?

Use speakers with non-paper cones, but yeah, anything will work. The humidity / temperature swings will take their toll over the years, but probably not enough to worry about.
Quote:
3. Does the speaker placement seem logcial given the size of the home

Yes, seems reasonable. You might want another pair in the middle terrace area (depending on how you'll be using that space).

When you run these wires, add a cat5e line to the volume control locations so you can easily upgrade to a keypad-based system in the future. And pre-wire speakers to *ANY* place you could use in the future - it will never be this cheap / easy to run wires again. What's the 2nd floor plan? You'll want to home run all of these speakers to one location where you'll place the equipment.

Welcome to the forum!

Jeff
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