AVS › AVS Forum › A/V Control & Automation › Home A/V Distribution › Multi room audio solution with tablet / phone control
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Multi room audio solution with tablet / phone control

post #1 of 11
3/3/13 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
I've dug through many threads here and found that many people prefer wall mounted volume / source controls. I prefer to keep the walls clean and control everything via Tablets / phones / other smart devices. (Currently 2 iPhones, one IPad)

I'd like to have 8 zones with the following to start.
Family room 5.1 setup with TV
All others mono or stereo
Patio
Basement / gym
Garage
Kitchen
Dining
Master bath

A couple of these could be merged into a single stereo channel.

Speaker wires are already home run to a central location in my basement.

I want to be able to go to any zone and use my phone to select a source, volume and I'm done. I also like to use amazon cloud player via the iPad.

I currently have an Onkyo sr 502 running 2 zones and a Sony stereo receiver running 2 more, but the two are not connected. I'm a former Harmony 890 user and unhappy with the quality - broke several of them too easily.

I need the ability to run 1 source to any number of zones. It would be nice to allow 2 sources, with the 5.1 going on its own source and the rest on a second stereo source, but that is a lesser goal that I can live without.

I'm looking at adding:
Pioneer vsx 1122
Roomie remote with Global Cache IP2IR

The question is, am I off to a good start here or am I missing something?

Looking at images of the back of the 1122, I can see it has a stereo RCA zone out. Is that the key to expanding the system? I expect that I can tie this to an input on my Onkyo to drive 2 more zones. Tha t should get me to 4 zones easily. From there I can add more zones by adding another amp.

I'd love to add a single secondary amp to control all stereo zones like the Dayton MA1240a, but it appears this thing is not remote controllable... Any suggestions here?

I know the Pioneer has a slick app for control, and the roomie probably controls it as we'll. How clean and user friendly is the rest going to be?

Thanks.
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 11
3/3/13 at 2:17pm
If you don't want keypad clutter, you want to controll with iPads and iPhones, and you have in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, you should use Sonos, with the amps stacked in the closet. Or, so I've read a hundred times here.

I wonder how well the new Nuvo system does. Is iOS an option with the new Nuvo system? That might also be a consideration.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
3/3/13 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neurorad View Post

I wonder how well the new Nuvo system does. Is iOS an option with the new Nuvo system? That might also be a consideration.

Sure, the NuVo wireless systems have both iOS and Android apps... And this week they upgraded the iOS app with a "demo mode", which gives a nice tour of the app...
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
3/3/13 at 3:44pm
Thread Starter 
Sonos seems like a versatile, expandable and simple to implement option. It seems especially good if you don't have pre-wiring and want to somehow bring a system together without tearing down the walls.

The only thing I'm not sure about is it's $500 per zone for each Sonos Connect AMP. It seems like a lot of redundant hardware and a little overkill for what I want to accomplish (I'd essentially be stacking 4 or more of them in my basement next to the receiver).

In the end the flexibility and easy integration might be worth the cost. Thanks for the reply, I'll take a closer look and investigate some of the Sonos threads here too. It would be great if Sonos had a multi-zone Connect AMP that offered some $ savings.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
3/3/13 at 5:00pm
NuVo has a 3-zone P3100 version of their system, which will be easier to deal with, but costs about the same as 3 Sonos Amps...

Any of these CAN easily power two rooms (the amps are 4-ohm capable), so if you want to "gang" the wires together to get started, that's a good way to go.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
3/4/13 at 4:10pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all the good ideas. I did some more research and I'm leaning towards a more traditional receiver - mainly for the value. I guess I'm cheap...
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
3/4/13 at 4:54pm
I was in the same situation you were, spent endless hours reading multiple threads. I loved the way Sonos worked, but ruled it out due to costs, after researching and looking at the costs of many of the systems, including a hard look at HTD, I came back to Sonos, and bought 3 connects amps to start, and will eventually add along the way. The costs per functionality of Sonos was hard to beat. I got a good deal on my Sonos amps which helped, if I could buy the Nuvo p3100 more locally, it would have been a strong contender, especially since you can connect a USB storage device to it which I think is a really good feature
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
3/4/13 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrk874 View Post

Thanks for all the good ideas. I did some more research and I'm leaning towards a more traditional receiver - mainly for the value. I guess I'm cheap...

If you get a multii-zone receiver with mobile app support and Internet music sources, it's not a bad choice. Before the apps enabled two-way remote control, I would have advised against this route as from other rooms, these setups used to be difficult to control (and therefore not used very often).

But note that if you go that route, you will have to change the state of each zone as you change your use - the volume control in each zone (assuming you put one in each zone) will be wherever it was last left. So turn on the system a few days later, and music may be playing in rooms you don't want on. Unless you get into the tedious habit of turning the volume controls down in every room when you turn the system off.

With two or three zones, this isn't such a big deal - with eight, uhhh....
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
3/5/13 at 2:20pm
No AVR is anywhere close to the user experience with Sonos – I can guarantee you will soon forget about the ‘cost per zone’ once you and the rest of the household are living with Sonos.

The requirement to ‘distribute’ the Sonos Zone players pretty much disappeared with the shift from a dedicated Sonos controller (using the Sonos 'Mesh') to using your iOS or Android device via Wi-Fi to control the system – though I have to say I do like the ability to hit the Mute, Vol +/- buttons on the front of a Zone Player at times!

Joe
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
3/6/13 at 6:39pm
Thread Starter 
I got the roomie remote and an Itach to try out. First impression is that it may be clunkier than I hoped. I'll tinker with it a bit, but based on the recommendations here, I'll head out to Bestbuy to check out the Sonos in action as well.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
3/6/13 at 10:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrk874 View Post

I got the roomie remote and an Itach to try out. First impression is that it may be clunkier than I hoped. I'll tinker with it a bit, but based on the recommendations here, I'll head out to Bestbuy to check out the Sonos in action as well.

Bet you come home with the Sonos... biggrin.gif
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home A/V Distribution

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › A/V Control & Automation › Home A/V Distribution › Multi room audio solution with tablet / phone control