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Inexpensive in-wall speakers in whole house for talk radio and background music

post #1 of 19
9/13/06 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
I am going to be buying a house, I am single so I will have it all to myself. I listen to talk radio so I would like to be able to listen uninterrupted when I travel around the house. I would also like to be able to play low volume background music, such as some Christmas music when the family is over around the holidays.

The audio will be fed from my computer, I will use MP3's and XM radio (thru it's online service) for the talk radio and some music. I will need about 12-14 speakers in total, stereo separation is unnecessary (the bathrooms will only have one speaker). I do not need separate volume controls, all speakers can be the same volume.

So I need 12-14 inexpensive speakers, something that will do what I explained above, but not break the bank. I certainly don't need any audiophile type speakers for this (that's for the HT ).

I also need a way to amplify the audio from my computer (onboard nVidia sound). What has to be done to power so many speakers? Should I just arrange them in large groups of paralleled series circuits? Or are there special types of amplifiers for powering such a high number of speakers? FWIW, I would assume each speaker needs no more than 5 watts, altho a little more could never hurt.

Any help on this project is greatly appreciated!
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post #2 of 19
9/13/06 at 5:27pm
www.htd.com

They have whole house amplifiers and in wall speakers for very reasonable prices.

Pat
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post #3 of 19
9/15/06 at 7:47pm
Thread Starter 
Everything there seems very expensive. The speakers are $60/pair, the amplifiers are astronomical.

What I am looking for is the volume of a clock radio set about halfway, a couple watts max.
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post #4 of 19
9/15/06 at 10:00pm
Why not just go ahead and get an amp that will put out decent wattage and localize it to one place?

$650 for the amp will power the whole house, can probably power it as loud as you would ever need if you just happened to want to do that. $650 is dirt cheap for a 12 ch. amp FYI.

How do you expect to do it? Get 6 cheap stereo amps and daisy chain them together? Thats more expensive and impractical.

You dont necessarily have to use those speakers, but that is a great amp for the purpose.


Check ebay item 110031671604
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post #5 of 19
9/16/06 at 7:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by [/quote] View Post

Everything there seems very expensive. The speakers are $60/pair, the amplifiers are astronomical.

What I am looking for is the volume of a clock radio set about halfway, a couple watts max.


I know you are not looking for much, but I have a hard time believing you will find any speakers for less than $60 a pair.

For amplification, you could get a cheap 7.1 speaker and run it all all stereo mode, and then send out three amplified l/r signals, and use some impedence matched volume controls, but that can be a bit of a pain, and may not be any cheaper.
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post #6 of 19
12/17/06 at 6:27pm
Thread Starter 
That's a shame that I would have to spend so much money.

I remember a deal I found a while ago on these Advent outdoor speakers from Costco, they sound great for the $50/pair pricetag. What I am looking for today is something that could give a 10th of the volume and audio quailty, but the only option will cost more than those advents.

All I wanted was some cheap PA type system to play AM talk radio type programming at minimal background volume. But my only option is $650 for the amp and $60 for each pair of speakers totalling over $1,000.

I guess I'll just put clock radios in each room and turn them on and off as I walk in and out of the rooms.
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post #7 of 19
12/18/06 at 6:22pm
Are you looking for inwall or in ceiling speakers? Parts Express has some ceiling speakers that aren't to expensive. I have no clue how they sound but since your needs are low, they probably should work.

Don't forget you need to add wire to the cost. And get the wires run up to the speakers or ceiling, which is not always an easy task.
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post #8 of 19
12/18/06 at 7:04pm
Thread Starter 
Either would work. I will check out Parts Express, thanks!

I have speaker wire and I'm an electrician so I'll be able to get the wire pulled.
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post #9 of 19
12/18/06 at 9:16pm
Are you ever going to sell this house? Not many people are interested in whole house talk radio speakers. I am not an audiophile and went on the cheap and got JBL SP6 and SP6C. 12 of them. JBL whole house audio sounds like about $5,000 in resale value....
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post #10 of 19
12/19/06 at 2:48am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrRob View Post

Are you ever going to sell this house? Not many people are interested in whole house talk radio speakers. I am not an audiophile and went on the cheap and got JBL SP6 and SP6C. 12 of them. JBL whole house audio sounds like about $5,000 in resale value....

I have no plans on selling the house. My future children can worry about upgrading the speakers or covering the holes when I'm in the ground in 50 years.


FWIW, I surely wouldn't pay $5K extra for speakers in a house I am looking at and I don't know anyone else who would (this forum excluded ).
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post #11 of 19
12/19/06 at 8:06am
Here are in ceilings for $30/pr. http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/htincesp.html Web site also has amp options, but nothing real cheap that I can see.
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post #12 of 19
12/19/06 at 12:56pm
Thread Starter 
If I were to have a total of 8 speakers, I could run 4 on each channel of a 2-channel amp using a series/parallel connection. Wiring the 4 8 ohm speakers like that would show the amp an 8ohm load. Is there any downfall to that?

I have an older Technics 2 channel home receiver that would fit the bill.
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post #13 of 19
1/11/07 at 7:05am
Parts Express has a dual channel speaker. I use it in the bathroom where space is limited. Cost is around 30-35 each.

Dayton CS622C

I use an old amp with their 4 speaker switch. I think they have an 8 speaker switch. It allows for 2 inputs and 4 sets of speakers.

I use this system in the same way. I have the amp connected to the computer to play radio from the internet and mp3s from my server.
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post #14 of 19
1/12/07 at 10:00am
Check on e bay, there are quite a few no name or lesser name ceiling and in wall speakers there for 20-30 / pr . Check with the seller if they can give you a good deal and combined shipping for your multiple orders.
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post #15 of 19
9/26/08 at 10:38am
Be careful of the lower cost in-wall or in-ceiling speakers. Although most are made in China, they are not all quality controlled. Often, I have see those that get them complain that they simply fail. You do not need to spend a lot, just get decent quality. Staying with a reputable brand name for in-wall products (or any others) is a good idea.
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post #16 of 19
11/16/09 at 12:42am
I was about to post something similar when I saw this topic and hence revive this thread.
Someone might need similar setup and this thread will come handy.

I am a newbie and have this requirement to wire-up the whole house for some background music. I don't really care about real quality, just enough to listen something in the background so the solution that I need should be cheap.

I am going to DIY so, it will be helpful if someone can run through a very basic setup.
I will need 5 speakers and I don't need stereo separation. All the 5 speakers will sound more or less the same.

How should I wire up this? E.g. Should I connect the wire to the earphone output jack from my hi-fi and run daisy chain across all the 5 wall-mounted satellite speakers? Do I need to customise the cable or is there ready made?
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post #17 of 19
11/16/09 at 2:20am
I think you know by now that the headphone jack won't cut it. If you were to ask me, for what you want i'd hit Best Buy, grab the cheapest 5.1 system, set it in 2 channel mode, extend speakers' cables, done. You also get remote control.
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post #18 of 19
11/16/09 at 5:53pm
Take a look at this article. It will explain the fundamentals of a distributed audio system. It addresses in-wall speakers, but contains much of the information that you need.

http://www.contractorsav.com/article...-wall-speakers
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post #19 of 19
11/19/09 at 4:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AV TechnologyGuy View Post

Take a look at this article. It will explain the fundamentals of a distributed audio system. It addresses in-wall speakers, but contains much of the information that you need.

http://www.contractorsav.com/article...-wall-speakers

Thanks TG. Quite a helpful article that discuss in-wall speakers.
I was excited reading it but it stops short of being an excellent article when it doesn't mention how the speakers could be wired together with the audio systems for a balance nice background music. Can anyone provide more info on this or point me to any website that address this? I plan to DIY on connecting the pieces together (not actually making my own cable though).
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