Complete newbie - need advice

goodry said:

I just started renting a home that has whole house wiring, terminating in my living room. There are speakers in the living room front L/R, back LR, Spare room, L/R and then L/R outdoor speakers

I would ideally like to play separate sources to the 3 areas, with the outdoor one being wireless so we can control the music to the outside from outside.

Im very much clueless as to how to accomplish this.. I have a spotify subscription and am not opposed to using wireless bluetooth transceivers or whatever is necessary I am just unsure of what equipment I would need to accomplish what I am wanting.

Summary - whole house wiring, living room, spare room, outdoor speakers. Want to play seperate sources to all 3 areas, outdoor speakers would like to be wireless.

Thank you in advance for forgiving my ignorance and I look forward to your suggestions.

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smithsabom said:

what is your budget? a 3 zone capable receiver ( denon 4400/4500, pioneer 703) will run you ~700 - 1500 (depending on new or refurb) there are many other systems/solutions.

you could get by with as little as ~100 - 150 / zone (dayton audio from parts express) or Sonos amps ( 600/zone)

overall, I suggest you consider a music of wifi soltion ( Sonos, HEOS, musicast, playfi, etc) on top of some cost effective amplification.

that is if music is your only application.

example: https://www.parts-express.com/dayto...lifier-wfa400-4-zone-wi-fi-audio-re--300-5700

alternative: 3 x ( https://www.parts-express.com/dayto...lifier-with-ir-remote-and-app-contr--300-3821) you will be suprised at what a 20 wpc class d amp can do!. (

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goodry said:

Thank you for your reply ... I am not opposed to buying 1 unit that will do all 3. I had an old Harmon Kardon that just stopped working on me recently, AVR-525. So my application would mainly be, zone 1, living room .. would be for sports, music and movies, zone 2, spare room would be music only, zone 3, outdoor wired speakers, i would just want to wirelessly control music so we had music while we were on the patio. $700 - $1000 is not outside my budget. I am just new to the world and need to know what to look for when looking into receivers. If I could get a receiver that had wifi and supported spotify \ pandora .. and designate that zone 3 play the spotify \ pandora then wire the outdoor speakers to zone 3, that would be fine because I could control spotify from my phone outside.

another newbie question, could I designate zone 2 and 3 to play from spotify ? obviously not at the same time, I just didnt know how that would work .. would this work better to get multiple cheaper receivers ? 2 cheap ones for side room \ outside that have just basic spotify function then one main one for the living room that powers the fronts and rears ?

I know there are a lot of options and im thankful for the help in figuring out what configurations are possible.

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eriksells916 said:

@goodry I am in a similar situation and here is what I have been looking at.

1. get a 9 channel amp that has zone 2/3 preouts or speaker terminal outs for 3 zone playback. That setup will allow 5.1 in the main room and then 2 speakers each zone 2 and 3. Onkyo tx-rz630/730/830 and Pioneer vsx-lx303/503, denon x4300/4400/4500 and sister marantz sr6012/6013, yamaha 2070/2080

2. Pioneer/Onkyo use Flareconnect while Yamaha uses Musiccast and Denon uses Heos. Look those up and see if that will solution might work for you?

3. Get two cheaper receivers with the above mentioned wireless eco system and use one in the living room and then the other one near the outdoor speakers so you don't have to run 1 mile of speaker cable.

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goodry said:

I think ive decided to get the pioneer VSX-LX503. It seems like it checks all my boxes so I think it will do everything I need. Get me the 3 zones, power my outdoor speakers and has Bluetooth and wifi and so thank you for the recommendation, I think that will end up being my end choice.

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