[Ros Posey]

I'm planning a WHA system zones will be as follows

Zone 1 Master bedroom 4 speakers
Zone 2 Master bath 2 speakers
Zone 3 Common area downstairs - 6 speakers
Zone 4 Common area upstairs - 4 speakers
Zone 5 Back Porch 6 speakers
Zone 6 Bedroom 2 - 1 speaker
Zone 7 Bedroom 3 - 1 speaker
Zone 8 Bedroom 4 - 2 Speakers
Zone 9 living room with 7.1

I've been looking at the Monoprice WHA 6X6 and thinking to chain 2 of them together to get a 12X6 system. I already own the speakers and have installed them with wiring to a central location in the house.

Budget 2K

Goals - Alexa integration in every zone
Tivo to tie in as 1 of the sources
The zone with 7.1 should share the 4 surround speakers with the WHA

I have the following questions

1. Is there an amp that is suggested to pair with the Monoprice for the zones with over 2 speakers?
2. I like the amazon echo dot to control the zones, but is there a way to have the dot only play through the zone speakers?
3. Can someone help with a schematic of the wiring and equipment?
4. Is there a way to share the speakers in 7.1 surround zone with the WHA?
5. What surround amp would y'all suggest for my budget? I'm not an audiophile. I just want something that works all the time.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[Bigus]

HTD's new amps with a second "priority" input for each zone will do what you want regarding echo dots. It will allow you to play music in every zone or combination of zones coming from some source or sources like a WHA controller, but if the signal on priority input on any zone becomes active (echo dot), then it mutes the other input and that takes over.

For example, playing background music in the whole house. Talk to echo in one room/zone and you hear the response in just that zones speakers with background music muted. Play a song from echo and it plays in just that zone until it stops, the background music takes back over. Play a song to a group of echo's you have set up and all those zones play as each echo sends signal to it's zone priority input.

That is only necessary if you have other sources and features of a WHA controller you want to intermingle with the echo. If all you want is echo controlled music and exclusively use the grouping functions in the Alexa app to set up zones, any multichannel amp will work.

 

[Liquid$team]

You could just do echo's or alexa enabled speakers in 8 rooms.... easiest.

Look at accesories4less.com for a basic 7 channel AVR for your 9th room.

Your question #2 ..... Just get an Echo input instead of a DOT if you don't want the echo to have a speaker.... or what I did in my livingroom is use bluetooth (or you can do AUX cable) from a Echo Show 5 to a JBL extreme 2. The music plays through the JBL all the time and it makes for a quick portable bluetooth speaker I can grab and go outside without missing a beat.

If you really want to do a better quality WHA than just various Echo speakers then go with the New Sonos amps. 1 for each zone and it is Alexa compatible (or phone tablet as well). Although thats way out of your budget. You are not going to get 26-33 speakers with amplifiers and wiring for $2k not anything near decent anyway. Thats why I suggested various Echo's devices/bluetooth speakers in all rooms.

You could use all Sonos speakers as well and not worry about wiring.

I currently went the route of Echo....

1. Bedroom Echo show and First Alert Onelink Safe and Sound
2. Bedroom Echo Spot
3. Bedroom First Alert Onelink Safe and Sound
4. Livingroom Show 5 hooked up to a JBL Extreme 2 and Polk Magnifi Mini
5. Kitchen Echo Show 2
6. Garage Echo input connected to a Milwaukee radio
7. Basment Echo Dot connected to Polk Magnifi Mini
8. Theater room Fire TV Cube connected to my surround system.

Everything except the First Alerts can be added to a group on the Alexa app

I am thinking about adding a 2.1 system to bedroom #2 with a Sonos amplifier and not using the Spot