[bdmac97]

Is there a way that I can do "subzones" similar with the Grand Concerto? I have both the master bedroom and the master bathroom wired homerun w/adequate keypad wiring in each for a full Grand Concerto keypad but I don't want to use a full one in the bathroom now. Could I somehow put just a volume control in there and control the sources from the full keypad in the master bedroom?


I could probably use one of the two unpowered zones on the GC and pipe it out to an external multichannel amp but that seems like a waste of one of those zones. To me they should be used for places where you need extra power. Could I somehow run the speakers (that are homerun already) off of one of the normal 80w zones on the GC?

 

[MikeLo33]

The way I understand it (and I'm no expert) is that you can run 2 sets of speakers off one zone if they use impedence matching volume controls on each. This "tricks" the amp into thinking there's only one pair of speakers and solves any impedence issues.


I plan to do the same thing in my Master, with a Volume Control in each. This way if I want to listen to some tunes while showering and the wife is still sleeping (or watching TV), I can turn off the Main Room (master with keypad) and turn on the Bath.


If you only put a VC in the bath, the bedroom will always be on.


I'm curious to hear responses from anyone who's done this, but that's my plan.

 

[bdmac97]

Well I guess that's basically what I'm hoping to do but I've not read/heard of doing it that way. If I used VCs in both spots then they'd both be impedence matching and solve the problem but I don't know about mixing a VC with a GC keypad.


Also, since the speakers are homerun I'm not sure how I would send them both signals? I can't just shove both ends of the speaker wires into the same speaker out on the GC I wouldn't think. Is there some kind of splitter device I would need to drive both pairs (bathroom is just a single dual voice coil but that's the same I think)?

 

[IVB]

If the issue is purely keypad size, I have a concerto with a single-gang 2ndary keypad that has *many* fewer buttons than the full one. Dunno if the GC has a similar concept.


That doesn't address the larger issue of both zones being on concurrently, and with the same volume level. No way around a VC or another zone usage that I can think of, given that there's no subzones.

 

[bdmac97]

Well the issue is one of cost + lack of necessity for a keypad in the bathroom. Heck, I don't even really care about having a VC in there as I could set the volume in the bedroom first but I'd probably put a VC in there anyways.


I really don't want to use another zone so I guess all I really want to know is how do I hook up 2 pairs of speakers to one of the amplified zones on the GC w/out being able to wire them in parallel?

 

[MikeLo33]

I'm sure there's models more suited to your needs (less outputs), but how about something like this?
Niles VCS HUB8

 

[robertmee]



Quote:
Originally Posted by bdmac97 /forum/post/0


I really don't want to use another zone so I guess all I really want to know is how do I hook up 2 pairs of speakers to one of the amplified zones on the GC w/out being able to wire them in parallel?

If your only issue of wiring them in parallel is wire/terminal size on the GC, go to radio shack and buy a $2 terminal strip. From the GC, use a short length of speaker wire and on the other side of the terminal double up your two sets of speakers.


Something like this: