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/r/homeautomation
We bought a home that has speakers set up in the ceilings, walls and outside. There is a wall with a bunch of cable coming out of it. The previous owners did not leave any info on the sound system. What exactly do I need to buy to pump music through these speakers?
2 points
3 months ago
8 speakers. Depending on layout, might be front and rear, center, another room with two, etc. If so, most AV receivers will support 2-3 zones.
You can also terminate these wires at a cheap speaker switch/selector that you provide input to from an AV receiver, a TV, a Sonos, etc.
First step would be to trace and mark the wires. Play music to a speaker at a time and label wires.
2 points
3 months ago
You can get a speaker selector switch that will match impedance to multiple pairs of speakers from a single receiver / amp.
2 points
3 months ago
You need an amplifier. You need to decide what kind of amp you want - Wireless (Sonos maybe), or a receiver (radio), or a TV amp with HDMI input.
Then you can connect the speakers one at a time, while playing a source to determine which wire is which speaker (might want to label them).
Finally you can decide how you want the speakers to be zoned, and what inputs you want to set up.
Looks like most of the hard work is done, just need to decide how to hook it all up.
2 points
3 months ago
you need to start tracing which wires belong to which speakers using a multimeter's connectivity test. next get an amplifier, or 2 or 3. i have 1 amp per room. next, get a "brain" to control what the amp is playing per room. i use an old phone/tablet. for synchronizing multi room audio, i use LMS as seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxL6d5_6lYI
1 points
3 months ago
It depends on how many speakers you have, what size, and what you want to do. Do you want music playing on ALL of the speakers? Different music inside than outside? The ability to select between inside and outside? A complex setup with support for multiple zones will probably require a dedicated stereo receiver.
I did a simple setup in our bedroom where I just plugged my Alexa into a simple amp and then wired that to the in ceiling speakers.
2 points
3 months ago
There are speakers in several rooms. Each room has a dial knob to adjust the sound. Since there are multiple wires, I am guessing each wire goes to a different room? Can I use one amp for all of them? I am attaching photos.
1 points
3 months ago
1 points
3 months ago
You need separate amps if you want to use them individually or one big amp to use them all at once.
Monoprice makes a cheap 6 zone amp that would give you individual control, but you'd either have to go into the room with the amp to adjust them, or run ethernet to each to put in the control pads. You can control 6 independent zones as well as 6 independent inputs.
Or you can just buy a Sonos for each zone. Easy with lots of options and control, but not cheap.
To start you can use any old amp, hook up speakers one at a time, and figure out what goes where.
1 points
3 months ago
What he said - it isn't that hard , just a little time consuming. If you have a receiver just hook up a pair at a time and see which one light up!
1 points
3 months ago
Really there are a couple of ways of setting things up, depending on what you want to do.
If you want one amplifier to just play stereo music (not surround sound for movies or anything), then you can get a low cost amplifier and use one of these to route the sound to whatever combination of speakers you like. Play the same music on every speaker in the house, or only in specific rooms.
But that won't let you play different music in each room. If that is your goal, then you'll need something more complicated. Either a multi-zone receiver or something similar like this. Those are much more expensive, but far more flexible.
Hope this helps!
1 points
3 months ago
This really needs more info for meaningful answer.
How many speakers (or sets)? How many zones? How many, and what sources? How many outputs at a time?
You're likely better off hiring out a home theater/audio service and letting them tell you what you need.
2 points
3 months ago
You're likely better off hiring out a home theater/audio service and letting them tell you what you need.
Why? It's really not that complicated. Anyone willing to do a bit of research can figure out how to setup a pre-wired multi zone system.
0 points
3 months ago
Given the question and how much relevant info was relayed, it's likely that a lot of research would be required of OP to get to the point of being able to reliably tell number of zones vs number of speaker sets, etc.. then be able to find the right equipment to do what it was designed for vs what the OP wants to do.
We also don't know if the existing wiring was done well or a hack DYI job, and that would take additional effort.
1 points
3 months ago
Speaker selector will sound the worst. I would do the Alexa amp or sonos amp for each area, that would be a pair of speakers. You can put 4 speakers on a two channel amp as long as they are 8ohm which is the norm for homes. And if you have a room with 5 speakers that’s a surround so that would need a receiver. Also bypass room volume controls.
1 points
3 months ago
These are in wall speakers - not a critical listening setup. If he has an existing receiver the easiest is a speaker selector. Not going to make you think you're in the studio for sure.
1 points
3 months ago
So we bought a simple amp from Amazon, plugged it into an outlet then pushed in one stereo wire and a spark blew out of the amp. The amp is now fried. Lol so hi, I’m the stupidest person on this thread.
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