I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
to continue:

1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
speaker settings on amplifiers)?

2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?

Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
expensive commercial installations.

d.

BTW, I have Cat5e in the rooms...



On Oct 15, 10:15 am, dk  wrote:
> I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
> down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
> different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
> to continue:
>
> 1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
> sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
> speaker settings on amplifiers)?
>
> 2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?
>
> Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
> expensive commercial installations.
>
> d.

In article ,
   dk  wrote:
> I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
> down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
> different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
> to continue:

> 1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
> sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
> speaker settings on amplifiers)?

> 2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?

> Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
> expensive commercial installations.

The snag with doing it at speaker level is controlling the volume in the
different areas.

I have a similar idea, home made, running 5 stereo circuits of audio
around the house using telephone cable fed from a balanced source. Then
all you need in other rooms is a switch to select the required circuit,
balanced to unbalanced conversion and an amp and speakers.

-- 
*The most common name in the world is Mohammed *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

If you truly require output from 4 different sources then I believe you are 
talking about some complex kit $$$ / £££
There are a number of third party switches sold to enable you to output to 
numerous locations, however your amp needs sufficiant pwr output.
A/B speakers on amps are merely to allow a second set of speakers to output 
from the *same* source, some amps with this allow for differing volume 
settings for each pair.
A further point is that you would still need physical access to the amp to 
alter any settings, it couldnt be done from the rooms.

All in all you are talking serious money - try a google search for 'media 
servers'
http://www.yamaha-uk.com/musiccast/


"dk"  wrote in message 
news:1192439743.370190.56340@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
> down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
> different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
> to continue:
>
> 1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
> sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
> speaker settings on amplifiers)?
>
> 2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?
>
> Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
> expensive commercial installations.
>
> d.
>

dk wrote:
> I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
> down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
> different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
> to continue:
> 
> 1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
> sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
> speaker settings on amplifiers)?
> 
> 2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?
> 
> Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
> expensive commercial installations.
> 
> d.
> 

Forget the speaker cables idea - you are best having a central store of 
your music and then buying separate media players in each room connected 
via CAT5 or Wi-fi.  You could buy a NAS such as the Qnap TS-109 to store 
your music - this has UPnP so you can use any compatible media players 
such as these:

http://www.twonkyvision.com/Products/TwonkyMedia/devices.html

You can also run Slimserver on this NAS and then you could use 
Squeezeboxes with an amplifier or perhaps a small DAB receiver such as 
the Onkyo CR-515DAB.

You could also go down the Sonos route which will probably be a bit more 
expensive and would require also require a PC or NAS to store the music. 
  Another alternative would be to pick up a (now discontinued) Hifidelio 
music server which supports UPnP and you can also install Slimserver.

The Squeezeboxes could then be controlled remotely using a web enabled 
PDA such as an HP iPaq or Nokia N770/800.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

- Simon.

On Oct 20, 8:44 pm, Simon Heather  wrote:
> dk wrote:
> > I have wired four rooms with speaker cables and the cables all run
> > down to the basement. My grand idea was to be able to play (ideally
> > different) music in the 4 different rooms but now I have no idea how
> > to continue:
>
> > 1. What kind of amplifier will support switching between different
> > sources and at least 4 different outputs (I have only seen A / B
> > speaker settings on amplifiers)?
>
> > 2. How to easiest control this from at least one location upstairs?
>
> > Would love to hear how you solved your multi zone audio without
> > expensive commercial installations.
>
> > d.
>
> Forget the speaker cables idea - you are best having a central store of
> your music and then buying separate media players in each room connected
> via CAT5 or Wi-fi.  You could buy a NAS such as the Qnap TS-109 to store
> your music - this has UPnP so you can use any compatible media players
> such as these:
>
> http://www.twonkyvision.com/Products/TwonkyMedia/devices.html
>
> You can also run Slimserver on this NAS and then you could use
> Squeezeboxes with an amplifier or perhaps a small DAB receiver such as
> the Onkyo CR-515DAB.
>
> You could also go down the Sonos route which will probably be a bit more
> expensive and would require also require a PC or NAS to store the music.
>   Another alternative would be to pick up a (now discontinued) Hifidelio
> music server which supports UPnP and you can also install Slimserver.
>
> The Squeezeboxes could then be controlled remotely using a web enabled
> PDA such as an HP iPaq or Nokia N770/800.
>
> Hope this gives you some ideas,
>
> - Simon.

Thanks for the advice Simon, the really seems to be a lot of options
with media players and amplifiers in each room.

But since I have already wired the rooms with speaker cables from a
central location I can hardly forget about it :-) I'll look into a
multizone amplifier that supports control from CAT5.

once again thanks,