Zoning home ceiling speakers


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Old 03-13-17, 01:29 PM
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Zoning home ceiling speakers

Hi All,

Hoping I can get some help. Recently purchased a home that is wired with all in house ceiling speakers throughout the house. The home also has outdoor back yard speakers. I would like to see if there is a way that I can control each room separately as a seperate zone. So for instance if I want to only play music outside, or only play music in the outside and kitchen. That sort of thing. Want to see if there is an easy way to go about this? Mainly want to be able to play music from like an iPhone / iPad type of thing.

I've heard of the Sonos option, where I could put two speakers on a Sonos connect and then connect that to an amp. Each connect would be a separate zone, if i'm saying that correctly. Any input you guys can provide on how I can go about this and the best way possible would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Old 03-13-17, 02:50 PM
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A lot depends on how the speakers were wired up, and there are several ways it is commonly done. Usually there is some provision for multiple sources/zones....

Can you post a few pictures showing the connections you have. There should be a central location where all the wiring is terminated, give us some pictures showing that wiring.

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html
 
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Old 03-13-17, 08:24 PM
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What are you looking to spend? There are multi-zone/multi-source matrix amps that will do exactly what you want, but they are not cheap. For example I've installed a couple of these: https://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/sf-16m ... They can run up to 16 separate speakers (in stereo or mono) from up to 8 different stereo (or 16 different mono) sources in any combination, and can be controlled via iOS or Android app over your home network, but you're looking at about $2500. However that may be cheaper than what it will cost to buy a bunch of Sonos at $500 each, depending on how many speakers you're talking about (and you will have FAR more flexibility using a single matrix amp versus trying to make a bunch of individual amps play nice together).
 
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Old 03-14-17, 06:09 AM
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Here are some picture of wiring.
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Old 03-14-17, 08:41 AM
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You need to try and figure out if the speakers are wired in pairs by rooms. In your bottom picture we see the yellow cables which are network. You need to determine what the white and gray cables are for.

It looks like the four white cables are 4 wire cables and are the speakers.
It looks like 1 RG-6 white coax.
If yo have lots of pairs of speakers.... the gray may be speakers too.

We can only guess. You need to look further.

This is the most helpful picture but not enough detail to make a positive cable ID.

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Old 03-15-17, 07:59 PM
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If you wanted to plug an IPhone or IPad into an amp you could use a Russound SS-6.2 6 Pair Single Source Impedance matching Speaker Selector connected to the speaker output of the amp. They also have them with volume controls for each channel output.

If you don't want to plug the IPhone or IPad into an amp you should look at the Sonos solution. But, if you would have to get the Connect Amp for each of the zones. You can connect two pairs (or two zones) of speakers to each Connect Amp but that means both zones will play with the same volume. Russound also has volume controls that you could use on the out put of the Connect Amp (s) so you could have manual volume control in each of the two areas. Obviously each of the two areas would play the same music. In case you are not aware, each Sonos Connect Amp can play different sources simultaneously.

With the Russound Impendence matching devices, all speakers play the same music.
 
 

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