Whole Home Stereo System

[2000gt4.6]

Recently bought what may end up being our forever home (10.8 ac in the country) and I am well into the home improvement bug already. One thing I always wanted to do was setup a real whole home stereo. (Had a half-ass one before).

I can't seem to find what I want. Primarily I want to be able to connect with bluetooth /wifi (to our phones/tablets). I have a habit of running Netflix in whatever room I am in, I would like to be able to select which speaker or speakers I want to play. A huge plus would be being able to connect to and play from two separate devices in two rooms. On top of all that I would like to be able to select attached speakers at once to play music.

So far I'm not seeing anything really like this. I am almost at the point of saying screw it, loosing the ability to play to all speakers and just out a few soundbars in 2-3 rooms.

 

[Tx5811]

I was just fixing to ask this as well lol

 

[BrunotheBoxer]

Set ups like that exist. You just have to throw money at it. For complex systems I'd go talk to a local audio video store if you have one in your area. I'm not a real big fan of Best Buy.

Also check out avs forums.

 

[Screw-Rice]

Set ups like that exist. You just have to throw money at it. For complex systems I'd go talk to a local audio video store if you have one in your area. I'm not a real big fan of Best Buy.

Also check out avs forums.

Have to agree with this.

Find a home audio professional in your area and get a build mapped out. You can research and do it on your own, but for the complicated stuff, you can get bogged down in details quick.

 

[BOOGIE MAN]

Look in to SONOS

Boat I worked on had this system on it, could control from computers, smartphones, pads, etc...

Separate zones, available wireless and wired speaker components, wifi connectivity, different sources playing in different rooms at once. Pretty incredible

 

[nofire]

It's all in the receiver, man. With what you're wanting you're going to have to get a top notch receiver with all the bells and whistles. Past that just get good speakers and mount them where you want the music to come from.

 

[madscotsman]

Pioneer makes some professional series receivers that use an app (called IControlAV5) for control and allow multiple room setup. Check Best Buy. They usually have their premium home audio in a dedicated room, not out on the shelves. I picked up a previous years' model a couple years back for a pretty good price. It's loaded with some pretty cool features, many of which I'm too lazy to read about.

 

[2000gt4.6]

Thanks guys, I'll check those two out.

 

[specracer]

I do this for a living. Sonos should be your starting point. Each sonos (connect, amp, or speaker) will have the ability to act on its own, being able to listen to its own source, content pushed from a hand held, and independent volume. You can also "group" them together, so some or all zones can listen to the same thing (each zone still has its own volume). Even has a single line in, if you wanted to connect a legacy source, like a CD player, or your cable box, to have tv audio pushed through the house. Very versatile and scalable (largest we have done is 18 zones). May not be the perfect system for you, but should be a starting point to see what is the right direction. As others had said, you should likely seek our a pro to assist.

Here is a trade organization that might help you find a local dealer
http://www.cedia.org/find-a-cedia-professional

Sonos has a forum, and the avs forum could also be helpful (but could also be overwhelming)

 

[nofire]

Sonos has a forum, and the avs forum could also be helpful (but could also be overwhelming)

That's the truth. AVS forums have more information about this stuff than you could ever WANT to know. It takes time to dig through it all.

 

[08mojo]

You can do everything you want with old, 'dumb' (not network enabled/ready) receivers. All you need are google chromecasts. You can get chromecast audios and setup groups to sync whatever chromecasts you want--or play them individually. You can also use chromecast videos to play whatever video you want from your computer, phone, tablet, etc... Each chromecast is around $30. I've got 6 in our house and can control the content, volume, areas that play all from my phone.

The sonos systems are nice, but pricey. For me, chromecasts were a much better option by using the hardware I already had.

There are a lot costlier options by using a AV professional company, but again that is cost prohibitive.

 

[2000GTSTANG]

Look into SONOS like someone mentioned above.

A friend has his house setup with their system. He has two little Sonos amp/receivers that power outdoor speakers in his upper and lower deck and two Sonos receivers that just play music through his home audio amp in the living room and home theater receiver in the lower play room.

I can use my phone to select what zones are playing, what music source is playing out of each zone, and the volume, all independently. All zones can play the same source or each zone can play a different source.

It works really well in my experience and he has had the system for years now and never had a complaint.

 

[2000gt4.6]

I do this for a living. Sonos should be your starting point. Each sonos (connect, amp, or speaker) will have the ability to act on its own, being able to listen to its own source, content pushed from a hand held, and independent volume. You can also "group" them together, so some or all zones can listen to the same thing (each zone still has its own volume). Even has a single line in, if you wanted to connect a legacy source, like a CD player, or your cable box, to have tv audio pushed through the house. Very versatile and scalable (largest we have done is 18 zones). May not be the perfect system for you, but should be a starting point to see what is the right direction. As others had said, you should likely seek our a pro to assist.

Here is a trade organization that might help you find a local dealer
http://www.cedia.org/find-a-cedia-professional

Sonos has a forum, and the avs forum could also be helpful (but could also be overwhelming)

Looking into this I am finding a problem. Everything I am seeing says the Sonos system will not play YouTube/Netflix unless you do a workaround with the 3.5mm line in, meaning no bluetooth/wifi transmission from a handheld. Is this true? If so it's a game breaker.

 

[2000gt4.6]

You can do everything you want with old, 'dumb' (not network enabled/ready) receivers. All you need are google chromecasts. You can get chromecast audios and setup groups to sync whatever chromecasts you want--or play them individually. You can also use chromecast videos to play whatever video you want from your computer, phone, tablet, etc... Each chromecast is around $30. I've got 6 in our house and can control the content, volume, areas that play all from my phone.

The sonos systems are nice, but pricey. For me, chromecasts were a much better option by using the hardware I already had.

There are a lot costlier options by using a AV professional company, but again that is cost prohibitive.

So basically you are running a receiver with Chromecast and then running wires for the speakers correct? It then streams the audio output to the speakers?

How would you display the video only on the mobile device though? Every time I have used a Chromecast/fire stick etc the audio and video goes away on the mobile device.

 

[ur bittn]

Pro.bose.com
Good stuff

 

[SVT-BansheeMan]

Id also recommend a pair or two of good wireless surround sound headphones where you will watch movies a lot. Good headphones are far cheaper than equal speakers.

 

[specracer]

Correct. Sonos is an audio system. You can play audio content from your phone but not app audio. You could get a Bluetooth receiver to connect to the "line in". If you don't plan on using any music services, like Pandora, Spotify etc. then maybe sonos isn't the right direction. Again, I had mentioned to evaluate this system as a baseline.

Looking into this I am finding a problem. Everything I am seeing says the Sonos system will not play YouTube/Netflix unless you do a workaround with the 3.5mm line in, meaning no bluetooth/wifi transmission from a handheld. Is this true? If so it's a game breaker.

 

[08mojo]

So basically you are running a receiver with Chromecast and then running wires for the speakers correct? It then streams the audio output to the speakers?

Yes and yes.

How would you display the video only on the mobile device though? Every time I have used a Chromecast/fire stick etc the audio and video goes away on the mobile device.

There are two versions of chromecast: audio and video. Audio does only audio--no video capability. It should play the audio over the stereo and keep video on your phone--although, I'm not sure why you'd want this. You can also mirror your desktop through chromecast video--so you'd have video on both your phone and tv.

 

[Blown 89]

As said previously. Everything you want to do can be done with a standard receiver and wired speakers. Not only will that be cheaper but it will sound infinitely better.

For the home theater go big. Big towers, big speakers, and place them correctly. If you do that you don't need to spend a lot of money for something to sound amazing. Too many people think they can get these tiny little chic speakers and have it sound great and physics dictates that it won't. There's the other problem of people that put the TV over the fireplace, the center speaker in the corner of the room, and the surrounds and sides placed willy nilly all over the room. Spend some time setting things up and your dumpster diving craigslist find will blow a high dollar compromise away. And no, I'm not joking, hit Craigslist....audiophiles are in a constant battle with their wives over systems and many times they'll hock them on Craigslist when the wife wins and installs Bose or Sonos in the house.

AVS is a good source for info but take what those audio molesters say with a grain of salt. Audiophiles tend to not be grounded in reality and don't recognize points of diminishing returns well. If you've ever been to a bar and someone is sitting there sniffing, gurgling, and over analyzing a scotch so much that you want to throw a chair at them.....that's the people on AVS with audio/video.

If you want to do it right drop some coin on high end headphones instead. $1-$2k of headphone gear will destroy a comparably priced speaker system.

 

[2000gt4.6]

Yes and yes.



There are two versions of chromecast: audio and video. Audio does only audio--no video capability. It should play the audio over the stereo and keep video on your phone--although, I'm not sure why you'd want this. You can also mirror your desktop through chromecast video--so you'd have video on both your phone and tv.

So I am seeing that the Chromecast audio and video do not sync well. What I want to do is have my phone or tablet, fire up Netflix or YouTube and play the audio thru 3-4 speakers spread through the house. I want to be able to select just one, or all of them. And it has to pickup my signal all thru the house.