Multi room Audio- Wired or Wireless

Vivek Batra

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Hi Folks

I need your help in deciding on multi room audio wireless vs wired. I am very fond of listening to FM and love to listen while working in the kitchen, reading, eating and other household chores. I want to install a multiroom system in my new home (on two floors). Undoubtly the source would be FM most of the time and occasionally streaming. I have roughly 5 zones in my mind.

I could think of the following and need your inputs on that. Based on the approcah to follow equipment can be selected at installation stage.

Wired
1. Would require a multi channel amplifier with really good speakers.
2. Wiring has to go from one central location to all the places where it is required. Not sure if speaker wire length would matter or not.
3. Now is the time as electrical work is going on.
4. Adding new speakers or zones at a later stage is not that easy.
5. May be a better solution becuase of a better amplifier and speakers.


Wireless
1. Bunch of smart speakers like Goolge, Alexa etc.
2. Ease of use, no fuss, cheaper solution and liberty to move them around.
3. Additional speakers can be added at any time without any fuss/wiring.
4. Sound depends solely on the speaker itself.

Hope to hear something more around this topic.

Thanks
Vivek
 
Yes, but not cheap
Nothing better than Amazon Echo in that case. Seamless & so easy to set up & use. I have around 8 running all around my house incl stereo in 1 room. You can play all together or continue in whatever room you go to etc. Depending on the room & function you can pick the type (echo dot/plus etc) you need. Also easy to connect to cameras/ switches/ televisions /home theatre as reqd.
 
Nothing better than Amazon Echo in that case. Seamless & so easy to set up & use. I have around 8 running all around my house incl stereo in 1 room. You can play all together or continue in whatever room you go to etc. Depending on the room & function you can pick the type (echo dot/plus etc) you need. Also easy to connect to cameras/ switches/ televisions /home theatre as reqd.
I got one Echo Dot for now, so far no issues with that.
 
My preference is to go for buy a power amplifier which is used for automation with global intput and global output plus many zones at-least 8 zones which can connect 16 speakers.
 
Here you go like this...




Here you can have single input shall be given the same content to all zones or you can give individual ouput to all zones separately as you wish on clik of a switch manually or you can automate it from app
 
Here you go like this...




Here you can have single input shall be given the same content to all zones or you can give individual ouput to all zones separately as you wish on clik of a switch manually or you can automate it from app
Thanks for sharing @srinisundar . Dayton option is interesting.
 
Are you sure you want to do whole house/multi room audio? Most rich people who are building their own houses often see this being done (along with things like pool,HT,library etc) and just decide to do it because you don't build a house everyday and they don't want to "skimp" especially since others are doing it. My observation has been that it sounds great and all in your head ( sitting in x room chilling with light ambient music playing ala hotels) but most don't really use the whole house/multi room audio system after a few times of use, I have seen this often. Even the HT is not used that often but the pool is often used. Not trying to dissuade you but depending upon the outlay and how significant it is for you, you could save this money if your not going to use it. If you do want it, I suggest wired and go with some pro multichannel amp, like QSC. There are locally made cheaper options too. Length of the cable matters, mostly for damping factor that affects the bass, but also power losses. Thicker cables are preferred. I recommend Belden. Since it is ambient music you could probably get away with cheaper cables too as ambient music is hardly about serious listening. For speakers as well I recommend QSC or if you want cheaper, then Behringer. If you are not so invested then the echo plan works, it will be simpler and easy, probably much cheaper too. It really depends on how invested you are in this. Hope this helps.
 
Are you sure you want to do whole house/multi room audio? Most rich people who are building their own houses often see this being done (along with things like pool,HT,library etc) and just decide to do it because you don't build a house everyday and they don't want to "skimp" especially since others are doing it. My observation has been that it sounds great and all in your head ( sitting in x room chilling with light ambient music playing ala hotels) but most don't really use the whole house/multi room audio system after a few times of use, I have seen this often. Even the HT is not used that often but the pool is often used. Not trying to dissuade you but depending upon the outlay and how significant it is for you, you could save this money if your not going to use it. If you do want it, I suggest wired and go with some pro multichannel amp, like QSC. There are locally made cheaper options too. Length of the cable matters, mostly for damping factor that affects the bass, but also power losses. Thicker cables are preferred. I recommend Belden. Since it is ambient music you could probably get away with cheaper cables too as ambient music is hardly about serious listening. For speakers as well I recommend QSC or if you want cheaper, then Behringer. If you are not so invested then the echo plan works, it will be simpler and easy, probably much cheaper too. It really depends on how invested you are in this. Hope this helps.
Hi @Decadent_Spectre

I fully agree what you have said, its very common with humans to go over the board and get exicted with houses when it comes to building one from ground.

No, I do not want to do a whole home, but few selected areas only where I spend time alone, that are Kitchen, Lobby/Dining and a covered terrace thats it. I am a great FM fan and my day starts with FM for couple of hours in the morning, This is what I want to hear all around the home where I move, though my wife hates me for this, but I can't help it :D . Going crazy with the budget is not ideal and feasible either. I brought this up, becuase I need to plan for the conduits at this stage, no matter I go with wired or wirelss in future, but atleast I should have an option with wired.
 
Hi @Decadent_Spectre

I fully agree what you have said, its very common with humans to go over the board and get exicted with houses when it comes to building one from ground.

No, I do not want to do a whole home, but few selected areas only where I spend time alone, that are Kitchen, Lobby/Dining and a covered terrace thats it. I am a great FM fan and my day starts with FM for couple of hours in the morning, This is what I want to hear all around the home where I move, though my wife hates me for this, but I can't help it :D . Going crazy with the budget is not ideal and feasible either. I brought this up, becuase I need to plan for the conduits at this stage, no matter I go with wired or wirelss in future, but atleast I should have an option with wired.

I'm no radio fan but if I was I would want my radio to be some vintage one. Not sure if I would to use modern devices for radio. If I understand you right the ambiance/ease of use is more important than sheer sound quality or listening pleasure. I'd just get a bunch of old radios. If this is the case as you mention then I suggest you make the wired connection and to keep costs low use Finolex wires. Not sure what speakers or cable lengths you need but 4 sqmm should be a good starting point, I'd use 6 sqmm but they may not be easy to plug into some smaller speakers. For cheap and good I can't think of better cables than Finolex.
 
Hi Folks

I need your help in deciding on multi room audio wireless vs wired. I am very fond of listening to FM and love to listen while working in the kitchen, reading, eating and other household chores. I want to install a multiroom system in my new home (on two floors). Undoubtly the source would be FM most of the time and occasionally streaming. I have roughly 5 zones in my mind.

I could think of the following and need your inputs on that. Based on the approcah to follow equipment can be selected at installation stage.

Wired
1. Would require a multi channel amplifier with really good speakers.
2. Wiring has to go from one central location to all the places where it is required. Not sure if speaker wire length would matter or not.
3. Now is the time as electrical work is going on.
4. Adding new speakers or zones at a later stage is not that easy.
5. May be a better solution becuase of a better amplifier and speakers.


Wireless
1. Bunch of smart speakers like Goolge, Alexa etc.
2. Ease of use, no fuss, cheaper solution and liberty to move them around.
3. Additional speakers can be added at any time without any fuss/wiring.
4. Sound depends solely on the speaker itself.

Hope to hear something more around this topic.

Thanks
Vivek
Bluesound has some good product line up ! You can also look at it. They have different range of products to suit all needs. Personally my favorite is powernode.
 
Just ho with Good Assistant or Alexa speakers. They are good fkr casual background music.

If you want better speakers in one area, you can get Assistant or Alexa enabled soundbars or pair bookshelves to Alexa echo dot(via 3.5mm) or Chromecast Audio and listen to music everywhere.


Having so many zones is a overkill IMO.
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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