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Bach Here Beatles There X-Box, Too PUHLEEZE.

Further to another post where I have been asked to help a friend with their house renovation, could anyone give their opinions on a SENSIBLE multi room system.

I realize that firms like Crestron etc may be booming, but I have yet to meet anyone who ever really wanted to listen to Bach in one room, the Buzzocks in another, while their husband watched sports, someone else watched a movie and they were cooking spaghetti or something while their kids played PS2.

Worse, I have been to several dinner parties where the newly rich host neurotically jumped up and down to adjust the malfunctioning panel of their multi room system, couldnt located disc number 7000 or whatever they wanted to play. As an added bonus, it all sounded like CRAP through their designery hidden speakers. (Of course, I as an old school audiophile, jump up and down neurotically with my 2 channel system but that is a different matter.)

So I would like to propose a SIMPLE and GOOD SOUNDING hub and spoke system where at the nucleus of the house there is a monster audio/home theatre system of fabulous quality. And then, branching out, you can remotely monitor and independently adjust the audio and volume in other rooms, or if necessary, simply play music throughout the house.

Which, at the end of the day, is not so far from "speakers 1 and speakers 2" on a Fisher 500 or something, circa 1965. Back to the future!?

So your opinions on clean, simple, good sounding "multi room" music greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
cwlondon
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nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
One (very hip and contemporary) solution (especially if you have a big house) might be to feed an output from your "fabulous system" to a PC connected to a local wireless network. Then you could get music through all the computers in your house. (You do have a computer in every room don't you?)

Alternately, you could scratch the wireless network, and wait (just a few months I think) for the new Mitsubishi chip that allows you to distribute broadband throughout your house through the AC outlets.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
NSgarch

Thanks. I do not have a computer in every room, but in any case, this is for a friend of mine who just might.

It sounds like there is so much change going on with the PC/audio/video convergence that this is going to more confusing than ever.

But again, just easy to use, good quality distributed sound would be fine.
shiva
181 posts
 
There are some amps with 12 channels of amplification. the brand name escapes me at the moment. That will take care or 6 pairs of speakers in 6 rooms or 1 speaker in 12 rooms. That will be fairly simple. Hook up a receiver to it of some kind, send the wires to the different rooms from the amp, hook up some speakers, either in wall or shelve mounted and you are good to go.
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
Based on your previous post about this I assume your friend is well heeled. You must admit the room is a little over the top. A hint is that you've given no budget to consider.

A couple of things you really should consider is that a quality manufacturer of such whole house components will make them feature rich and able to accomodate different needs down the road. You don't need to use the additional features to enjoy wonderful integration and great sound. Another practical consideration should be given to the remotes. How good they are is a function of ease of use, range and durability.

The company audiophiles love to hate does the whole house thing better than anyone else is Linn. Even their in wall and ceiling speakers are very, very good. Simple is nice. So is maximum flexibility. Linn incorporates both better than any other manufacturer I know of. It won't be cheap but it will be bullet proof.

Don't take this the wrong way but one cannot buy a new luxury car with roll up windows and an am radio. You really shouldn't expect to be able to buy precisely what you want as it doesn't make any business sense at all.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Lugnut

As usual, you make some excellent points.

Maybe I am not looking at this correctly, but I always assumed that piling on additional features was cheap to manufacture and easy to hype.

Only the XZY multi room system can do this and this and this and this and this.

This planned obsolesence type of an approach has been typical of an industry that has misinformed its customers and churned out a lot of junk in the name of progress.

Hence, my rant.

In my opinion, you hit the bull's eye with SIMPLE and BULLETPROOF so I will review the Linn offerings.

And in general, you make a good point about the luxury cars. But bear in mind that Porsche occasionally offers 911s with NO AC, NO rear seats, roll up windows and charges MORE for them.

Cheers

cwlondon
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