How do I design a home audio system?


I am a newbie, want to wire a whole house system for playing CD's. Probably about 8 rooms + a pair of outdoor speakers, 2 zones (inside and outside). How do I design such a system? What receiver to I need? Can I do this in a $1000 budget?
earlyriserc24d

Showing 3 responses by slappy

1000?

Doubt it.

8 rooms, think yer gonna spend at least 100 per speaker, any less and yer getting some pretty hokey stuff

so that is 800. Not to mention another 200 of Out-door speakers, so yer already at a grand. If you plan on having a Pair of speakers in each room for stereo sound, yer looking at 1,600-2000

The cableing will set you back probably 200-300 if you go with Monster wire, maybe 150-200 if you go with Home Depot Lamp cord.

If you have 2 speakers in a each of 8 rooms and a pair of outdoor speakers, yer looking at 18 channels of amplification, that is gonna cost a grip too. Probably several grand.

You could probably find something that has speakert selectors and cut down on the amps, but that will limit yer capabilitys and im not sure who makes stuff like that.

Also, you will want controls right? in the rooms? I would estimate 100 bucks a pop for some basic wall mounted controls per room.

All in all, yer looking at about 4-5 grand to do that many rooms.

You COULD probably get an intercom system with an am/fm radio for under a grand, but i dont know if you could do 8 rooms.

This is a pretty big request, if you want to do this i would reccommend having plenty of money.

Some of these multi zone/multi room systems reach upwards of 150,000. the cheaper ones are about 6-10k.

It is a pretty sophisiticated system, not something simple like a cheap little Bose Wave Radio.

The installation charges would be very high as well, unless you can run all the wiring yourself.

better hire some painters or get some paint afterwards too. They will have to knock holes in the walls to do something like this.

Good luck!:)
Prpixel

Man that has gotta be fun. While i was in the military doing phone work i had to run my fair share of cables through some really crazy locations.
Man i enjoyed that work too.
I could only imagine how much fun i would have wiring up 500k-Mil+ systems. The only job that sounds more satisfying is the job that would afford one of those systems in yer own home.
No not yet, i need to get a microphone.

Right now most of my funding is going to getting the basement up for rent, since the girly left i can rent it out and save a bunch of cash on mortgage payments.

Hopefully soon i can sport for one.

The thing i wonder though, is will any decent Mic work? or is there a specific type i need?

the denon mic runs what, 60 bucks? but none of the dealers ive seen carry them

i WOULD like to try it out though!