Thoughts and recommendations for a new whole house audio system

[ecborgoyn]

The forum is titled home theater, but I'm looking at a WHA system.

Until now I've been running a poor-mans audio system with a collection of recievers, speaker switches, etc. no in-wall speakers at the moment. About six rooms of wired, free-standing speakers. With some headroom, an eight zone system would be great.

Desire is to use iOS devices for control and no in-wall keypads.

I also have an Elk M1G system for security now, and some automation in the future. Don't have it yet, but the eKeypad app look good... Plus it can control the Russound devices..

So I'm looking at Russound systems, including the new MCA-88/88X devices.. Any opinions??

For sources I'm looking at either the Russound DMS-3.1 or a Casatunes streamer. Looks like the DMS would integrate better..

Integration and ease-of-use is critical.. My wife ( and I) need something easy to use...

I'd like to stream from Internet radio sites and a new DLNA server (leaning toward a QNAP NAS device).

Rackmount devices are highly desired... I have a 42u rack in my workshop waiting for my time..... It will also house the NAS, UPS, network switch, some future servers, and perhaps a future home theater setup.

Anyway, any thoughts on Russound devices either with Russound sources and/or Casatunes devices.

Looking at the literature, the DMS-3.1 is more a built-for-purpose device rather than just a PC motherboard with some audio cards...

The MCA-88x will have streaming. but it this only one channel?? Plus it looks like they dropped the AM/FM radio from the new one. This would be picked up in the DMS-3.1.

My budget is a bit vague at the moment.....

My education and experiance is electrical/computer engineering and I'll attempt anything in this area.. At the moment I'm working for the largest network equipment supplier in the world and developing network security devices.. So a Snort instance is in my future home network,,.,

Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome..

Ecb

 

[Neurorad]

Russound, in the last few weeks, announced that their installers would need to be qualified. You may want to make sure you can sign up, before choosing Russound.

http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/28086-russound-now-requires-a-professional-installer-say-what/#entry230936

http://www.cepro.com/mobile/article/russound_launches_certified_installer_program_with_a_lock/

I agree though, that Russound would be a good choice for WHA/DA.

Welcome back to Cocoontech.

 

[snesgenesis]

I currently use a setup where I have 4 airport express hooked up to a switch to allow me airplay to individual speakers hooked up to this multizone receiver http://www.daytonaudio.com/index.php/ma1240-multi-zone-12-channel-amplifier.html     
 
Since you have ELK I use an ELK 924 relay hooked to one of my outputs and ran a dedicated 22/2 security wire with a 3.5mm jack straight to the back of the receiver and use an Insteon KPL to turn the stereo off/on as needed. Also wrote a rule where I incorporated this into my "Goodnight" program and once the program is True the receiver shuts off. 

 

[IVB]

given the sad state of affairs in the multi-zone world, is just putting in powered Sonos speakers in every room an option?
 
My NuVo Concerto has maybe 1-2 years of life left, a few zones are dying. Fortunately I have the extender, so 16 zones in theory, in reality right now I think 12 are functional.  Not sure what i'll do if it dies. Getting Sonos Connect:amp is seductive, but its $500/amp. Keeping my 12 areas functional as separate zones would be...expensive.
 
http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/connectamp

 

[mdesmarais]

I currently use a setup where I have 4 airport express hooked up to a switch to allow me airplay to individual speakers hooked up to this multizone receiver http://www.daytonaudio.com/index.php/ma1240-multi-zone-12-channel-amplifier.html     

I'm on android, not apple. but headed down a similar road. I have 3 chromecasts hooked to VGA adapters that break out analog audio (~$40/channel). I bought an Extron 12 in/8 out matrix switch (Ebay, $53 shipped) that then drives a rack of amps that I built years ago. The Extron will be controlled via serial from Housebot to allow the outputs of the switch to be configured on the fly.
 
This lets (or will soon ;-) me have 3 users direct whatever they want from their phones to whichever zones they want. Limited to 8 zones right now, which should be enough... I can get fancy and split the video away from the audio on the switch and get another 8 outs if I need. I'll also run some soundcard outputs directly from the HB server for voice announce and non-android sourcing.

 

[ecborgoyn]

given the sad state of affairs in the multi-zone world, is just putting in powered Sonos speakers in every room an option?

 
I've looked at the Sonos products a bit...  I'm leaning toward a more centrallized architecture..  Plus I prefer a wired solution.  Maybe folks are correct and the traditional centrallized WHA systems are going away.

 

[ecborgoyn]

The chromecast and airport express solution are interesting....   But they are more of the ad-hoc style of system that I currently have, just updated to 2015.
 
The 'play from my mobile device' scenario is lower on my priority list.  Playing audio from a DLNA server and 'internet radio' are a higher priority.
 
But thanks for the ideas.

 

[IVB]

 
I've looked at the Sonos products a bit...  I'm leaning toward a more centrallized architecture..  Plus I prefer a wired solution.  Maybe folks are correct and the traditional centrallized WHA systems are going away.

I might stack 8 Connect:amp in the central location so I can still use my traditional home run wired system. Yes it's really expensive but it sure would be easy to use.

 

[snesgenesis]

I don't think the concept of WHA is dying its just spending thousands of dollars on fancy multizone receivers plus buying the expensive proprietary wall controls and purchasing additional media streamers is a little much when you can have all this control via your phone or tablet. I only spent a grand total of $600 on everything.

 

[snesgenesis]

The chromecast and airport express solution are interesting....   But they are more of the ad-hoc style of system that I currently have, just updated to 2015.
 
The 'play from my mobile device' scenario is lower on my priority list.  Playing audio from a DLNA server and 'internet radio' are a higher priority.
 
But thanks for the ideas.

I do play off my NAS using subsonic air playing my personal music library. I should've made that clear as I'm not streaming any actual content off my phone. I also stream podcasts as well.

 

[IVB]

For me the issue is multiple vendors = multiple points of research on failure. I'd rather spend $3K on 6 connect amps and just have the Sonos throat to choke. I did the Frankenstein thing years ago, was a pita to get the dishes spinning on sticks without crashing. Fortunately the market seems to be going that way, although most cap out at 3 zones.

 

[ecborgoyn]

I'll research a Sonos solution further.  It doesn't seem to be the best fit architecturally.  It sounds like Sonos REQUIRES it's proprietary wireless mess in order to maintain multi-stream synchronism.  Not necessary for a centrallized (i.e. home-run wired) solution..   A wired network makes much more sense.  Does their mesh network handle parallel/concurrent s/w updates?  Do the Sonos units have any type of documented control protocol?  Now if Sonos had a multi-stream wired unit......  I was also looking at using the 'paging' functionality of the the Russound type devices for my Elk M1G audio announcements.  I have some Elk speakers on the M1G, the WHA audio system would provide better coverage.
 
But it sounds like Sonos type systems are the future and I need to think more seriously about them...
 
I'll still looking for any feedback on the Russound DMS-3.1 vs the Casatunes streamer devices.  Or maybe even using Sonos for steaming with a Russound multi-channel amp.  That would require Sonos to have an open control protocol.  This might be the best solution.  But it would need some 'glue' application s/w.  My original goal for more of a turn-key system.  Not that I couldn't build the integration system, but rather for ease of use by everyone in the house and for simplicity.  That is one simple iOS App to control the entire system.

 

[mdesmarais]

I do play off my NAS using subsonic air playing my personal music library. I should've made that clear as I'm not streaming any actual content off my phone. I also stream podcasts as well.

Right- same here. The phone is just the controller for the chromecast, the music can come from anywhere. I use Doggcatcher to send my podcasts... we did push local music up to google play, but mostly just for convenience as it is now available to us anywhere.

 

[drvnbysound]

If I was building a new home today, I would probably go with a Russound system. As above, I'd rather spend more on a single unit rather than have a myriad of amplifiers/components.
 
Having said that, I've been using the second zone off my AVR into a speaker selector for years; I finally got a "connected" AVR earlier this year and can now turn on that zone, change inputs and volume from my phone... and I find myself using it more often. Just a few days ago we had some friends over. We and our kids were in the back yard when I figured I would turn it on. I was almost at the edge of my property and still had wireless connection; I loaded the AVRs app, turned on Zone 2 and adjusted the volume. Before I had this AVR, I would have had to go inside to turn it on at all...
 
Honestly, I don't know how much more we would use a Russound system than we do what we currently have in place, but I know that I want the individual zone capability which I don't have now...

 

[ecborgoyn]

As I read the posts here and read more about Sonos, I'm thinking more about a hybrid solution with a Russound multi-channel amp/controller and a couple of Sonos boxes as sources.  There's only two of us in the house (excluding the dog) so we only need two source channels..  It might mean TWO mobile Apps for controlling the system (Sonos + Russound).  Not ideal.  But one of the HA tools might provide additional integration tools..  eKeypad looks good for my Elk M1G and Russound.  I would need to integrate the Sonos.  But that looks to be a uPnP/DLNA Controller.  This might exist now or down the road.
 
Just some additional thoughts and ramblings..