Tired of IR and frustrated with audio zone offerings

[jwilson56]

Many of the solutions mentioned are all line level devices and would still require amplifiers. These would still need to be turned on and off if you want to save power. Does a hardware Squeezebox have amplifiers built in? Not sure on that one. Personally I like quality music and prefer the 100 watts per channel from a decent receiver into some nice speakers. I am not into elevator quality or level of sound.

As for power status I also have a receiver that doesn't have a switched outlet and for that I use a current sensing switch on the AC cord.

It will be interesting to see what comes down the road but for now I have yet to see a cheap networked receiver out there and multizone equipment is priced out of site.

 

[sic0048]

Just an FYI - for multi-zone I bought a used B&K CT600 on EBay. 8 inputs (analog stereo and composite video switching), 6 amplified zones (55 watts/channel) and rs-232 control. The units sound really nice too. Definitely better than the other whole house systems out there (at least Russound and Nuvo - I've never heard an Elan system to compare to). Definitely good enough for regular non-multichannel zones - even for those with "discerning ears". They can get loud without distortion and compare with other B&K devices (which are generally considered nice quality).

Current prices on EBay ave about $800 currently. Not bad for a single RS-232 controllable package. Of course I'm sure you can price out inexpensive receivers for less, but then you have to worry about splitting the inputs into several devices, IR control, etc, etc, etc which adds to the cost and complexity of the setup.

 

[drozwood90]

Many of the solutions mentioned are all line level devices and would still require amplifiers. These would still need to be turned on and off if you want to save power. Does a hardware Squeezebox have amplifiers built in? Not sure on that one. Personally I like quality music and prefer the 100 watts per channel from a decent receiver into some nice speakers. I am not into elevator quality or level of sound.

As for power status I also have a receiver that doesn't have a switched outlet and for that I use a current sensing switch on the AC cord.

It will be interesting to see what comes down the road but for now I have yet to see a cheap networked receiver out there and multizone equipment is priced out of site.

Yep, (for the most part) I have PC speakers attached to the end of the cat5.

They are controlled through UPB appliance modules. Works pretty well for me. My wife and I aren't necessarily Audiophiles...so for us, this was a good cost effective solution. Not the best, but I got 9 zones for about $300

--Dan

 

[drozwood90]

Just an FYI - for multi-zone I bought a used B&K CT600 on EBay. 8 inputs (analog stereo and composite video switching), 6 amplified zones (55 watts/channel) and rs-232 control. The units sound really nice too. Definitely better than the other whole house systems out there (at least Russound and Nuvo - I've never heard an Elan system to compare to). Definitely good enough for regular non-multichannel zones - even for those with "discerning ears". They can get loud without distortion and compare with other B&K devices (which are generally considered nice quality).

Current prices on EBay ave about $800 currently. Not bad for a single RS-232 controllable package. Of course I'm sure you can price out inexpensive receivers for less, but then you have to worry about splitting the inputs into several devices, IR control, etc, etc, etc which adds to the cost and complexity of the setup.

Wow, sounds like a pretty good find!

--Dan

 

[jlegault]

It's not the perfect solution, but itunes with Air Express points for each zone is pretty easy on an iphone/ipad. You can control music, radio and volume in any zone. It's what I will be standardizing on once I get rid out my multi-zone audio system.