whole house audio questions

userone

Member
I have most of the speakers installed with all the wire home run, my plan is eventually for a PC with a string of sound cards to send output to a big stack of receivers for amplification and control via phone/computer interface. I have had a bunch of other stuff going on so i didn't get nearly as much done as i wanted over the winter and I wont be moving forward much over the summer. anyway to the questions.
for now im just going to run a line from my main pc to a couple receivers that I have, how much can i split the signal(its just a 3.5mm jack) before I have a problem with low levels?
can I just use a 15watt amp or something to boost the signal before i split it? or is there some other cheap way to do it that someone can recomend?

secondly I have a pair of in-wall speakers on the way from monoprice(same as everything else in the house, i cant recomend them enough) that i want to put in the garage so i can play music when im playing basketball or whatever in the drive. it would be much easier to install them in the back wall of the garage, im just worried i might get some kind of echo effect when im listening in the drive, anyone have any thoughs on that?

Lastly, I still need a few more amps/receivers to power everything the speakers are all 60rms so i would like something that is rated for at least 80rms, im guessing i will have to do some kind of IR control to power the amps on and off but if i could avoid that it would be nice. Since i need a few im looking in the $100ea area, anyone seen anything that might fit the bill?

Thanks for the help
 
You need to look at forum member JohnW's blog where he describes his NetRemote NowPlaying scheme as it seems to be right up your alley.
 
For your amplifiers and headroom, keep in mind the inverse laws that apply in the specific case of headroom vs. watts.

IE: A 10 watt amp is twice as loud as a 1 watt amp, however in order for the speakers to be twice as loud again, you're going to need a 100 watt amp. Headroom is accomplished by having an amp that can handle a larger peak wattage, RMS is continuous loading, so to speak.

Controlling the amps could be done by something as simple as a smart power distribution/ups/surge or if your amp provides a way to turn them on....depends on the units specifically.
 
just a quick update, the garage speakers sound good out side, no weird echo or anything, plenty loud too. also splitting the audio in in 2 makes it noticeably but not significantly quieter, i feel i could easily split it 3 or 4 ways and not have an issue with volume or clipping
 
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