Hardwired Multi Room Audio - Sonos Alternative?

[piper1st]

During a 2 year flat renovation, I took the opportunity and spent a lot of time, money and effort laying A/V + network cables all round my flat, leading back to a central media cupboard. I am just about to start terminating all the cables etc, and then I will be ready to hook it all up. Video distribution will be handled with an HDMI matrix using Infra-Red repeaters, and audio is to be a 5 zone multi room system. I played around with Sonos and the user interface with the iphone and ipad app is outstanding, but I was shocked when I priced it up ...

Zone Bridge - £35

Living room - Connect £279

Kitchen - Connect £279

Bedroom 1 - Connect £279

Bedroom 2/Hall - PLAY5 £349 (movable between rooms)

Bathroom - Connect Amp £399

TOTAL: £1,620 (richer sounds website)

Its no small amount!

Can anyone suggest any alternative options I should expore? :?

 

[The_Lhc]

During a 2 year flat renovation, I took the opportunity and spent a lot of time, money and effort laying A/V + network cables all round my flat, leading back to a central media cupboard. I am just about to start terminating all the cables etc, and then I will be ready to hook it all up. Video distribution will be handled with an HDMI matrix using Infra-Red repeaters, and audio is to be a 5 zone multi room system. I played around with Sonos and the user interface with the iphone and ipad app is outstanding, but I was shocked when I priced it up ...

Zone Bridge - £35

Living room - Connect £279

Kitchen - Connect £279

Bedroom 1 - Connect £279

Bedroom 2/Hall - PLAY5 £349 (movable between rooms)

Bathroom - Connect Amp £399

TOTAL: £1,620 (richer sounds website)

Its no small amount!

Can anyone suggest any alternative options I should expore? :?

Well as mentioned you won't need the Bridge. Curious to know why you think you need Connects in every room, do you have existing hi-fis in all of those rooms? If not, Play:1s would be much cheaper.

 

[piper1st]

Curious to know why you think you need Connects in every room, do you have existing hi-fis in all of those rooms? If not, Play:1s would be much cheaper.

Do I not need a Connect for each 'zone'? I will have seperate amps in the media cupboard for Living Room and Kitchen, and a Connect:Amp for the bathroom, then a Connect to hook up the stereo in bedroom 1.

 

[bigboss]

If you already have amps in the rooms, then yes, you need a connect.

 

[The_Lhc]

Curious to know why you think you need Connects in every room, do you have existing hi-fis in all of those rooms? If not, Play:1s would be much cheaper.

Do I not need a Connect for each 'zone'? I will have seperate amps in the media cupboard for Living Room and Kitchen, and a Connect:Amp for the bathroom, then a Connect to hook up the stereo in bedroom 1.

Ok, you didn't make that particularly clear, in that case yes, Connects are what you need. How much are those amps costing? Would substituting them for Connect:Amps be cheaper?

 

[daveh75]

Curious to know why you think you need Connects in every room, do you have existing hi-fis in all of those rooms? If not, Play:1s would be much cheaper.

Do I not need a Connect for each 'zone'? I will have seperate amps in the media cupboard for Living Room and Kitchen, and a Connect:Amp for the bathroom, then a Connect to hook up the stereo in bedroom 1.

If those amps for the kitchen and living room are in the same media cupboard and you don't need/want different music playing in those rooms simultaneously, you could just use one Connect and an RCA y splitter to feed both amps.

Or, as The_Lhc suggests, forgo the amps altogether and just use a Connect amp for those zones.

 

[The_Lhc]

Curious to know why you think you need Connects in every room, do you have existing hi-fis in all of those rooms? If not, Play:1s would be much cheaper.

Do I not need a Connect for each 'zone'? I will have seperate amps in the media cupboard for Living Room and Kitchen, and a Connect:Amp for the bathroom, then a Connect to hook up the stereo in bedroom 1.

If those amps for the kitchen and living room are in the same media cupboard and you don't need/want different music playing in those rooms simultaneously, you could just use one Connect and an RCA y splitter to feed both amps.

Or, as The_Lhc suggests, forgo the amps altogether and just use a Connect amp for those zones.

And if you're not worried about having different music in the two areas one Connect:Amp can drive two pairs of 8 Ohm speakers.

 

[skippy]

You could also use the digital outputs from the connect (1 x optical, 1 x s/pdif) use one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-192KHz-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B005PWPUW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395403231&sr=8-1&keywords=fiio+dac

And go straight into your amps, you'd just need short digital and rca cables then to hook it up.

 

[The_Lhc]

You could also use the digital outputs from the connect (1 x optical, 1 x s/pdif) use one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-192KHz-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B005PWPUW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395403231&sr=8-1&keywords=fiio+dac

And go straight into your amps, you'd just need short digital and rca cables then to hook it up.

You mean use all three of the outputs (2 digital, 1 analogue) into separate amps? Yes, that'd work, they're all live at the same time.

 

[BenLaw]

Seems to me that's the only sensible solution. Can't imagine the OP is thinking of having the connects in each room as that would involve: (media cupboard -> long ethernet run -> ) connect in room -> long RCA run -> amp in cupboard -> long speaker cable run -> speakers in room. So he must be thinking of having all the connects in the media cupboard with speaker cables going out to the speakers in various rooms. Having a little stack of connects also seems a bit crazy.

 

[piper1st]

How much are those amps costing? Would substituting them for Connect:Amps be cheaper?

i will probably pick the amps up 2nd, or try get my hands on something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/AudioSource-25-Watt-Stereo-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B004U29IGG

If those amps for the kitchen and living room are in the same media cupboard and you don't need/want different music playing in those rooms simultaneously, you could just use one Connect and an RCA y splitter to feed both amps.

Or, as The_Lhc suggests, forgo the amps altogether and just use a Connect amp for those zones.

yeah, I would like to play different sources at different volumes in each 'zone'.

Seems to me that's the only sensible solution. Can't imagine the OP is thinking of having the connects in each room as that would involve: (media cupboard -> long ethernet run -> ) connect in room -> long RCA run -> amp in cupboard -> long speaker cable run -> speakers in room. So he must be thinking of having all the connects in the media cupboard with speaker cables going out to the speakers in various rooms. Having a little stack of connects also seems a bit crazy.

yeah, you've got it BenLaw!

so are there any Sonos alternatives, or maybe older wired options which are cheaper, yet still have an easy to use interface?

 

[BenLaw]

Do you already have speakers in all the rooms?

 

[piper1st]

Do you already have speakers in all the rooms?

yeah, the speakers are up and speaker wires ran back to the central media cupboard.

 

[skippy]

Do you already have speakers in all the rooms?

yeah, the speakers are up and speaker wires ran back to the central media cupboard.

So if I'm reading this all correct, to keep each zone separately controlled with it's own volume and music, you'll have to get connect:amp for each zone.

The amp you posted won't work for your setup unfortunately.

 

[bigboss]

The amp you posted won't work for your setup unfortunately.

Why not?

 

[skippy]

The amp you posted won't work for your setup unfortunately.

Why not?

It's only got one input.

The OP wants control for each zone rather than 4 zones playing the same music at the same volume

 

[BenLaw]

Do you already have speakers in all the rooms?

yeah, the speakers are up and speaker wires ran back to the central media cupboard.

Fair enough. If cost is an issue I'd be asking myself how often am I *really* going to need different music playing simultaneously in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. If the answer really is often enough to justify the cost then sonos is the way to go IMO. A bunch of connect:amps may indeed be cheaper than a bunch of connects plus separate amps. I would be thinking carefully about ventilation in this cupboard. You definitely don't need a bridge as you have Sonos components right by your router.

 

[skippy]

Do you already have speakers in all the rooms?

yeah, the speakers are up and speaker wires ran back to the central media cupboard.

Fair enough. If cost is an issue I'd be asking myself how often am I *really* going to need different music playing simultaneously in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. If the answer really is often enough to justify the cost then sonos is the way to go IMO. A bunch of connect:amps may indeed be cheaper than a bunch of connects plus separate amps. I would be thinking carefully about ventilation in this cupboard. You definitely don't need a bridge as you have Sonos components right by your router.

Just to add to this, if you could compromise and use 1 connect for 2 zones, you could team it up with a Yamaha A-S500 (2 sets of speaker outputs).

So 2 Sonos Connects and 2 A-S500's would probably work out about a grand.

I do believe you can double up on the speaker outputs of a Connect:amp, but the Yamaha option for 200 quid more may give you a better sound (can't comment on the sound from a Connect:amp)

 

[Tonestar1]

What about this... Not hardwired but a hell of a lot cheaper than Sonos.

https://www.thisisbeep.com/

 

[The_Lhc]

What about this... Not hardwired but a hell of a lot cheaper than Sonos.

https://www.thisisbeep.com/

But is also vaporware until the "Fall", so if he wants to do something now, not so great...

 

[danbeatles78]

Sonos is amazing and nothing even comes close to it in my opinion

its so easy to use and sounds great to my ears and I'm as fussy as they come about soundstage etc

although sonos can be pricey it's well worth the outlay if music is a massive part of your life

and on the plus side you don't have to have horrible speaker cable everywhere

 

[ErikM]

I don't think that doing five room of distributed multi source multi zone music for 1600 is really all that expensive.. Back in the day you would have spent 500 for one room alone.. Sonos is actually cheap for what it does and how well it works,, also consider if you moved you can take most of it with you.. why not put it in the context of what you spent to redo your flat.. I suspect as a percentage of that cost the Sonos would be very little...

 

[piper1st]

Thank you for all your comments!

The amp you posted won't work for your setup unfortunately.

Why not?

It's only got one input.

The OP wants control for each zone rather than 4 zones playing the same music at the same volume

Those AudioSource amps are only about £60, so I meant one amp per connect, that way it would act just like a Connect:Amp.

If cost is an issue I'd be asking myself how often am I *really* going to need different music playing simultaneously in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

You have a good point there, probably not often enough to justify the big Sonos outlay I have spec'd in the first post. Maybe cutting down the flexibily will save me a good bit.

I would be thinking carefully about ventilation in this cupboard.

Yes, I have done, thanks. But I won't know for sure until its all up and running I suppose.

[if you could compromise and use 1 connect for 2 zones, you could team it up with a Yamaha A-S500 (2 sets of speaker outputs).

So 2 Sonos Connects and 2 A-S500's would probably work out about a grand.

I do believe you can double up on the speaker outputs of a Connect:amp, but the Yamaha option for 200 quid more may give you a better sound (can't comment on the sound from a Connect:amp)

Yes, this could be a viable

What about this... Not hardwired but a hell of a lot cheaper than Sonos.

https://www.thisisbeep.com/

Thanks for this. I have watched the video, but I will have to do a bit more research into it.

I don't think that doing five room of distributed multi source multi zone music for 1600 is really all that expensive..

Its just I have already spent a lot on the wires etc, media rack, etc, already, and paying for wireless kit seems like paying the money out again. I suppose what I mean is I wish I hadn't bothered with laying all the wires and then paying the money for wireless wouldn't seem so bad.

 

[skippy]

This could be another option http://www.rotel.com/UK/products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=520

It'll do 4 zones in stereo (8 in mono) and has optical and RCA inputs. They also do a 50w/channel if you don't need that much power?

You could start with 1 connect and build your system as funds permit?

 

[bigboss]

This could be another option http://www.rotel.com/UK/products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=520

It'll do 4 zones in stereo (8 in mono) and has optical and RCA inputs. They also do a 50w/channel if you don't need that much power?

You could start with 1 connect and build your system as funds permit?

That'll play only 1 music in all the zones though.