Need Home Audio Advice and Help

JohnnieBeBlue

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Sep 15, 2011
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We recently bought a new home. The previous owner had every room wired with physical speakers and all of the wires converge to a closet on the main floor. In the closet, each wire is conveniently labeled "basement" or "living room" which is self explanatory. I have no idea what to buy to make this system work to its potential, but I have a few things in mind:

1) Yes, I know I need a receiver. I was wondering though if something exists that would allow me to control everything from my phone or laptop. I'm thinking something like Sonos, but for speakers that are already wired into the house. I'd like the ability to easily turn each room on and off without going back to the receiver and also the ability to change the music remotely.

2) There are speakers around the basement where I want a TV. Would that get a separate receiver for a surround sound TV experience, or would that go back into the main receiver I need for the rest of the system.

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I have no clue about this stuff, but I've done stuff like build my own desktop in the past so I'd like to set this up myself without shelling out big bucks for a professional installation. Thanks!
 
Solution
If the turntable has a built in phono preamp (or you get an external one) you can connect it
You won't need a radio since the internet will provide all your local radio stations and thousands from around the world too, All for free and with better quality than over the air in most cases.
You could connect a CD player too but I would suggest you rip all you CDs into lossless files. Takes about 4-6 minutes each. Copy them onto a USB drive or your network attached storage drive. Plug that to your router and you now have access to all your music without loss of quality in every room without having to touch a disc.
You can also access all the streaming services so you might not even have to do that.
You didn't ask any dumb questions.
1. You don't need a receiver for the house music system, A system like Sonos or the Denon Heos is the best way to go. You can use a Sonos ConnectAmp or Heos Amp for each zone. Each zone can be used and controlled independently or grouped. Control is via free apps that run on everything.. A receiver would just make control more complicated and add nothing.
2. For the basement you will want a surround sound receiver for TV sound. If you go with the Heos a Denon or Marantz surround sound receiver will integrate with that so you can use it as the basement zone for music too. If you used Sonos you would need to add a Sonos Connect to any AV receiver to make it a Sonos zone.
Neither is hard to set up, Typically problems are wifi or network related more than the actual audio gear.
 

JohnnieBeBlue

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Sep 15, 2011
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18,510


Thanks so much for the reply. All of the speakers are wired back to one closet. The wireless router is also in there and gets good signal throughout the house. I'm probably going to pull the cords out of the closet and build a unit for the components on the other side of that wall in the office. I'd also like to add a turntable, radio, and CD player there. Would that be able to connect through the same Sonos system or does that require a receiver.?

 
If the turntable has a built in phono preamp (or you get an external one) you can connect it
You won't need a radio since the internet will provide all your local radio stations and thousands from around the world too, All for free and with better quality than over the air in most cases.
You could connect a CD player too but I would suggest you rip all you CDs into lossless files. Takes about 4-6 minutes each. Copy them onto a USB drive or your network attached storage drive. Plug that to your router and you now have access to all your music without loss of quality in every room without having to touch a disc.
You can also access all the streaming services so you might not even have to do that.
 
Solution