Any home audio gurus?

The wife and I just purchased a home and it is wired for home audio. There are speakers throughout the home and on the back patio.

The problem is I don't know crap about audio. Like where do I even start? What equipment am I gonna need? How do I know what connections go to what room? How much is this gonna cost? Etc.

I live in a small town so I think the only help I could get would be from the geek squad from Best Buy. Here is a picture of the "main connection point" in the living room.

 

Sweet setup

 

Sucks that nothing is labeled though...

 

Thats always the "FUN" part

 

Any websites I can go to for some tutorials or something?

 

With nothing labeled I am not sure a website would help. Previous owners didn't leave any info? If not any way to contact? What about the install company, any stickers or company info any where? Maybe contact them.
Guessing most of those connectors are just speakers. You could get a receiver and hook up an output to each one at a time to ID which one goes to which speaker.

 

I understand the trial and error process to figure out which connections go to which speakers/rooms. But if you refer to my first post I know nothing about audio equipment. I don't even know what receiver I would need to support such a system. So I need help with that first before I can go hooking up wires...

No info on the install company anywhere, no literature from the previous owners, won't be able to chat with them as they were elderly and suffering from health conditions which forced them to sell the home.

 

I honestly have never seen a receiver with as many outputs for speakers. Kind of wonder if it was more of a paging or intercom setup.

 

We just closed on the home this week and got the keys yesterday. I do not recall seeing any type of intercom setup or wall mounts. I plan on going back in there tomorrow and taking more pictures, counting speakers, etc.

 

Awesome setup! I'd go check out Crutchfield and call or chat with a rep there. They're very good about actually recommending what will work for you without a bunch of upselling BS.

 

Without knowing the speaker layout and how many zones you have will make it hard to recommend a receiver. But it looks like the bottom are cable/internet/satellite connections and the rest are speakers. You will for sure need a multi zone amp.

 

All you need is a toner and wand set. Turn on the toner and attach the alligator clips to the top posts from left to right, red clip on left post and black clip on right post. Then walk around the house and listen for a weird ringing coming out of the speaker and move onto the next set of posts. you don’t necessarily need the fluke one, just giving you an example of what I use at work.

$97 Fluke Networks 26000900 Pro3000 Tone Generator and Probe Kit with SmartTone Technology, Blue

https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-26000900-Pro3000-Generator/dp/B000FTADX0

 

A toner is a great thing to have. Alternatively, you could run some leads off a 9v battery and touch them to the pairs while your wife listens and you make yourself a map. They're probably grouped by room, but you never know with the residential crowd

 

https://www.avsforum.com/forums/

This is where i got the info and help while building my basenent theater. Great forum. Good luck

 

Most home recievers will have higher end models with multiple zones. Youll use zone 2 for the back office speakers for instance and zone 3 for the patio etc. Usually you can have multiple sources to..meanung the wife can watch real houswives of snotsville in the living room in 7 channel surround sound, amd you can crank up pantera out on the patio via another source.

 

Ok so I would start with checking out the speakers and finding out how much power is required to drive them. Your looking for rms ratings and ohms. Looks like there is hook up for 20 speakers. So your going to need a 20 ch multi zone amp or 2 10ch amps. I would add a sonus port to the system as well. But before I would do any of that I would figure out with a toner what is going on there and label it. There may be some of those channels not used and such.

 

Good advice here.

Both will work.

 

I have installed dozens of home audio 5.1 and 7.1 setups. I can tell you that you can spend $1k or $10k and if you know what you’re doing they’ll sound very similar. Don’t rule out used gear, get your learn on and know what you want before buying. What you get should be dependent on size of the room, acoustics, etc. Best advice I could give is to join an audio forum (I have belonged to the Polk audio forum for years). Read a lot and research and then start to ask questions specific to your wants. I can tell you with all honesty, if you just go buy something to have it quick you will not be happy with it. One of two things will happen - you will lose interest or you will spend tons trying to chase a certain perception of what it should sound like. You may have to install bass traps, put a rig on a hard floor to reduce reflection and echo, etc.

Basically, what I am trying to say is it isn’t as easy as just going to Best Buy and getting the gear. Be patient and do not rule out used gear. Craigslist is full of deals. Much like truck mods, the level of gear you get is strictly budget dependent by you can get geat sounding gear for not a ton of money. My HT rig cost about $2500 all in.......and I would put it up against other systems I have installed that cost three times as much.

 

SO your house looks to be setup for a simple amp and speaker selector switch setup which may or may not be what works for you?
Luckily if all of the speakers return to those wall plates then you can set the house up from there in almost any collection of rooms and zones as you might learn or decide that you want.

Before doing anything else just take a wall plate off the wall carefully and see if the wires might be marked from behind as they would have been on the prewire so that those plates could be installed in the first place.

If so then make a little map for yourself and be careful to not have any wire or even little strands of wire come out of the back of the connectors and then carefully put the plate back.

A Toner is really the way to go with this many sets of speakers but if you have a small radio of any kind that has a speaker level output you can also use that and just go one at a time through the house listening and marking as you go until you have a decent idea of what you have there and what seems to work and what does not.

The most simple thing to do is just go with a single source system that can play the same thing throughout the house at one time.

You will need a source of some kind whether a receiver and other sources connected to it or just a single zone of Sonos which is merely a simple streaming music source and you will need an amplifier capable of running the house full of speakers IN ADDITION to the receiver which will just power the main room that you decide is the central focus point of the house system.

This is important.......ready?
A receiver will not run the entire house audio by itself here.
You will need a big ass amplifier of some kind.
A single amplifier through a speaker switch should work but I don't want to get too far ahead of this just yet too so try to ID the wiring at those plates and then lets talk about options,make sense?

To give you an idea of how basic this could be though, there are speaker switches that just let you pick any combination of speakers

Then there are speaker selectors that add the ability to individually control each speaker sets volume as well



And from there the systems can get more complicated and pricey and again until we know for certain about the wiring we should not complicate the learning curve by going there just yet.

By the way,this is exactly what I do for a living.

I will PM you my number so we can talk about it if you want to.

 

Did some recon at the house today and found the following:

1. There are 4 "zones" with pre-wired installed speakers. The back patio has 4 speakers, the office has 2 speakers, the living room has 2 speakers, and the kitchen has 2 speakers.
2. The 4 "zones" each have a wall mounted volume knob and "blank" wall switch with a remote control sensor built in. (Picture below)
3. Every other room in the house has at least one wall plate with the brass connections shown in the picture above, plus a "blank" wall switch with a remote sensor built in.
4. I also found some literature from the equipment the owners had used for the sound system. I'm hoping that will give you all an idea of what it needs and can give me suggestions. (I'm already trying to do my own research now but any help is welcome).

 

If you are not a real audiophile will you even use it? I mean wait a few months and see if it s a road you even want to go down!

I wired my kitchen family room dining room for speakers? Guess what I ended up with $90 Bluetooth speaker why because spending $1000 didn’t make sense for that room.
I’ve wasted a lot of money on receivers, speakers, towers, wish I had that money back!

I agree on the sonos idea! Simple and easy!

If you do go down this road I also agree with avsforum.com

 

This is really not a complicated setup at all from what I can tell so far.
Without seeing more details though it is tough to give accurate general advice though too.

Are there just a pair of speakers in each room and how many rooms?
Are there those Volume Control knobs in each room where there are speakers?
How many people live in the house and does it matter if the whole house plays the same music all the time or do you need different things playing in different rooms and if so how many different things?
Will you want to have at least one room where there is Home Theatre setup,most often in that room where all of the connections are?

Do you really care at all about Music or Sound throughout the house or just want to know your options?
A lot of people when asked this have not really had Music through the house before and honestly do not know if they "Need" it or just think it is a cool idea.

So you can basically do it like this,this is the first thing you need to think about as it will drive the next thing to decide.

-A single source that plays through the entire house if you want music everywhere and it is not important to be able to adjust the volume independently everywhere but it is able to select rooms and turn other ones off as needed.

-You want the ability to run different music at each room in the house and control the volume in each room by itself. You can still run the same thing everywhere but you can also not run the same thing everywhere.

After this the rest can fall into place really.

Whether it is Sonos or a Turntable ora Radio or a live band whether you have to be in the main room to change the music or can do it on the fly from your phone are secondary really to deciding first if you need a Multiroom Single Source System or a Multi Room Multi Source System.

And what is practical in the house depends on how this is actually wired already.
So you really need to do a little footwork first and figure out and understand exactly how the place is wired already.

I would buy a cheap Toner and then just go through those Speaker Jacks a pair at a time and label the whole thing and then we can really talk about the realistic options in front of you without speculation based on how the place is already wired.

 

I agree Sonos can be great but it is also a good idea to understand your options before just buying things.

I probably rip out 3 systems that are in houses just like the O.P.s is setup for a month and replace them with Sonos these days and it can be great for sure but Sonos is not always the right direction for everyone at the same time.

 

@ezdog has great advice. Do the legwork and you will learn as you go. I have speakers in the kitchen, on our patio and a home theater system. All wires run through our crawl space. I haven’t used the kitchen or patio speakers in years as I now have Bluetooth setups and the “home theater” in the family room gets used daily. It sounds cool but the practicality of using that many wires connections in a wireless age is something that needs to be considered. If I were you, I would set up a 5.1 home theater and expand from there if the spirit moves you

 

Guys at work have their new houses wired up for every zone in the house too and none of them use it.

I find it easier to maintain and use a receiver and speakers dedicated to each room (floor). It means an extra receiver for the basement but I'm old school.. My receivers have Phono inputs (or preamps) and all my speakers are hardwired by myself though the drop ceiling and then up through the floor where they sit.

In this day and age though, if you aren't an audiophile or into that thing, soundbars and wireless have come a long way and will meet most people's needs. A Google speaker or any wireless (even a pair of UE Booms) outside will be your best option for speakers around the patio or firepit. Then you can take them anywhere or even camping.

I'll always have some sort of receiver and 2.0 or 2.1 system setup for my turntables which I refuse to go wireless or usb. And it'll probably be a 1970s receiver powering them (which I own too).

https://classicreceivers.com/sony-str-v5