Multi-Room Speaker Setup

[jcarrier19]

I have the following setup:

Harman/Kardon AVR-146 Receiver
5 Channel Output
30W RMS @ 8 Ohms

Klipsch Quintet Surround Speakers
Satellite Speakers (4)
50W RMS (200W Peak) @ 8 Ohms
120Hz to 23kHz Response
Center Speaker (1)
75W RMS (300W Peak) @ 8 Ohms
125Hz to 23kHz Response

Polk Audio PSW10 Subwoofer
50W RMS (100W Peak)
35Hz to 200Hz (80Hz to 200Hz Crossover)
Internal Powered Amplifier

Dayton Audio CS662C In-Ceiling 6.5” Stereo Speakers (5)
25W RMS (50W Peak) @ 8 Ohms
60Hz to 21kHz Response

Dayton Audio VRS100 Impedance Matching Volume Control (3)
100W Peak

-- -- -- -- --

I would like to preserve my 5.1 surround sound while adding the five in-ceiling speakers around my house. I was initially planning on the following:

1 Volume Control running 2 Dayton speakers in series (giving 16 Ohms)
1 Volume Control running 2 Dayton speakers in series (giving 16 Ohms)
1 Volume Control running 1 Dayton speaker (giving 8 Ohms)

And then running all of these in parallel (giving 4 Ohms) to a stereo amplifier. After looking over this further, I was hoping to find a way to do all of this at 8 Ohms and attempting to run through the Harman/Kardon receiver. May be unreasonable, but would save a decent amount of money. Does anyone have any advice for any of this?

I appreciate any help!

[jettore]

Re: Multi-Room Speaker Setup

Looks like you have a few possible problems with this setup.

First, your AVR does not appear to have A/B speaker terminals or a Zone 2 option so I don't know how you would be able to connect the speakers. I guess you could use the front L/R speaker terminals going into an impedance matching speaker selection switch and distribute from there.

Second, you have an odd number of in-ceiling speakers. How do you plan to get both channels out of the one speaker?

[Mayhem13]

Re: Multi-Room Speaker Setup

Whole house audio is a very nice feature.....IF.....you include the neccessary control features to make it functional. There's some great products out there who's prices have really come down as to make them affordable to the masses.

I've approached this with 3 dedicated zones using my Apple iTouch as a controller, my PC as a music database using iTunes and three SONOS Zoneplayers for the three rooms. One zoneplayer is in one room and the other two are remotely located in a closet. Each zone player has a built in amplifier and DAC for external amplification if desired. The iTouch can be had as a Touch Screen controller for $199 and i bought the Zone players at Clearance/Demo sales and Ebay. Total cost for the system was less than $700 and offers four independant zones including the PC/insertion point.