2. home-theater
  3. 1131412856

How to wire a speaker to multiple amps/preamps?

I am considering having in-wall speakers installed by a professional (including wiring and separate volume controls), but I'd like to keep the front-end electronics up to me so I can take advantage of various deals here and other places.

There will be two "source" rooms, one with a stereo music setup and one with a home theater setup, then several other rooms that have pairs of in-wall speakers controllable using either setup as a source. Each room with in-wall speakers will have independent impedence-matched volume controls.

Wiring the various electronics together is no problem for me, but is it reasonable to do the front end wiring of the speakers to amp or receiver myself? How does one hook up a set of speakers to two different amps?
nnyc
tasml
21 posts
 
For non-critical in-walls you probably do not want to cough up the cash for mega-buck cable. But I wouldn't go too cheap, either, since you're probably talking long runs. I made the mistake of running el-chepo 16 gauge to my garage. I can definately notice a difference compared to the better quality 12 gauge I ran to the bedroom. Neither is audiophile quality, but the heavier gauge does sound better. For in-wall you should use UL Class 3 speaker wire for code (I believe).

Installing volume controls, etc, is easy if you fundamentally understand what your wiring. Watch out for polarity mistakes given all the connections.

True multi-zone remote control of volume etc is more complicated and expensive. However, repeaters can be used which involve an IR sensor that you aim your remote control at for example in the garage. The sensor is hard wired to an 'emitter' attached to your 'front end' electronics. Hence, full remote control of your system from another room. The emitter can even be installed in a 'triple gang box' along with your volume control and amplifier selector switch.

Check out 'www.smarthome.com' and
'www.nilesaudio.com' for ideas.
rwwear
2,692 posts
 
You really don't want to have to switch between amps at the volume control because you will have to run two sets of wire to each VC. You may also have difficulty connecting heavy gauge wire to a VC.
nnyc OP
28 posts
 
Thanks again for the responses, I'm getting some good ideas...

If I didn't have switches at the volume controls, would I still be able to control the source in each room independently? I suppose I could have a main switch in one room that controlled all the other rooms?

For the remote controls, could I control the volume of each room independently with repeaters? Is there a device that can switch and control volume for each room independently with an RF remote?
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