# surround sound and stereo pre-wiring setup



## rememberme (Jul 22, 2013)

Hello,

My house has pre-wiring for the following:
1. Surround sound in the living room (for 4 speakers in the ceiling)
2. Pre-wiring in Master bath(for 1 speaker in the ceiling) and pre-wiring for volume control
3. Pre-wiring in Kitchen (for 2 speakers in the ceiling) and pre-wiring for volume control
4. Pre-wiring on the deck (for 1 speaker on the wall) and pre-wiring for volume control

All these connections are going into my tv niche. I didn't open the wall plates yet to see how many cables are there, but that's what I remember from electrical walk through of my house.

My question is, because all the connections are in the TV niche and thats where my receiver will be, do I need a receiver with 4 zones, to control all 4 rooms separately or what kind of receiver or setup should I be looking at.

I am planning to buy a 7.2 channel so that i can use it to control 5.1 in living and also 2 speakers in kitchen. But how about the speakers in master bath and deck, do they need to have separate zones?

I am planning to buy speakers and receiver during thanks giving, so any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

What's your budget?

If you want to be able to have different sounds in the different areas and use a single receiver, then you need one with as many zones as you have areas. If it's OK to always have the same sounds in some areas as in other areas, then you need fewer zones, but you do still need to have separate amplifiers. Receivers with 3 Zones are readily available (main zone + two additional zones), but they aren't cheap. They typically cost more than $1K.


----------



## rememberme (Jul 22, 2013)

Selden,

Thanks for the reply. My budget is around $400. I was planning on buying a receiver with 7.2 channel and 3 zones. So that out of 7.2 I can use 5 channel in living room, remaining 2 for the kitchen and have the master bath and deck in zone 2 and 3 respectively. In this case, can I just play the music in kitchen with 2 speakers with remaining 5 speakers in living room off like when I am listening to songs in ipad and I am in my kitchen.

Also you mentioned I would need a separate amplifier for each room, why would I need an amplifier?


----------



## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

rememberme said:


> Selden,
> 
> Thanks for the reply. My budget is around $400. I was planning on buying a receiver with 7.2 channel and 3 zones. So that out of 7.2 I can use 5 channel in living room, remaining 2 for the kitchen and have the master bath and deck in zone 2 and 3 respectively. In this case, can I just play the music in kitchen with 2 speakers with remaining 5 speakers in living room off like when I am listening to songs in ipad and I am in my kitchen.
> 
> Also you mentioned I would need a separate amplifier for each room, why would I need an amplifier?


1) For safety's sake, I wouldn't want to connect the amplifiers of an expensive receiver to remote speakers. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong in another room (e.g. water shorting out a volume control) which you would not want to allow to damage the receiver. Multichannel distribution amplifiers are relatively inexpensive per-channel and would seem to be more appropriate.

2) If you configure a receiver which has 7 amplifiers built into it to drive 5 speakers in the main zone, there are only two amplifier channels available, and you'd be using them to drive speakers in the kitchen. The additional Zones of the receiver are only preamp outputs. You still need to provide amplified audio signals to the speakers in the other rooms.


----------



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to be able to utilize a common AVR because AFAIK they don’t accommodate local volume controllers. You should probably look at the offerings of companies that specialize in whole-house audio distribution like Niles, Russound or Home Theater Direct. Of the three, HTD is probably the most affordable and DIY friendly. 

Regards, 
Wayne


----------

