Musical in-wall speakers on a relative budget.

[kennyt]

I never heard oof them until now, very cool looking gear, no idea how it sounds.

[kennyt]

Eric,

FWIW you can try the Emotiva audio stuff for 30 days, but they only do two zones.....

[EricPU]

yeah, I heard a lot of good things about this gear. I think I'll only ever need 2 active zones going at any one time (HT being one zone and the music room/outside speakers on the other zone with volume control to shut off the zone I don't want music in at the time). Does that free me up to look at pre/pro's like these, and others?

[kennyt]

Well, you will have to deal with how to manage the listening room/outside from a single zone.

If you set up a receiver to have two primary speakers and a second or better yet third zone, you could do them all easily from one unit. If you use BOTH speakers as one zone, then you have to figure out how to control them separately...

Best bet would be something that can do three zones.

[EricPU]

Originally Posted by kennyt

EricPU,

Are you only planning on just stereo or 2.1? I guess I am wondering if a pre/pro is even necessary. You could get better quality sound by buying only what you need (2 channel) rather than buying a surround unit and only using the fronts, plus you would have easier setup. The Krell KAV400xi ($2,500) with the Revel in walls Jerry mentioned and a sub of some sort would make for an excellent main system, you could run another amp/receiver/in walls for the other room, on a lower budget and still come in under $7K, you could even do the HT in 5.1 with a receiver and still be under your PP if you choose carefully.

I guess my point is if you have two different needs (good 2 channel sound quality in one site and TV/HT in another room with lower standards) if you address each separately you can better meet the goals of good sound quality and HT more economically with two different systems.

Do you need them to all be connected? Even if you do, you could have this done with different systems as long as you run interconnects between the two (two pair would do, one each way).

I know I haven't made this decision any easier, but if it were me and I wanted a good sounding room and cared less about another, I would go with two separate systems.

Just my 0.02, hopefully it helps you meet your goals, as for the shopping, I know I just made it worse!

Ken

Ken, I had a summit of sorts with the misses this past weekend and the results are that a) I can seperate out the two systems (one for HT and one for music) b) I can have limited hardware stored in the music room and c) I can have reasonable sized in-room speakers in the music room (no need for in-walls). So I'd call that a win-win-win

So the down side is that I've got to start my research all over again for 2.1 pre/amp, in-room speakers,sub and now also a cd transport. Jeez louise, my brain is hurting all over again. Still it will be worth it in the long run.

I'm being told seperates (pre/amp) rather than integrated is the way to go, would you agree? I was initially looking at Rotel. Would that be a good place to start? I've got $5K to 6K to buy everything (pre/amp/speakers/sub/cd transport). With this budget should I go used for everything or new for everything, or somewhere in between?

Eric

[kennyt]

WOW the misses caved easily! Nice win, how much did it cost between dinner, wine, possibly jewelry/flowers... Still got the same budget?!

First a transport requires a DAC, you want a CD player.

Second, separates are better, but will add components and cost more. We are still planning on a receiver for the HT plus second zone right? thats several more speakers and a receiver as well to cover... and the Krell 400 isn't a bad integrated, in fact I'd probably take that over Rotel separates, but that is my opinion....

I guess the first thing you need to do is start deciding what speakers you like, and will fit into your room. You then can pick how much power (what amp) you might need to power them... Then add the sub and a good CD player and you're done, with the one room....