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Electronics
rob_petrusevski

Home Audio/Automation prep

Rob Petrusevski
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

Because well, we all need another thread :-)

Doing a major reno on our 1960's back split and opening up a lot of space. In the end it will be a rectangle room about 27ft wide/deep and 40-45ft long. Large open space with the main Family Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen. I love tech and am pretty comfortable with it. Also come from a family of electricians so my father and I will be doing all the electrical. Questions.

- I'll be running wires for audio in most/all rooms. Most likely end up with 8 zones - Master, Kitchen, Living, Family Room, Outdoor Patio area, Master Bathroom, potentially hallway or another bdrm or two. Should I run speaker wire, or cat5

- Home Audio. I have read a lot about sonos and I like the large library of audio sources (mostly stream) but I don't like small dock style speakers. Feel a compromise in quality of sound? I'm thinking in ceiling speaker with the odd sub placed in key rooms. Am I missing something with Sonos? I know I can use the connect in each room but then I'm up to 6-8 sonos connects.. must be a better way.

-budget? How much would you budget for a 3500sq ft home with the above?

Comment (1)

  • PRO
    A/V Consulting
    8 years ago

    For wiring, run both.... The way we wire houses, re run 16/4 (or 14/4) and a Cat5 (Cat6) to a Volume control/keypad location, then go from there to the speakers with 16/2. That way you have the option of putting in Volume Controls or a keypad based system. IF you don't need it, you blank it off. As for the Sonos, you could use the Sonos Connect Amps and In-Ceiling speakers, but then yes, you would either need one for each zone ($499 each) or you can put some zones together and use Volume controls for volume separation. Budget is a hard one. You can expect to spend $350-$1500 per pair of decent in-ceiling speakers(8", maybe a little less for 6"). Anything below that is what we call "contractors grade" is is pretty much a waste of time.

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