Distributed audio

Posted by: stpierre76 on 25 May 2014

I would like to know the best way to deliver music to the kitchen , underneath of the house and patio running the same music from my naim in the living room. 

I need the ability to turn on/off the zones easily so will simply instal a light switch and run the speaker cable thru it, but I am not sure how not get 3 zones from a single unit.

i have the qute nap 100 combo with neat iota ( fantastic little system, even for my large rooms was really hoping for a bigger system, even tried a few speakers as focal be and b&w 805, but I had to spend the rest of available money on landscape which was a bit (way more) than budgeted)

I don t want anything expensive as it s only a secondary system for listening to music or news whislt cooking, or BBQ on the deck and using in ceiling speakercraft aim 8 three speakers.

Most distributed amp have speaker terminal inputs. I guess I could run the qute internal amplification to that input, but seems rather a bit of a waste of good wattage.

i am open to any advice.

regards

jean

Posted on: 25 May 2014 by garyi

Your solution is messy, there are far better solutions out there.

 

What ever UPNP server is delivering music to your qute could deliver the same music to a myriad of cheap UPNP amps on ebay.

Posted on: 26 May 2014 by stpierre76

Messy?..

come on, I thought it was a stroke of genius..

no, seriously, that s why I posted as don t really know where to start.

i am not keen on multiple upnp especially the cheap one as I think they ll give more grief than anything else.

i even thought about selling the qute and getting a 5i-2 with sonos and arcam ir dac, but after reading the general opinion of the forum, it s clear sonos is not in the same league as the qute streaming/dac.

my other option was to use my Mac mini as the streamer/source via a usb dac into a 5i-2 but still does not solve the multi room issue.

can one get a pre out lead from the qute with 3 seperate leads to feed 3 amps or would that split the signal too much.

i know you can get a 1 to 2 lead but never seen a 1 to 3.

like I said, any advice will be greatly welcomed.

regards

Posted on: 26 May 2014 by garyi

You still need the amps, and the splitter and faffing would be far better served with say three airport expresses connected to those amps.

 

Honestly try to split a signal three ways is going to be a disaster.

 

there are various amps on ebay for what you are after, however you have to get the signals from that amp to the speakers in the three rooms, and then control the volume etc.

 

Or an amp in each room with speakers and an airport express with an iphon/ipad/ipod as control.

 

I would leave the qute out of it.

Posted on: 26 May 2014 by Audioneophyte

I have a distributed audio system in my place.

 

i installed it pre naim ownership.

 

it consists of:

harmon Kardon all in one

6 way signal splitter

in wall volume slider controls 6 total, one in each room

6 pairs of polk audio in c ceiling speakers

 

certainly not naim audio quality at all but serves a purpose of whole home audio in the background.

 

i considered several improvements...

 

remove Harmon Kardon replace with 250.2

use tape out signal from my 552 into the 250.2...

 

or

 

use 172xs into 250.2 into room splitter (allowing independent audio streaming from 552 set up)

 

so definately can be done, definitely not naim quality,but there are benefits... ( I work from home and personally some something on all the time)

 

splitting the the systems is probably what I am going to stick with, and not use the 552 as a source.

Posted on: 26 May 2014 by Audioneophyte

Ps...

 

the signal is split POST amplification using a splitter meant for the task, and in conjunction with volume controls meant for the task. The splitter and v controls have impedance matching capabilities so the loads are balanced and it does not burn out the amp...