Blog :: How-To :: How to Get Whole House Audio from Your Existing Stereo System
How to Get Whole House Audio from Your Existing Stereo System
Many people don’t realize that adding sound in other rooms can be a very simple process. Creating a whole house audio system using your existing audio system is easier than you thought. Follow these simple steps to have multi room audio running throughout your home.
Determine if speaker wire can easily be run to other areas of your house
One essential element to adding additional speakers throughout your home will be the ability to run speaker wires to the areas you are wanting the sound. Being able to get the speaker wires from the main system to each specific area will ultimately be the determining factor in adding a whole house audio system to your home.
Now that you have determined that you can get speaker wires to each room, you need to look at your equipment to see exactly how you are going to get a whole house sound system. Depending on what type of audio receiver you have will determine what additional equipment, if any, must be added to the system to get this to work properly.
Add 1 additional room of sound using just your audio receiver (Easiest)
The first step is to check to see if your audio receiver has both speakers A and B and if they can be ran at the same time. If this is possible, then you can hook up one additional pair of speakers to the B channel and you are done. This is by far the easiest. However, you will be limited to adding only one additional room.
Add multi room audio using a speaker selector (Good)
If you determined that your receiver will not run both speakers A and B concurrently, then you will need to install a Niles SS-4 four way speaker selector box or a Niles SS-6 six way speaker box (depending on how many rooms of sound you are adding) to your existing audio receiver. The speaker selector box will be hooked-up as follows:
- The output of speakers A on the receiver will be connected to the input on the speaker selector box.
- The speakers in the main room will be hooked up to the first output on the selector box.
- Each additional room will be hooked up to the remaining speaker outputs on the selector box – each output can be labeled to minimize confusion.
When hooking up more than 2 pairs of speakers you will need to make sure that the protection circuit built into the speaker selector is on. The owner’s manual will outline the proper protection needed for the number of speakers you are hooking up.
Add a whole house audio system using a speaker selector with volume control (Better)
This solution is very similar to the last one, but will give you a little more control over the speakers in the other rooms. By using a Niles SSVC-4 or Niles SSVC-6, which are four or six way speaker selector boxes with built in volume control, you can regulate the volume of rooms independently from the rest of your whole house audio system. This system will hook-up exactly the same way as the system above. The volume controls for each room will be located in the main room in speaker selector box.
Add multiple rooms of sound using a speaker selector and individual volume controls in each room (Best)
The best way create a multi room audio system using your existing equipment would be to use a speaker selector box at the main unit along with a table top or in-wall volume control in every room where speakers are installed. This will give you independent control of volume levels in those rooms.
- The most popular volume control would be the Niles VCS 100R.
- You must be able to get speaker wire into your walls where you are planning on mounting the in-wall volume control. If speaker wire can not be installed in the walls, then you can use the Niles TV-1, which is a table/counter top volume control.
- In an outdoor speaker application, you would need to use a weather proof WVC-100E volume control to control the outdoor speaker volume.
Posted in How-To
September 14th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I have a bose wave radio that I keep on the first floor. I installed two speakers in the ceiling upstairs and connected them to the bose through a wall mounted volume control. I get sound, but just barely. The sound downstairs is great; same a susual. In the speakers upstairs its very faint. Is there just not enough power in this bookshelf system to power the additional speakers?
September 17th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Andrew,
The reason for the low speaker sound is your speakers do not have enough power because they are not connected to an amplifier. This is a tough one because it really depends on what model year Wave Radio you have. If your radio is a 2004 or newer, there is only one way to go about it. First, connect an 1/8 inch stereo to RCA cable from the headphone jack in your Wave Radio to an additional amplifier. From the amplifier you will need to run speaker wire to a volume control device that can either be mounted on a wall or you can buy a table top version. Connect your speakers to the volume control device and you will have good quality sound.
This can be a lot to take in (assuming this is your first time doing a custom installation) but it is the only method that will allow for this kind of setup. Please call us to ask questions or discuss other options with our certified installers 1-866-224-6171.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Hello
I have purchased a Philips Home Theater system to hook-up to our existing system. The house is already wired; however, the speaker wires that came with the Philips system are pre-attached to the Philips speakers (they do not have connectors). Can I simply attach the pre-attached wires to my pre-installed wires?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Bernice,
You can cut your home theater wires that came with your Philips system and splice them into your pre-wire with a set of speaker wire connectors. You cant just attach them unfortunately.
November 10th, 2007 at 5:05 am
I have a sony pro logic stereo system and want to purchase a home theater system and have the stereo system be able to play through the speakers. Is that possible and what do I need to know before I buy the home system
November 12th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Marty,
I need to know more about your system so I can help you better. What exactly does your stereo system consist of (speakers, receiver, connections)? It would also help me out to know what model your Sony is. Give me those details in another response and then I can tell you what you can and cannot do with your current system.
January 20th, 2008 at 8:07 am
I have:
1)Main House - 3 zones of speakers:
2)Garage/Casita - 4 zones of speakers
3)Master bed/bath - 2 zones
All speakers in Main house and Master are Bose and some are quite old (201’s are 30 yrs).
Garage speakers are not purchased/installed yet.
Each area has an amplifier.
Each amplifier has an A/B selector.
Main house amp is a dual source.
What would you recommend for a configuration if I want to:
A) Run all or selected speaker zones from the Main house amp
B) Play the main house amp to one or more detatched garage zones,
C) Play the main house amp to the one or both of the speakers in the Master,
Essentially, I’d like to interconnect three different systems while allowing each amp to run independently, one amp as the main for all/selected speakers.
I’m specifically interested in how many wires and what type of wires to run between the main house, garage and Master and recommendations on the switching equipment I need to do all the above scenarios plus any you come up with.
Thank you for your time!
January 21st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Erv,
This setup is complex but can be done. I could tell you how to do it through this post but I think it would be hard for you to understand without hearing it from someone. Call our toll free number 1-866-224-6171 and talk to one of our installation experts. They are all fully trained and will be able to help you with your situation.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
I have an older model intercom system with speakers in 12 areas. I’d like to use the wiring only to put a higher quality whole house sound system, replacing all speakers and main reciever. Do you know of a quality system that doesn’t require a wiring upgrade? Thank you.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Ken,
Unfortunately the setup that you want to do will not work. You are going to need to look into a 70 volt system.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I have a Sony theatre-surround receiver which I use for my home theatre system with a Bose Lifestyle surround speaker system. I have additional speakers that I have added on in the room above, using the Speaker B connections, through which I want to play music in both areas when entertaining. However, when the downstairs system is playing at a regular volume, the upstairs speakers are not the same volume and rather soft, in fact. I have been looking with interest at the speaker selectors with volume control that you stock, but need to know a couple of things before I make the purchase:
1. If I connect this product to the Speaker B connections on the receiver, will I be able to play the satellite speakers louder (i.e. does this product have an amplification component)?
2. If I connect both sets of speakers to the product, will I lose the different Equalizer options available on the current Sony receiver (e.g. “Normal Surround”, “Cinema A”, “Jazz Club”, etc.)?
3. Should I be considering a different option altogether to resolve this issue?
Thanks for your kind attention.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hamish,
I believe I have a solution to your problem. The problem with your secondary speakers is not that they need a speaker selector, but that your receiver does not supply enough power to them. Unfortunately Sony receivers along with a few other brands do a poor job of powering secondary zones. I suggest getting a Yamaha RX-V663 or a Yamaha RX-V1800 receiver because either one has multi-zone capability and will give you more than enough power to get the full potential out of the speakers in your second room. We just had another customer with the same problem as you, getting a new receiver fixed their problem.
The RX-V663 is the cheaper option at $499.95 (slightly higher than a speaker selector) and has a volume control on the face of the receiver to control your secondary speakers volume. The RX-V1800 is more expensive at $1199.95 but has more features and comes with a second zone remote so you can control your secondary speakers volume from the secondary room instead of at the receiver.
Here are the links to the Yamaha RX-V663 Receiver and the Yamaha RX-V1800 Receiver if you are interested in buying.
October 19th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I have an Onkyo TX-SR705 AV Receiver/Amplifier and would like to power 6 sets of speakers in a covered patio and garage.
The question is can I use this receivers power to provide enough stereo sound. I want volume control near each set of
speakers in the 6 zones. The patio dimensions are 50’ by 8’ on the side and 50’ by 14’ along the back yard next to a
swimming pool. The Onkyo TX-SR705 has some nice features like HDMI for video I would like in the future to watch
television on the patio. XM/Sirius ready built into the unit will be awesome to have as well.
What would you suggest?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Vincent Williams
kingtorg@cox.net
October 28th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Vincent,
This Onkyo receiver could be used, but I don’t believe that it will deliver enough power for all the speakers that you need to run for your covered patio and garage. I would use it for your Home Theater and then run out of the 2nd Zone Audio Preouts to an external Amp with a speaker selector box that will handle all of your speakers.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
We have a Bose Lifestyle V20 system and just moved into a new home. The new home has speakers wired into two rooms, and we’d like to be able to run sound from the Bose into both sets of speakers either set A, set B or both at the same time. We use the Bose system as our ‘receiver’ and run all of our components through it (DVD, Game system, Aux input for MP3). How do we do it? What type of switch do we need to install?
December 31st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
We just moved into a newer house (2-3 yrs old) which has ceiling speakers professionally installed in each room. There is a set of speaker jacks in one bedroom closet and each room speaker has its own volume/off switch. There are speakers in the living, den, kitchen, and 4 bedrooms. I would like to buy and install a receiver that can also run iPod. What type/size of receiver should I look for and will I need an amplifier to drive all the speakers?
I appreciate any response and recommendation.
Thanks,
Dave