Home intercom system questions/suggestions

[Bill]

Our home has a broken 70's Nutone (tube type) AM/FM intercom system. We did initially try to have this unit repaired and the tech said it was cheaper to replace. The cabling to each room is 3 wires. We are looking for a basic intercom to replace this; the primary purpose to play CD music throughout the house. I have looked a little on Ebay and such and most systems are in the $500-700 range here. Any ideas how we could get this done for less? We are pretty frugal here! Thanks in advance - Bill

[Bill]

2nd attempt hoping someone with intercom experience sees this...

[mark Ransley]

Tubes can still be purchased to repair your unit, try a different repair shop, or pull the tubes take them to be tested, music stores have dealers that sell tubes at fair prices, I know of a few. The repair should not be that bad if it recently worked.

[m.w.logsdon]

I know I'm getting kinda old, but I think tube devices were about gone in the 70's. Your system is probably a little older than that. And simply repairing it isn't going to meet your need to play CD's throughout the house, particularly since it likely isn't stereo so you'd only get either the left or right channel.

You are probably going to have to spend a little to up grade. If you're really only looking for speaker output in each room (and not 2-way communications) you might be able to retro-fit something using the existing

3-wire cable. Most likely to get anything worth listening to you're going to have to bite the bullet and install totally new.