speakers in multiple rooms?

[Stephen H]

Hi all.

Wifey wants speakers in several rooms fed off the same hi fi system with independent room volume control

Problem is current Hi Fi can only support 6 ohm load speakers. The current speakers in lounge is also 6 ohms.

There is no second set of speaker outputs. at the Hi Fi.

If I parallel up some passive speakers in the dining room and in the kitchen, this will present a load of 2 ohms to the Hi Fi, overloading its final output power transistors resulting in a costly repair to Hi Fi.

I've thought about series connection but as the speaker pairs will not be identical from room to room, and it makes independent room volume control impossible.....

There is no line output or headphone output for me to use with active speakers....

How do people overcome this?

The best solution I have identified so far is a gadget that can provide a line level output from the speaker outputs on the Hi Fi and feed that into some suitable active speakers for both the dining room and the kitchen.

Regards,

Stephen.

[NT]

There are various choices.

One is to wire them all up in series parallel, with each speaker on its own volume control pad. Very simple, but last time I looked at the volume controls they were pricey. You could make your own of course.

I prefer your suggestion of active speakers. Its a lot more flexible, but every speaker needs power, either locally or with some care central power can be used.

NT

[NT]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No record output either?

Problem with that is the level would be dependant on the volume control - you really want a fixed level. Be easy enough to provide a line level output if it hasn't got one.

I have a system pretty well like you want. A feed from the main sound system at line level and balanced is fed to every other room in the house using telephone wiring.

[Stephen H]

I have no problem with providing 12v dc to the active speakers as the dining room and kitchen is awaiting rewiring.

I was thinking o using really chunky 12 vol copmputer style active speakers.

Another way would be a wall plate with 12 Vdc to it, and a stereo amp with volume control and then feed two passive speakers from it.

Stephen.

[Graham.]

Why would the line level speakers have to be active? Why not conventional passive speakers with line transformers and volume pots?

[NT]

Central power feed is neater, and can be included on the same plug as the audio connections. But... if you dont know how to make a passive speaker system work, you could find getting central power working right hard going. The issue is that Vdrop on the 0v power line mixes power line noise into signal input, and creates instability. You need the skills to resolve it. So I'd suggest locally powered active speakers.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

One wouldn't share the power ground and signal ground. But volt drop in the power wiring would be another issue if anything more than a few watts was required at the speakers. 12W @ 12v is 1A, start to need a bit more than bell wire to avoid sagging supply volts under load.

Agreed, I'd look around at what powered computer speakers are about, preferable with built in amps and mains PSU. I know you can get some quite beefy systems as used by gamers, I doubt they will be running of a wall wart...

Audio wiring, you might get away with unbalanced but going balanced should solve all problems. The biggest problem seems to be the lack of a fixed line level output from the existing HiFi. You can certainly take the speaker outputs and attenuate that but the HiFi's volume control will then affect all speakers. It might be possible to hack into the HiFi and extract a suitable signal from it but these days with cheap mass production and "one chip solutions" I wouldn't like to say that the volume control is a variable potentiometer carrying audio, it could just be a control for a VCA in the chip or just a rotary encoder.

[Owain]

Can you take a parallel line-level connection off the *input* to the Hifi (assuming it's not a gram pickup)? Using Cat5 4-pair cable would give you two stereo channels, Mrs H can then choose which channel she wants to listen to.

Otherwise you can get speaker-to-line attenuators quite cheaply for car audio eg

you can make one with resistors here

[Gary]

A thought out of the box.

Feed a fm modulater with the signal. The sort tesco sell at around £14. use boom box or other suitable radio receiver in the rooms to play the output. Think of it as wireless passive speakers with the added bonus of receiving normal FM as well if you want to.

Gary

[The Natural Philosopher]

that's probably the method for any decent quality. I have seen passive volume controls on 100volt systems: nasty.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depends if you care about the Fi part of Hi Fi or not,....

[The Natural Philosopher]

And listen to the hum on all of them.

Cat 5 is not suitable for audio distribution even if shielded.

[Brian Gaff]

A trip to a second hand shop and get a bunch of old amps and speakers, then you only need to get the stereo feed to each room?

Of course I think for some surround systems now the active speaker with sophisticated over the mains remote control of the master etc is around but then, most don't have deep enough pockets for all that and its a nightmare for mains connections!

Brian

[Graham.]

Well I agree 100v line does have it's "Tannoy" associations, but is that quite fair? Valve amps always had an output transformer and those could be hi-fi.

One thing that makes me smile is when an attempt is made to pipe stereo to a pair of ceiling speakers, personally I wouldn't bother

"Good evening Sir, Madam. Would you like the Lennon or the McCartney table tonight?"

[Huge]

[The Natural Philosopher]

no, its the potentiometer on the speaker that kills it, not the transformer.

[Mike Barnes]

The Natural Philosopher :

I find that unshielded cat 5 is perfectly satisfactory for line-level audio distribution, with a balun at each end.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You'd then need the correct amp to drive them - if you mean 100v line. And decent transformers for 100v line ain't cheap. Nor is controlling the volume. OK for a poor quality tannoy etc but not the best way for domestic.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Best way is to use balanced distribution. That allows the very cheapest cable (telephone wire) to be used.