When I refitted kitchen, I laid some 4mm2 Speaker cable between the boiler cupboard and to kitchen corners
When I refitted dining room, I also laid 4mm speaker cable from the kitchen boiler cupboard to 2 of the dining room corners
Kitchen boiler cupboard also has ethernet, freeview, Freesatsat, DAB, FM and proper satellite sockets too as well as mains power.
It then became a "roundtuit" job
I have also inherited 6 gale "bookshelf" speakers and wall brackets.
I see audio tech has moved on considerably.
So do I pyut up the Gale bookshelf speakers in the kitchen and dining room and then buy an internet connected hi fi system capable of powering
4 speakers and put that in teh boiler cupboard or should I:
Put a DC power source in the boiler cupboard, feed DC power to the 4 speaker locations, fit some kind of bluetooth audio device to seed said speakers and then use our mobile phones to control the audio on a per room basis?
Any kit to recomment or point me towards to into turning these passive speakers into some smart speakers?
Passive speakers are always preferable. With Bluetooth there is the problem of lag due to the latency, mainly noticeable if you can hear sound from two speakers. Also Bluetooth has to be "paired". WTF? You don't have to pair things that you just plug together. If you have a "smart" system you can only listen if someone called "Alexa" says you can.
"Extension loudspeakers" have been around since before WW2. All mains radios had sockets at the back, and you could buy speakers with volume controls, and, sometimes transformers if the input was high impedance.
The main issues these days would be (a) is the amplifier powerful enough, (b) are the loudspeakers the right impedance - you might need a transformer to match them, and (c) you would probably want the individual speakers to have volume controls and/or on/off switches. For wiring, "bell wire" is adequate, but you need to avoid short circuits as these could damage the amplifier or cause it to cut out. There is also the issue of whether the speakers are stereo, as the only proper way to connect a mono speaker to a stereo circuit is with a separate amplifier (stereo but with the channels connected at the output).
If the speakers are 2 ohm or 4 ohm, more amplifier solutions may be workable.
The problem with the 8 ohm ancient bookshelves I've got, is you might need an amp with a 50-60V DC rail inside, to get some amount of power into them. I used the
8 ohm speakers with an 18V max amp, and it gives about... 2W. Which isn't going to impress anyone.
It could be, like me, the speakers "trick" you into attempting things you should not.
A lot of music sources are suited to 2.0 or 2.1 setups. (2.1 is L+R+subwooferbox) A movie might be 5.1 .
Four speakers, is 4.0 or what was called "quadraphonic" back in the day. That's stereo, with a little back to front separation added.
You can do HRTF transforms between channel spaces. You cannot make "something from nothing", and converting a stereo signal into a 5.1 signal, there have to be some shortcomings on the back to front image. The left to right should still be there.
Stereo is the easiest thing to work with. Doing two speakers as 2.0 and no subwoofer, is relatively easy to site in a kitchen.
But a lot of kitchen layouts, the "listener" is not in one location, The L/R balance is wrong most of the time, and so on. It's like playing "stairway to heaven" in an elevator. Just a bad listening environment. Reflections, echos, resonance in the pot closet.
And if you want to do 2.1 audio, and put a subwoofer in the kitchen, where would you put it ? I can't think of a single location in my kitchen that would work. It would either take up valuable workroom. Or it would get in the way of something.
*******
When a buddy at work (a scotsman), put two 36" subwoofers in the livingroom (not one of them, two of them), his wife was very charming and did not say a bad word the whole time we were there. The things were ginormous, and just tall enough to remind you of refrigerators. This obviously overpowers the "decor". You can't put a vase with flowers on top, because the vibrations will just throw the vase on the floor. These then become "giant turds in the livingroom". But the guy was proud of them, and what could his wife do ? You see, he built them himself, with circular saw and so on. The subs were the largest speakers I've ever seen in a home audio project. Bags of sand get added to the bottom of the cabinet, after you've picked a location in the livingroom, and that keeps the speaker from walking across the floor.
Don't be that guy, OK ? :-) Try and be subtle. Don't turn the kitchen into an aircraft carrier.
And you may be thinking "what if I put two 8 ohm speakers in parallel and sit them next to one another". The cones do not move in and out in absolute synchrony, so I would expect some sort of frequency-related issue. The "listener experience" may not be as flat.
When you use a quadraphonic setup, the signal in all four speakers is different, and the "phasing" was set during the recording/mixing, to create an image at one spot where the listener sits. The sensation of "being there", degrades as you move into one corner of the room.
I think then, my kitchen, with its mostly bad layout, I would do a 2.1, the L/R speakers sit on the kitchen cabinets, the sub would take the place of my trash can :-) Who needs a trash can in a kitchen, anyway.
IDK. It almost looks like too much fun. If you're not careful, you'll end up making a video like this.
Some AV receivers have all the internet connected gubbins, radio, video switching and also can run speaker zones with sources switched independently for each.
Doesn't have to be so new. Even 20 year old kit does this (though without internet), and there are plenty of them cheap on the secondhand market, this is one application where something without HDMI will do.
Beware though, it will also cook in a boiler cupboard unless ventilation is arranged.
Multi-room audio is otherwise calling for things from companies like Meridian, where purchasers traditionally have deep pockets for this kind of stuff.
I've seen with American houses of the 60-70's(?), It was a thing to have a whole house intercom system integrated into the walls, with distributed radio. One of my relatives had such a system installed.
Dave Plowman, I seem to recall, has described everything wired up in his abode, like some sort of TV gallery/studio complex. Where is he?
A 12v psu gives +-6v, and 6v peak to 8ohms = 6v 0.75A = 4.5w peak, over 2w rms.
18v.... +-9v 9v 1.125A = 10w peak, 5w rms, enough for almost any kitchen.
50v... +-25v gives Ppeak of 25x25/8= 78w, 39w rms, far beyond what any domestic kitchen needs
Those ignore amp output swing shortcomings, but a decent amp won't drop much
yes, but it doesn't matter.
in another room or outdoors, ported in. But you don't need it for a kitchen.
if you really want that, put it outside.
they do
the issue is that at high audio f the distance between the tweeters can be a significant fraction of the wavelength, giving uneven tweets. But why parallel 2? How huge is this kitchen?
only on the occasion that you actually listen to quad source material
Which on a typical speaker is around 80dB at 1 meter
Decent bass speakers should be designed inyo a room
You will not notice
I have a TV in te corner of the kitchen. Midfi is my nepwheres old dsco amp setup next door in te dining room and hi fi is in the living room, when I get round to fixing he blown tweeter, steady hand and string glasses required for that.
Ive gotr a 100W studio amp in here coupled to some shot sony speakers till I get a round tuit and rehouse my KEFS.
I find it far easier to have audio units in the rooms where I want them that are internet connected to my central server that delivers TV, radio and all my C D music and quite a bit of my old vinyl that I haver replicated with tracks downloaded off you tube.
I either use TVs or small computers (raspberry Pi with hifi audio board) to go from internet to audio
Smart TVs. And Minidlna on the server. They can all pick that up but sadly can only play MP3s
I find the TV web interfaces to be utter shit. In fact what I will probably do in due course is turn my TVs into monitors, HDMI coupled to a gash PC, and take the audio out of the TV headphone socket and then use firefox to connect to the web interface on my server And get a 4 channel TV tuner card for the server as well.
regarding wireless keyboards, not workable in kitchens, or with young children or with people expecting to use a remote control or even a mobile phone instead of a Mouse & KB.
Are there any mobile phone apps or remote controls available to control it all?
A lot depends on the sensitivity of the speakers, I have a pair of Tannoy HifI units and they are very sensitive. I cant remember the spec, but I think it is ~ +90dBa per 5W rms. Where as the KEFs need about 3 times that power for the same sound pressure level.
In my case, yes, a web browser. I can control my sound system with that and a DIY web server and some linux code. I have considered launching a remove videos session using a web browser, but I 'spect I could
The speakers can be ported. Some of them, they rely on stuff like this, to use less power.
formatting link
"Ported enclosures can dramatically decrease your power requirements because they increase the bass output of a speaker by around 3 dB compared to a sealed enclosure."
"The downside of a ported enclosure is that you may get less accurate results from a reproductive sound perspective." <=== there is more to it, than just this
In some cases, there is a minimum power level recommended for such designs, but I don't know the details, Whether it's just a bit of loudness compensation to fix, or what.
The Tannoys I have, are the retired pair that I won't be using again. It was just easier to use the other pair, which don't need a lot of equalization. Both pairs are bass reflex, but one pair is just a pressed-board nuisance.
And just because the bookshelf speakers are sitting in the "stereo/TV store" window, does not mean they have any qualities at all. The staff there, don't seem to put any effort in stocking good stuff.
Some stores, the staff will warn you, like "don't buy those, buy these instead". They can give you some idea the item is a pig. But not every store does that.
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