Whole House Audio

[patrija]

I'm been researching whole house audio to use with my squeezeboxes and a lot of the systems seem to be somewhat competitive, a la SONOS. Since I already have a squeezebox and a squeezebox2, I'd like to figure this out without buying other technology. Any ideas or direction would be appreciated. Here's my needs/setup - only need audio switching, no video. Note that I'm in an existing house, so rewiring is a PITA.

I need at least 4 zones - two zones in the back yard and two zones for the house. I have equipment and speakers already setup, but am trying to figure the best way to put it together and what else I need or should buy. Thanks!

Zone 1: Backyard zone consists of 2 pair of speakers. Speakers are: one pair of Speakercraft WS750 <and> one pair of Speakercraft 820Rox. This zone currently has an old 199# Sony A/V receiver with both pairs of speakers connected directly to the receiver using the A+B speaker switch. Each pair of speakers is on it's own volume control. A Squeezebox is connected to this receiver.

Zone 2: Backyard zone consists of 2 pair of speakers. Speakers are: one pair of Speakercraft WS750 <and> one pair of patio speakers - can't remember brand/model. Each pair of speakers is on it's own volume control. This zone is not connected yet, just hung the speakers last week.

Zone 3: House zone consists of 3 pairs of speakers in various rooms - can't remember brand/model. This zone currently has an A/V receiver connected to a Phoenix Gold MX1260 amplifier with all speakers connected directly to the amplifier. This amplifier can support up to 6 zones (12 channels at 60 watts) and is bridgable - it's probably underutilized? Each pair of speakers is on it's own volume control. A Squeezebox2 is connected to this receiver.

Zone 4: House zone consists of a tv with five Definitive Technologies speakers. This zone currently has an A/V receiver with all speakers connected directly to the receiver. This is really setup as a seperate system and works fine.

[Christian Pernegger]

> Zone 1: Backyard zone consists of 2 pair of speakers. Speakers are: one
> pair of Speakercraft WS750 <and> one pair of Speakercraft 820Rox.
> Zone 2: Backyard zone consists of 2 pair of speakers. Speakers are: one
> pair of Speakercraft WS750 <and> one pair of patio speakers

What are you doing with 2x2 speakers? Do you want them to always play
the same music and / or are they just for doing a larger area in mono?

I don't know what "zones" are, but basically you put a sb+amp+speakers
(or active speakers) everywhere you want music. You can then control
each of the squeezeboxes seperately or in sync with each other. AFAIK
it is currently not possible to define sets of squeezeboxes, i. e. to
have 2 synced and 2 seperately, or 2+2 synced without running multiple
instances of slimserver.

You'll then need to connect each squeezebox to a server machine either
via ethernet or wireless. If you think the distances are to great for
802.11g to work reliably you could get a pre-N bridge and wired
squeezeboxes.

C.

PS: Slightly OT question for anyone else reading this thread - if I
listen to music on multiple synced squeezeboxes, does it use some form
of multicast or are the bw requirements proportional to the number of
sbs?

[morgan4x4]

I have six zones setup using SB/SlimServer. For each zone I use a SqueezeBox (6 in total) and I just synch them up, and voila, total solution! In summary this is how I setup my zones:

First Zone is the sunroom, family room & deck. I run B&W speakers, and Classe Pre-Amp, Amp & CD player in the Sunroom, and two Cambridge Audio Azur Integrated Amps powering Klipsch in-walls in the Family room and out to the Deck using Paradigm Outdoor Speakers (forget the exact model).

Second Zone is the kitchen, running Yamaha Receiver and Klipsh in-celing (bitch to wire I might add!).

Third zone is master bedroom, running Sound-Dynmamics RTS3 speakers, powered by Musical Fidelity X-A1 Integrated Amp, X-FM and X-Ray CD Player. I also use a X-Cans for headphone amplification.

Fourth Zone is my at-home office and adjoining Master Bath, running Cambridge Audio Integrated Amp powering Paradigm Atoms (v3) and Paradigm in-celing. (Currently audiotioning Wharfdales Diamonds 9.2 -- much better bass!)

Fifth zone is basement home theater, running Definitive Speakers and Rotel Pre-Amp, Amps (5 channels), and various home theater components.

Zone 6, Garage and Driveway. I use two Klipsch W500SM, each self contained left-right channels. This way I can cover a big driveway area. Power supplied by Denon Receiver.

I use in-wall volume controls from speaker craft where needed. All in wall wiring is 14-4 or 14-2 CL3, and I tend toward Kimber Kable interconnects and speaker cable (where visible).

The six SB's are hard-wired with Cat-5. Never had a drop-out this way! Best part is using the sync capability and playing same tracks in all zones!

Remote control is via Telcanto on a WiFi PDA.

This is all brought together via 650GB of storage in a Dell 1Ghz Server running RedHat - Fedora Core 3.

Works for me.

[patrija]

Thanks guys, that helps. My concern is that my two outside zones are within earshot of each other and when I sync my squeezebox and squeezebox2, for some reason one of them is always a few seconds "out of sync" which obviously doesn't sound good - almost like a reverb. I was going to address this through rewiring my zone setup (e.g. going to a multi-source, multi-zone receiver with multiple squeezeboxes hooked to that one receiver.)

[Mike Hanson]

My concern is that my two outside zones are within earshot of each other and when I sync my squeezebox and squeezebox2, for some reason one of them is always a few seconds "out of sync" which obviously doesn't sound good - almost like a reverb.

I've noticed the same issue between my SB1 and SB2. I suspect it has something to do with the different sizes of internal buffer, among other things.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

[caclement]

Gentlemen,
I have the same problem with syncronization between a SB1 and SB2. I just bought the SB2 for the sole purpose of whole house audio. I was going to buy a few more but wanted to check it out. I was promised by Slim Devices that the two would sync flawlessly but it is definitely not the case. I'm about 1 second off between the two which is completely unacceptable. I'm considering sending mine back since my home has a fairly open floor plan and the same song competing with itself if not pleasant to listen too. Does anyone know of a fix for this? Is there something I can do to improve this before I pack it up.

Chad

[dean]

Chad,

Can you describe your setup? (Network configuration, server hardware/
OS, etc?)

One second lag is definitely not acceptable, I'd like to be able to
reproduce this issue here.

-dean
On Jun 9, 2005, at 8:57 PM, caclement wrote:

>
> Gentlemen,
> I have the same problem with syncronization between a SB1 and SB2. I
> just bought the SB2 for the sole purpose of whole house audio. I was
> going to buy a few more but wanted to check it out. I was promised by
> Slim Devices that the two would sync flawlessly but it is definitely
> not the case. I'm about 1 second off between the two which is
> completely unacceptable. I'm considering sending mine back since my
> home has a fairly open floor plan and the same song competing with
> itself if not pleasant to listen too. Does anyone know of a fix for
> this? Is there something I can do to improve this before I pack it
> up.
>
> Chad
>
>
> --
> caclement
>

[patrija]

Original poster back.

After much debate, I ended up buying a second SB2 which solved the sync delay problem between my SB1 and SB2. My whole house audio issue is now solved. With 2 SB2's the 1 +/- second delay is now gone - assume it's the larger onboard memory in the SB2. I only bought a second one after much cursing and debate, because I too was told there'd be no sync issues. My issue isn't with the products - I love them, it's with inaccurate sales communication.

Setup
2 SB2 wireless
1 SB1 using Linksys wireless-G ethernet bridge (now idle)
Belkin Pre-N wireless Router
Slimserver on a 2.8GHz machine with 1 Gig of RAM
Music stored on a bufallo linkstation.

[tgoldstone]

What is interesting is that I have not experienced the synchronization delay between my wireless SB1 and SB2 and use the synchronization feature quite a bit. The only thing that I can think of at the moment that might contribute to the success might be that I stream flac to the SB2 and transcode to 320Kbps mp3 to the SB1. What formats are you streaming to your boxes?

[JJZolx]

What is interesting is that I have not experienced the synchronization delay between my wireless SB1 and SB2 and use the synchronization feature quite a bit. The only thing that I can think of at the moment that might contribute to the success might be that I stream flac to the SB2 and transcode to 320Kbps mp3 to the SB1. What formats are you streaming to your boxes?

My understanding is that streaming and transcoding to a mixed SB1/SB2 network does not work this way. SlimServer only streams one data format to multiple devices, so it selects the common format supported by both - mp3 in this case.