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sramos1104
Contributor I
August 9, 2017
Answered

Connect Amps with multiple speakers around the house

Hello! I'm looking for some advice on some Bose 191 ceiling speakers that I inherited after moving into a new house. I believe these speakers are all 8ohms.

Here is my dilemma that I've tried to search through this community but I can't find the right answer with my setup. I have 3 ceiling speakers downstairs (2 in living room and 1 in dining room but all three are fairly close to each other in the same level). I also have 3 ceiling speakers upstairs (2 in the master bedroom and 1 in the master bathroom...again pretty close to I don't need these two areas separated).

My first thought (and was my preferred choice) was to create 2 zones with 2 Connect Amps....one zone downstairs with 3 Bose speakers and one zone upstairs with the other 3 speakers. Reading online, it looks like that sound wouldn't be great with this setup but I could be wrong.

After reading that 3 speakers may not work well, is my other option to create 4 zones with 4 Connect Amps (could be pricey here). That would be 2 Family room speakers to 1 Amp. 1 Dining room speaker to 1 Amp. Similar setup upstairs with 2 speakers to 1 Connect amp and then the single Bathroom speaker to 1 Connect Amp. I couldn't really find much information on setting up just one speaker to 1 Connect Amp. Is this a bad thing to do?

Any other options with this type of setup. SHould I just do regular Connects and put them all into a Receiver and go that route?

I appreciate anybody's thoughts or opinions!
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    melvimbe
    melvimbeAnswer
    August 9, 2017
    Just to clarify for your dining and bathroom speakers...if they are stereo, there would be a total of 4 wires needed for the connection. Left +, Left - , Right +, and Right -. On a typical speaker (and what the user guide for Bose 191 states), there is just 2, + and -. The speaker itself is either the left side or the right side, not both sides altogether. I'm not sure if I'm being clear here.

    Regarding the speaker wires labeled and split into 2 wires...that's standard. the two split wires are + and -. So for a stereo speaker there would be two sets of wires (that split into + and -) or what's called a 4 wire speaker line...if it's for a stereo input speaker. I'm finding this very hard to explain.

    Maybe ask this way. At the hidden location where the wires come out, how many total wires are there? There should be either 12 or 16. If 12, that would mean that those dining and bathroom speakers are not stereo input. 16 would mean that they are.

    The volume control isn't needed, but helpful when you have two different rooms powered by the same amp. Without the switch, the volume is the same in both rooms. You'll like find that no matter what volume level you set, it will be too loud in one room, or two quite in the other. Using a switch means you can raise or lower the volume in one of the rooms without effect the volume in the other.

    I probably wouldn't want to use the sony receiver, just because you'd limit your control. But honestly, it all depends on those single speakers you have.
    Danny
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    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 10, 2017
    melvimbe, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think I have some good options to go with now and more knowledge than what I had before. I agree, I will take my time and go with the right choice! Thanks again.
    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 10, 2017
    melvimbe, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think I have some good options to go with now and more knowledge than what I had before. I agree, I will take my time and go with the right choice! Thanks again.
    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 10, 2017
    melvimbe, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think I have some good options to go with now and more knowledge than what I had before. I agree, I will take my time and go with the right choice! Thanks again.
    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 10, 2017
    melvimbe, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think I have some good options to go with now and more knowledge than what I had before. I agree, I will take my time and go with the right choice! Thanks again.
    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 10, 2017
    melvimbe, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think I have some good options to go with now and more knowledge than what I had before. I agree, I will take my time and go with the right choice! Thanks again.
    Stanley_4
    Stanley_4
    Grand Maestro
    August 11, 2017
    A key point from above "use wire rated for in-wall use." I have similar speaker wire to what you have here in my walls. The original owner ran it before they put up the sheet-rock so replacing it will be an ugly process if it is even doable. The reason for replacing it is that the insulation on my wires, like yours, is not designed for long life and is cracking and splitting.

    I added a band-aid solution to my setup by installing low voltage wall-boxes and plates and carefully curling the old wire inside the wall/box and connecting it to binding posts exposed on the cover. That doesn't fix anything but it means I'll not be making things worse by further damaging the failing insulation.

    If there is any way to replace your old wire with proper wire I'd do that ASAP as the first step. You may be in better shape than I am here in hot and high-ozone Phoenix and in a 20 year old house but that wire will be a problem for someone, some day.
    sramos1104Author
    Contributor I
    August 11, 2017
    Thank you. I didn't even realize that part since I was focused on how the setup was going to be. I'll look into it for sure!
    jec6613
    Collaborator II
    August 25, 2017
    A bit late, but those speakers are 6 ohm speakers - but they will work, just only one per channel on a Connect:Amp. Personally, I'd pick up a Niles MRC-6430 and one or two Sonos Connect and feed it into them - it's designed to power in-wall/ceiling speakers. You can also use Niles or Russound external amplifiers to bridge the L/R to a summed channel, feeding both at once. The Auriel natively controls the Sonos, and will also control an AVR with traditional surround setup, and its TV, if you want to - and can feed it audio. It's a true centralized distributed audio and pairs beautifully with Sonos.

    Also, the SAF once its set up is near 100% since it's a single pane of glass for control of everything, even some HA. It's as pricey as four Connect:Amps, but when you have centralized speaker wiring, you can really just go all out. 🙂
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