Question
Integrating Sonos with an existing built-in Russound distributed sound system
I've read various forum posts about this sort of issue, but remain a bit confused about the possibilities with my unique setup. (I'm coming from a house where I used Sonos in a conventional sense with multiple Play 3s, an AMP, and Bridge). I bought a new house with a built-in distributed sound system by Russound. It consists of a multi-zone amplifier which feeds 6 zones. Each zone has a wall-mounted controller (on/off, volume and source) with in-ceiling speakers. http://goo.gl/uJuPeJ Currently, I have an Airport Express hooked into the "CD input" on the amp and use an iPhone/iPad/Mac as the music source which is controlled with the Apple Remote iphone app. It works okay, although with this setup, different music cannot be played in different zones. So, first question -- is there a way I can use Sonos technology (?CONNECT and CONNECT:AMP) to give me multi-zone control? And second question: If the above is possible, can I enhance some of the existing zones by adding the free-standing Sonos speakers? Thanks for anyone who took the time to read this all the way to the end!
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
+22Your amplifier has 6 zones. So you can add up to 6 Sonos Connects. If you input 6 Sonos connects each room then would be able play different music. You can mix and match then to what you want.
In your case your wall controller lets you pick the Connect. So then it becomes how many different musics would you want to play on those speakers at one time. I would think 2-3. So you really only need 2 or 3 Connects. You can name them Sonos A, Sonos B, Sonos C or something so then in the Sonos controller you pick Sonos A and then chose the source from your wall that is Sonos A. If the Russound has names for input you could call them Sonos CD, Sonos Tape, Sonos ? - whatever flags you that the input you pick on wall is that music zone.
Now your thinking .... I would like to have music in my office and it doesn't have built in speakers. No problem. Pickup a Play:1, Play:3, or Play:5. Plug in and now you have another Sonos zone.
In your case your wall controller lets you pick the Connect. So then it becomes how many different musics would you want to play on those speakers at one time. I would think 2-3. So you really only need 2 or 3 Connects. You can name them Sonos A, Sonos B, Sonos C or something so then in the Sonos controller you pick Sonos A and then chose the source from your wall that is Sonos A. If the Russound has names for input you could call them Sonos CD, Sonos Tape, Sonos ? - whatever flags you that the input you pick on wall is that music zone.
Now your thinking .... I would like to have music in my office and it doesn't have built in speakers. No problem. Pickup a Play:1, Play:3, or Play:5. Plug in and now you have another Sonos zone.
Thanks so much for this. I'm going to go out and buy a Connect and see how it works. One more quick question: is Sonos' new "Boost" device relevant to my set up?
+21Not really. The Boost is designed for people that have a number of Sonos speakers throughout their house, but at longer distances than normal WiFi coverage would provide. Your Connect will be fixed in one location. You can either wire it to your network or have it connect to your existing wireless network.
Okay. One final question. (Okay...probably not final, but I'm trying to be optimistic). Can a Sonos AMP also act as a Connect? (I ask, because I have an AMP, but not a connect).
+22An amp is kind of half a connect. A connect has line level analog and digital outputs as well as analog input. A connect:amp has speaker level 60watts per channel outputs and analog input.
So I have a very similar situation. I found a product from Perkins Industries on Amazon and from his site that sells this little box that connects to the Russound Amp and then let's you turn the zones on and off from the My Russound app. This way you don't have to walk around to various zones and the app names them according to room and let's you select from sources that you also name. It is genius and well worth the 349. The owner Shawn is also great and provided me amazing support. I highly recommend these guys and it simplified my issue. Now I still have to switch apps but it is less of an issue. I may actually go buy another old russound cam6.6 to run my other rooms that don't need the punch of a larger amp. I have two connects. One to this one and one to my denon to run 4 large outdoor speakers. I also have two amps. Now I want to see if I can remove the keypads completely so I can just leave the CAM6.6 on all the time so I just have to use Sonos.
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.