Entire house audio setup

[bkays]

So my issue all starts off with Sonos (we have a playerbar and sub in the living room and bedroom). We were originally told the Control4 installer at the best buy that those just take up a zone in Control 4. If I wanted to play music on all zones, it would play out sonos system just like it does for the in ceiling speakers I'm putting everywhere else. So far so good.. Then I met with another installer to get another quote and he told me that wasn't true. He said Control4 basically just controls the volume of the Sonos stuff but it doesn't tie into anything else. he said there are ways to make it technically be a linked zone, but he said there would most likely be a delay between the ceiling speakers and the sonos stuff because it would require splitters and a bunch of other stuff to tie them together.

So my first question is are there any hard core experts on here that can confirm what's going to happen as far as the audio zones and the sonos stuff? I'm a little weary know because I got two completely opposite answers from two different technicians. 

Once I figure out if those will work fine as a zone, I need to figure out what equipment I want because my house is getting very close to being finished.

After doing some planning with the installers around my area I'm going to have 14 zones. Right now that's using the assumption is that the sonus won't factor in to the audio and will just be used for the tv and I'll be buying more in ceiling speakers for those rooms. 

With that said I think I need the following:

C4-16ZAMSV3-B (this should take care of the take care of the 14 zones)  

A standalone amp - I'm assuming the C4-AMP108. The docs for the switch say you need to supplemental amp if going over 8 zones (more on this in just a sec)

So far does that sound about right? Is there a better way? I was told the matrix amps are not stackable so if you get an 8 zone and want to expand you can't just get another one. will I have the same situation if I ever want more zones? Surely there has to be a way to add more zones.. 

Now as far as the supplimental amp, I was told that it HAD to be one of the control4 amps. However I see people talking about 3rd party amps on the forums all the time. Do i really have to get a Control4 AMP? Just from the small research I did it seems like I could get a better one for significantly less cheaper. Or are there only certain brands/models that will work with Control4?

Basically I just want to make sure I'm getting exactly what I need, not spending a bunch of extra money for something I don't need, and honestly I've been getting conflicting info so it's getting hard to figure out what I really need.

I've also been playing around with the idea of installing some in wall subs in the main big areas. That might take me over the 16 zones depending on how many (if any) I put in. Do subs tie in to a specific zone, or do they have to be counted as their own. I understand added those would require another amp as well, but I happened to go over 16 zones what would I do if the matrix amps can't stack?

It's been a frustrating experience getting different answers from different techs because Control4 isn't cheap and he last thing I want to do is screw up from the beginning by having the wrong hardware.

I was also told the door locks HAD to be purchased from the dealer for them to work with Control4, and another guy said if i got the same lock at Lowes (where I get a 15% discount) they would work just fine as long as I got the zigby one. Can anyone clarify that as well?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[9800pro]

I have one installation where i have 3 zones, one is C4 audio, two are Sonos amps. I can join those two Sonos zones within C4 control app but not with C4 zone. Someone will probably have more insight in this.

As for need for C4 amps, they are not necessary. For 14 zones that 16x16 C4 audio matrix is a must, it isn't so expensive for what it offers. For amps we use Sonance 12x50 or DSP variants for demanding rooms.

As for locks just get zigbee ones, doesn't matter where you get them. You can check on C4 site what part number they are and buy them elsewhere.

sent from my G2

[eggzlot]

The Zigbee locks sold at Lowes are NOT Zigbee PRO out of the box they will NOT work.  there is a Zigbee Pro module you can buy for SOME locks (yale or kwikset I think) and swap out the modules so it works in c4 but out of the box the answer is the ones at Lowes will not work

On to audio - I have a sonos set up in my house with 1 Play 1, 2 Play 3's and 2 sonos connects.  1 Sonos connect is hard wired into my AVR in the living room to power 1 zone.  the other Sonos connect is hard wired into the Control4 16x16 matrix.  from there the matrix goes into a 4 Zone Control4 amp and I am using 3 of the zones, kitchen, dining room and patio.  those 3 zones have in wall/on wall speakers.  I can listen to any stream in any room with no delay.  I can stream Pandora, starting in the kitchen (off a connect) and go to "add a zone" and add the Office which is on a Play 3, and they are 100% in sync.  I have no other fancy wires or delay programming.  So it is possible to have a mixed environment.  I have other audio sources in the matrix I cannot push the Play 1 and Play 3s (sources outside of sonos like cable boxes, blu ray player, record player, tape deck, etc) - so if I had to do it again, I would likely would have ran speaker wires to the areas where I have the 3 Sonos speakers and installed in ceiling speakers....But as far as Sonos sources themselves, you should have no problems.  Only issue we had on the original install, is we thought we could connect the Audio Matrix to the AVR in the living room, but that did bring in a delay, so we just got another connect for the living room and its fine.  Eventually I may add another connect into the Audio Matrix just so I can listen to different streams - rarely but sometimes I am outside and want to listen to something different while the wife is in the kitchen listening to something else.  In 3 years, maybe this happened 2-3 times.  So the more Connects you put into the matrix, the more streams you can concurrently have in your system.  With my mixed system I can listen to something on the Play 1 and something else outside on the patio because the Connect has its own stream, so I do have some flexibility, just not between the dining room, kitchen and patio because those are all fed by the amp/matrix set up and behind that sits only 1 Sonos connect

Hope that helps and is clear.

[Cyknight]

13 hours ago, 9800pro said:

As for locks just get zigbee ones, doesn't matter where you get them. You can check on C4 site what part number they are and buy them elsewhere.

Yeah no indeed. ZigBee locks MUST be the ones bought via C4 (dealer). in case of YALE a dealer can get Yale modules via C4 - not the case for Baldwin and Kwikset.

Yes, they VERY MUCH use a different module than the 'normal' ZigBee ones (let alone the ZWAVE ones you commonly find at Lowes/HomeDepot and others)

[9800pro]

Yeah no indeed. ZigBee locks MUST be the ones bought via C4 (dealer). in case of YALE a dealer can get Yale modules via C4 - not the case for Baldwin and Kwikset.

Yes, they VERY MUCH use a different module than the 'normal' ZigBee ones (let alone the ZWAVE ones you commonly find at Lowes/HomeDepot and others)

Ok, thx, didn't know that.

Sorry for leaving false comment, that was the info we got from local distributor.

sent from my G2