Carter Hobson Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Hello, I am working on planning a Control4 system for a new build and have a few questions about the equipment required in the rack. If i have a controller with 5 audio outputs could I route 4 of them straight into the 4 zone power amplifier without the need for an audio matrix switch? 3 of them would be analog straight out of the controller, and the digital stream would have to use a compact DAC to convert it to analog for the amp. Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Yes you could do that in theory, if all you want to play in those zones is Control4 music and don't want to have (for example) audio from TV/video sources play through the speakers as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 Yes in this case the zones with TVs and Video devices are connected via AVRs with the HDMI from Control4 Controllers. The 4 zone amp would be exclusively for 2 channel speaker only zones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 Thanks for the help! How would I handle amplifier control in this situation? Would I just run a 12v trigger from the controller to the amp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstafford388 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 12v trigger or always on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amr Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 Don’t have it always On, it will eventually reduces its operating life, 12v trigger is much better and to conserve energy as well Matt Lowe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 How would that be programmed in Composer to activate the trigger for those 4 zones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 I would just set the amp to audio sense and be done with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 I would agree, unless you're doing announcements, just set it to signal sense. Just a few small notes: While you can indeed use volume control on the digi coax outputs, do note that not all DACs like to play nice with this. We use a brand that is not really available to the public for DACs so I can't recommend any as such for this purpose, but perhaps others can chime in with examples that worked (or didn't work). Note that many will work fine, but if you start having issues on zones connected with a DAC this way, look there first. You're not saying you're doing this but for posterity: you cannot use the HDMI output this way as there is no volume control on HDMI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 Perhaps this might be a good option since Snap AV sells it: https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/b-220-dac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbay Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 As has been said, it can be done, but it isn't optimal. An 8x8 AMS is like 1600 bucks. This is not nothing, but in the entire project, is it that much more to avoid any pitfalls? You can add all 5 streams from a Core5 plus three other audio devices if needed, and avoid any issues with grouping zones etc. I dont think you can get 5 streams of tidal or spotify or pandora to play the same thing in sync this way. Especially the digital to dac to amp zone. Bite the bullet and get the AMS chopedogg88 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 21 hours ago, Carter Hobson said: How would that be programmed in Composer to activate the trigger for those 4 zones? its automatic as long as all of the connections are made correctly. No need to do any programming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 Agreed. Get a Triad AMS. Pm me if you need one i have an extra 8x8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted February 1, 2023 Author Share Posted February 1, 2023 6 hours ago, bobbay said: As has been said, it can be done, but it isn't optimal. An 8x8 AMS is like 1600 bucks. This is not nothing, but in the entire project, is it that much more to avoid any pitfalls? You can add all 5 streams from a Core5 plus three other audio devices if needed, and avoid any issues with grouping zones etc. I dont think you can get 5 streams of tidal or spotify or pandora to play the same thing in sync this way. Especially the digital to dac to amp zone. Bite the bullet and get the AMS Is it not possible for the audio outputs on a Core 5 to play the same thing and act like a matrix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted February 1, 2023 Share Posted February 1, 2023 Yes, but how it would do it is to have the Core 5 literally decoding the audio one time per output, and sending the 'sync' info between internal players. It's very inefficient, CPU-wise, vs. just having an actual switcher. Also, if you're using the controller's audio inputs for a source, that source is delayed for enough time for the outputs to be 'in sync', which is usually a couple of seconds. An audio switch is the right solution for multiple zones. Hacking it without one is never recommended. RyanE chopedogg88 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted February 2, 2023 Author Share Posted February 2, 2023 Ok, Thanks for the info! I think it would just come down to budget on this specific system design. I could also try to look for matrix amps that might do the job, however don't know if they still make those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 I have an old Control4 4-zone matrix amp that I could sell you cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Hobson Posted February 2, 2023 Author Share Posted February 2, 2023 Thanks for offering! Unfortunately I don't have a timeline on this project. I will definitely reach out on the forum if and when we come to the point of purchasing equipment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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