bobbay

Denon 1700 doesn't have preouts for zone 2 so that's out. Extracted audio from Roku etc would work but may have a delay.

How are the switches laid out? Are they 110 switches? 210 or 310? Should have all managed switches in that system, preferably 310 series. POE budget? Are the eeros doing mesh or are they hardwired? Unless there is no wire for it, I would have used hardwired access points. And as Mgreen said, if the zigbee is wacky, you'll have problems.

Denon/Marantz are great. But with in-ceiling speakers the Sony ES has a DSP feature that brings the sound down to ear level. It really is a pretty amazing bit of voodoo.

A couple of things. Disc to digital is only available for 1080pBlurays and older DVDs (and then limited to what is in the store). There is no D2D for 4k UHD discs. Now, a $100 blueray reader plugged into a Strato is all you need to catalog for D2D, very easy and convenient now. If you have a kscape system and buy content, you basically own it. Technically it is probably a license, but once it is downloaded to your system, it works even offline. So even if Kscape closes down, if you have it downloaded, the content is there until the drives blow up. The only issue here is if you fill a server and can't add more content you can delete old content from your server to download new content and then it lives in your account until you want to download it again. At that point, if kscape were to close you could lose content. IMO, other than the hardware cost, there is no better way to consume content than Kscape. As good or better video quality than disc. Way better than streaming. Mostly better audio quality than disc. Discs are limited to maybe 60ish gigs of data, Kscape files are as big as they need to be. Audio quality from streaming to kscape is so much better it is ridiculous. Streaming audio is like a transistor radio compared to the kscape audio. (and most 4k discs are close) Anyway my 2 cents

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

I don't think the Zwave radios in the Core controllers is turned on yet. I think C4 is still waiting on regulatory approval for that. But this might be outdated info. Also, even if the radios are on, I think the list of compatible Zwave devices is still very small, just like when the Zwave dongle was available with the EA controllers. All of this is from memory, which may not be accurate!

Binary MOIP will definitely work over Cat5e. With 4k Roku or Apple TV. But, MOIP still uses pretty aggressive compression to make it all work, so your onscreen PQ won't be as good as an HDMI matrix or even HDBT matrix. Whether it is visible to you is another story.

But this isn't a C4 product. Its a third party device. And it isn't a remote, its an android touchscreen crammed into the form factor of a remote. Nothing has been announced for a new C4 remote.

URC as much or more. RTI more Crestron way more

What control company sells cheaper touchscreens? Yes android tablets and ipads are cheaper, but third party.

I'm curious what C4 pieces you think people are overpaying for that you could get better and cheaper elsewhere?

That matrix amp, which is long discontinued, doesn't have phono preamp built in. Either a turntable with a built in preamp or an external preamp would be needed.

Don't use C4 Video Matrix. Use AVPro Edge if doing a matrix. Game consoles won't work centralized, no way for the handheld controllers to connect to the console from any distance. Shields, Rokus behind TVs and audio fed back to Audio matrix saves a ton of $$ on video distribution. Many ways to skin this cat, but good video distribution will blow your budget right off the abt.

The Contemporary dimmers/switches are NOT decora. They are smaller. They will fit in a Decora faceplate, but there will be gaps around the device. C4 Contemporary faceplates will NOT work with standard decora outlets, switches etc. The opening is smaller than a Decora opening. There is or is going to be, a C4 faceplate that is 1 contemporary opening and 1 decora opening.

Your USD prices are high. No idea if those canadian $ prices are correct. Adaptive phase dimmer $187 MSRP USD. Keypad Dimmer $260 MSRP USD