Whole Home Audio Install

[DevotedCrayon]

Hello,

 

We are going to put in a Control4 system into our new house and I wanted to know more about how whole home audio systems work. Are the speakers cascaded like in 70-volt commercial systems, or does each speaker require a "home run" back the the amp? How many speakers can I put into each zone, and if I need more how can I do that? Do the speakers need two conductor wire, and play only a single channel of audio, or do the speakers require four conductor wire and play stereo? I know Klipsch and Bose make stereo in-ceiling speakers.

Much appreciated!

[SMHarman]

1. Cascaded like 70v NO

2. Home run

3. C4 amps comfortably run 2 speakers on each channel before you start needing to think about impedance matching.

4. You can always use more than one pair of amps to an area and join them in a media scene if you need more.

5. They are stereo pairs so a room needs 4 core plus a whip to the second speaker location or 2x2 core.

6. For smaller rooms you can use a stereo dual voice coil speaker instead of a pair of speakers.

[Matt Lowe]

alot of factors can be at play.

typically you will have an audio matrix of some sort to control what audio goes to what room

for small areas - dual voice coil

for medum to large - stereo pair of speakers

for large to very large you would typically use 70 volt ie backyard audio

you can also add in runs for volume control that need to be inline between amp and speaker, or use control4 keypads

power, number of speakers, number of zones, and number of sources are all going to dictate what you need.