Multi Room Audio

[Ronstar]

We have 4 rooms with in wall/ceiling speakers in addition to a home theater system. All used to work fine through a 2 zone receiver. The receiver died and I just wanted to get the home theater going so I just bought a home theater receiver. Haven't listened to room audio since.

I'd like to get the 4 rooms going again with audio. Our home theater receiver is an inexpensive Sony STR DH590 that I don't believe is capable of adding 8 speakers to.

I do have this amp? Junction box? where the 4 room speakers come together and leave as a single 4 conductor audio cable.

My question is - What do I need to get this running? Seems like I need a separate audio receiver and I should be able to make this work. Unless I can wire it up to the existing home theater receiver, but it has all speaker ports occupied.

 

[upupandaway]

What connector is on the other end of the wire that is labeled as going to the receiver? It looks to me like this is an old pre-amp and the input is an analog source. However I'm confused as the source seems to have 3 wires and one appears to be ground so did this system not have left and right channels? I have used an in expensive and tiny Bluetooth Amp to connect to things like this which has worked well if you don't want to host a dance party and just want to listen to music at a normal volume.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Looks to me like you've got 5 sets of speakers hooked up throughout your house. You can see five thick grey cables coming up along the stud near the 110 v. outlet. Inside the grey cables are green, red, white, and black wires. These cables contain the left and right speaker wires. Right speakers are green/red; left speakers are white/black.

It looks like the cable that went to your receiver contains wires for the left and right channels of the old receiver. (Again, right speaker is green/red; left speaker is white/black.) So your old receiver appears to be a single zone stereo receiver.

The left/right speaker wires from the receiver go into a connector block in the top center of the circuit board. My best guess is that the audio signal from the receiver then gets routed to each transformer, which splits the audio into five separate signals. The transformer on the right handles the right channel; the transformer on the left handles the left channel. The transformers pass these signals back to the circuit board where they are connected to the long black 10 terminal screw and push in connectors (only 5 of the 10 connections on each terminal strip are used.) The individual speakers throughout the house are connected to these two terminal strips.

I'm guessing when this was hooked up and working the sound volume in each room was the same. In other words, you couldn't separately control the sound level in each room--you turn up the volume on the receiver and the volume goes up an identical amount in each room.

I suppose if you were to hook up your new receiver to that cable you marked "this wire went to receiver" you would gain the same functionality as you had before. Where the cable comes out near the receiver you would hook up the green and red wires to the right channel and the white and black wires to the left channel. The only question would be which wire(s) connect to the positive (+) speaker terminal of the receiver and which one connects to the negative (-) speaker terminal on the receiver. For the right channel I would guess red would be positive, green would be negative. For the left channel I suppose white would be positive and black would be negative.

Could you get a straight-on photo of the circuit board? Showing the printing on the board?

 

[Ronstar]

What connector is on the other end of the wire that is labeled as going to the receiver? It looks to me like this is an old pre-amp and the input is an analog source. However I'm confused as the source seems to have 3 wires and one appears to be ground so did this system not have left and right channels? I have used an in expensive and tiny Bluetooth Amp to connect to things like this which has worked well if you don't want to host a dance party and just want to listen to music at a normal volume.

The other end of the wire used to be connected to zone 2 of my old receiver. Now it's connected to nothing. No connector - just bare wires.

It did have right and left channels. I will look into a bluetooth amp. All I really need is something that I can use to accept a wireless streaming from my iPhone and pump it through to the speakers. Problem is that I know next to nothing about electronics/ AV.

 

[Ronstar]

Looks to me like you've got 5 sets of speakers hooked up throughout your house. You can see five thick grey cables coming up along the stud near the 110 v. outlet. Inside the grey cables are green, red, white, and black wires. These cables contain the left and right speaker wires. Right speakers are green/red; left speakers are white/black.

Yes - 5 sets. I thought I had 4, but I forgot about outside speakers.

It looks like the cable that went to your receiver contains wires for the left and right channels of the old receiver. (Again, right speaker is green/red; left speaker is white/black.) So your old receiver appears to be a single zone stereo receiver.

Our old receiver was a 2 zone. Zone 1 was the home theater. Zone 2 was the 5 sets of room speakers.

The left/right speaker wires from the receiver go into a connector block in the top center of the circuit board. My best guess is that the audio signal from the receiver then gets routed to each transformer, which splits the audio into five separate signals. The transformer on the right handles the right channel; the transformer on the left handles the left channel. The transformers pass these signals back to the circuit board where they are connected to the long black 10 terminal screw and push in connectors (only 5 of the 10 connections on each terminal strip are used.) The individual speakers throughout the house are connected to these two terminal strips.

I'm guessing when this was hooked up and working the sound volume in each room was the same. In other words, you couldn't separately control the sound level in each room--you turn up the volume on the receiver and the volume goes up an identical amount in each room.

4 of the rooms have volume knobs in wall switch plates. Master bedroom had an IR receiver wall plate that I patched over when I painted last. Outside speakers are just bare wires now - wire just running to a wall plate - no speakers.

I suppose if you were to hook up your new receiver to that cable you marked "this wire went to receiver" you would gain the same functionality as you had before. Where the cable comes out near the receiver you would hook up the green and red wires to the right channel and the white and black wires to the left channel. The only question would be which wire(s) connect to the positive (+) speaker terminal of the receiver and which one connects to the negative (-) speaker terminal on the receiver. For the right channel I would guess red would be positive, green would be negative. For the left channel I suppose white would be positive and black would be negative.

Could you get a straight-on photo of the circuit board? Showing the printing on the board?

I agree - hooking the "this wire went to receiver" to a new receiver will probably work. I just don't know what the transformers were needed for, and I don't understand how the individual room volume controls ties into all of this. I guess I really don't need to know as long as it all works when I get done.

I really don't know if I need a "receiver". I don't need am/fm, cd, or whatever. I only want to pump tunes from my iPhone through the room speakers. I need something (amp?) capable of receiving the wireless and sending it to the speakers.

Here's a direct shot of the circuit board.

 

[upupandaway]

This is what I use in my garage for bluetooth. It's cheap and if it doesn't work for you Amazon's return policy is easy.

Facmogu F900 2 CH Bluetooth Amplifier 100W with Power Supply Adapter DC 12V 5A, 50W + 50W BT 5.0 Mini Wireless Audio Power AMP for Home HiFi Stereo Speaker

https://a.co/d/eZoaFPL

 

[Jerry1]

All I really need is something that I can use to accept a wireless streaming from my iPhone and pump it through to the speakers. Problem is that I know next to nothing about electronics/ AV.

I would get a receiver and hook it up the way it was. Then, I would buy a bluetooth dongle that you can plug into the AUX on the receiver. I'm sure you could do more, but that would get you what you had plus what you want.

https://www.amazon.com/GMCELL-Bluet...50318&sprefix=bluetooth+dongle,aps,105&sr=8-3

 

[tulak]

Looking at all of those wires makes me appreciate Sonos.

If all you want is to stream audio, it could be a good alternative solution.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I would get a receiver and hook it up the way it was. Then, I would buy a bluetooth dongle that you can plug into the AUX on the receiver. I'm sure you could do more, but that would get you what you had plus what you want.

https://www.amazon.com/GMCELL-Bluet...50318&sprefix=bluetooth+dongle,aps,105&sr=8-3

Most newer AVR's have bluetooth ability built in.

 

[Ronstar]

Thanks everyone! Just ordered a Pyle 300 watt bluetooth amp from Amazon. We'll see if it works. I'll report back in a couple days.

 

[steelyman]

Looking at all of those wires makes me appreciate Sonos.

If all you want is to stream audio, it could be a good alternative solution.

Yes. I’m really pleased to have no wires laying around with a wi-fi based system. Downside is it wasn’t especially cheap/inexpensive. It has Bluetooth capability but I never use that except for AirPods.

 

[Ronstar]

Success!! Hooked up the old "this wire went to receiver" wires to the new receiver speaker outputs. Set receiver output to Bluetooth. IPhone found it and connected. Played iTunes through all 4 room sets of speakers. Perfect for piping Christmas music through the house.

Problem is I should have put speakers in more rooms when I built the house. I'd like to put a set in my study. Maybe this receiver can output to bluetooth speakers in addition to the wired speakers? I have Alexa in my study now, but the quality is not good.

Actually, I think DW is taking over the 4 room speakers for her podcasts, so I'll need some bluetooth speakers in my study without being connected to the other rooms. Another project awaits.

 

[NW-Bound]

Hah, I saw this thread just now.

What Ronstar has there is a pair of distribution audio transformers. The board has no active circuit. The function of the audio transformer is to match the impedance of the speaker circuits to that of the amplifier.

This type of arrangement was commonly used in auditoriums and theaters for a PA system, even back in the vacuum-tube amplifier days. I don't know if it is still in use today.

The transformer has many taps so that you can wire it to match the number of speakers in the circuit. You can also vary the amount of audio power going to each speaker by wiring them to different taps.

Why do you need an audio distribution transformer? Speakers generally have an impedance of 8 ohms. If you wire 2 in parallel, that becomes 4 ohms. If 4 speakers, that's 2 ohms. Meanwhile amplifiers typically expect a load of 8 ohms. Wiring a 2-ohm load to an amplifier expecting an 8-ohm load will risk blowing out the amp's output transistors. With vacuum-tube amplifiers, a mismatched load will result in reduced audio output.

In short, the transformer serves to match the load presented by the speaker network to the amplifier.

 

[NW-Bound]

Ronstar talks about the volume controls in each room. These are special rheostats called L-pads.

From Wikipedia:

A speaker L pad is a special configuration of rheostats used to control volume while maintaining a constant load impedance on the output of the audio amplifier.
It consists of a parallel and a series rheostat connected in an "L" configuration. As one increases in resistance, the other decreases, thus maintaining a constant impedance, at least in one direction. To maintain constant impedance in both directions, a "T" pad must be used. In loudspeaker systems having a crossover network, it is necessary to maintain impedance to the crossover; this avoids shifting the crossover point.

A constant-impedance load is important in the case of vacuum tube power amplifiers, because such amplifiers do not work as efficiently when terminated into an impedance greatly different than their specified output impedance. Maintaining constant impedance is less important In the case solid state electronics.

 

[Ronstar]

I'll need to digest what NW-Bound just posted, but I'm sure I won't understand it. Our system was put in in 1994 when we built the house. Surprised any of it works.

Right now I'm working on lessening DW's "whoop" sound going throughout the house whenever she texts someone or anyone texts her. I'm sure there's an iPhone setting for that.

 

[CRLLS]

OOOOH, L-pads. I installed one in my soon-to-be future FIL's basement back around 1973. He wanted his living room Magnavox console stereo to pipe sound to his freshly DIY'd basement Rec room. To my knowledge, that basement rec room was never used for anything other than storage except for a family get-together after our wedding dinner.

As I recall, PA systems I was familiar with used 70Volt based amplifiers and speakers rather than impedance-based amplifiers. One can add and remove speakers without affecting the volume of the others or damaging the amplifier. That's about all I can remember.