Schuda Posted May 1, 2020 Posted May 1, 2020 Hello all, I am looking to get some advice on a multi-zone receiver. We are needing four zones, however they are in an open plan area and the adjacent outdoor area, so rarely if ever would be sending different sources to different zones. Zone 1 is the living room where the TV is, a pair of 6" bookshelf speakers ( Ascension / Adelaide Speakers Woodfox 612PQ) Zone 2 is the sub in the living room (I am calling it a zone as it is a Ascension / Adelaide Speakers powered sub with both/either stereo RCA input or stereo +/- Speaker level inputs. And because Ideally the sub could be turned on/off with zone 1 and/or zone 3 Zone 3 is the kitchen with a pair of 8" wall speakers (Paradigm P80-R) Zone 4 is an outdoor patio (off the living room) with a pair of 6 " outdoor speakers (Klipsch AW-650) All the zones have speaker cable wired back to where the receiver would be. There is an ethernet port there also win goes back to a switch which also connects to the computers in the house and pones via wifi. We will be mainly using the system to listen to music rather than A/V sources. A mixture of vinyl, CD, radio and computer/internet sources. It is this last source which obviously complicates things a little. But I think we are generally happy to be essentially streaming from a computer or smart phone rather than needing sources such as Spotify / Tidal playing directly through the A/V system. We would like to be able to control the system from a tablet or smart phone (volume, zone selection, source selection and the computer/internet sources). We would probably use the bookshelf speakers and sub when watching a movie (either DVD or more often streaming Netflix/Youtube etc), although the TV is in the corner of the room rather than then centre and I don't think we'd be really ever running full surround sound (I did run the cables all through the ceiling of the living/TV room but the plasterers sealed them all in before I got them to their final locations I've looked at the Denon range which seems to have good reviews, particularly for those wanting a focus on good stereo music quality (as opposed to full surround sound theatre). But it seems that the 2nd/3rd zones are re-assigning surround channels and may not provide enough power and that you end up spending a lot of money or lots of features we won't be needing to be able to have those re-assignable channels. And none of them have a fourth zone. And the sub outs seem to always be coupled wit Zone 1 or at least a specific zone as we'd prefer to have it independent (although this wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker if everything else ticked the boxes. Thank you in advance for anyone that has got to this point and can give some advice!
Guest Posted May 1, 2020 Posted May 1, 2020 to the forum... Budget please; would help guide the recommendations. Firstly, if music is the focus, an AVR will be a compromise. Having said that, Denon have Heos, which will allow multi room connection. In particular the Heos Drive HS2 is designed to drive 4 zones! There are also specialist multi zone controllers like the Niles MRC 6430, AMC XOIB and others. These are meant for custom AV installers, as is the Heos Drive HS2. If you do not mind getting your hands dirty, you probably can do it yourself. Otherwise, find a custom AV installer.
Hi-Fi Whipped Posted May 2, 2020 Posted May 2, 2020 All AVR's reassign their surround amps for other zones which really isn't that much of an issue because they all generally output the same power subject to how may channels are running at once and the speakers you have wont be that demanding anyway. Reading the above tells me you only need 3 powered zones, for the sub you could run Z1 off the RCA output, and Z3 via the line level inputs from the speaker terminals so you don't need a seperate zone for that, each zone will activate the sub when there is a signal. Depending on which AVR you buy just make sure all of your digital and analog inputs can be sent to the zones (some only do analog inputs). Yamaha used to do 3 powered zones on thier hi-end receivers but I haven't looked for a while.
Schuda Posted May 2, 2020 Author Posted May 2, 2020 Hi there, thanks snoopy8 and Hi-Fi Whipped for your responses. My budget is around $3000. The HEOS Drive HS2 seems fairly well suited, however it appears to be very expensive for what you get and with no tuner, phono input, not to mention any AV/HDMI etc I would still need another unit. So it seems like I would be better off getting something like a Denon AVR-4500X, reassigning some of then surround channel to zones 2 and 3 and then if I needed a forth extra zone could I just get a HEOS AMP HS2 and connect them both to the network via ethernet? I presume the Denon A/V receivers play nicely wit the HEOS branded gear and can all be controlled by the HEOS tablet or smart phone app?
Schuda Posted May 2, 2020 Author Posted May 2, 2020 On 02/05/2020 at 12:39 AM, Hi-Fi Whipped said: All AVR's reassign their surround amps for other zones which really isn't that much of an issue because they all generally output the same power subject to how may channels are running at once and the speakers you have wont be that demanding anyway. Reading the above tells me you only need 3 powered zones, for the sub you could run Z1 off the RCA output, and Z3 via the line level inputs from the speaker terminals so you don't need a seperate zone for that, each zone will activate the sub when there is a signal. Depending on which AVR you buy just make sure all of your digital and analog inputs can be sent to the zones (some only do analog inputs). Yamaha used to do 3 powered zones on thier hi-end receivers but I haven't looked for a while. Expand Hi-Fi whipped, thanks for your response. I am a bit confused by the second paragraph thou, could you please elaborate? Wihch RCA outputs and which line level inputs from the speaker terminal are you referring to? thanks for your time
Guest DrSK Posted May 10, 2020 Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) What you are suggesting will work fine. It seemed like a good idea but depends on where you want to end up. I have many metres (and $$$s) of speaker, ethernet and HDMI cabling in my walls and ceilings which no longer gets used. In the end I couldn't get the quality I wanted from AVR and now run seperate stereo amps and DACs. An option is to run the below with seperate amps, use as a DAC in non critical areas, feed a better DAC in critical spaces. And where you have TT etc, take line out off your amp and feed it back to this. Then you can transmit it to all other zones. https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/burleigh-waters/stereo-systems/sonos-connect/1247501331?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialbuttons&utm_content=android_VIP_sticky I'm not a fan of Sonos speakers, but think their Connect is brilliant. You get multi room control off your smart phone for streaming/network sources and same in all zones from external component sources by using the master amp line out. Edited May 10, 2020 by DrSK
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