Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 May 17, 2010 9:53 pm We are building a new house and we would like to have in ceiling speakers in the living room and the rumpus which are at opposite ends of the house. We most likely get a new stereo and amplifier as well. We would like to have the option of playing different music in these rooms with a single control. What is the most cost effective system out there? We are after some recommendations. Re: In ceiling speakers 2May 18, 2010 12:47 pm Hi Syd, I have just moved into a new house, I had 3 sets of speaker cables pre wired during construction, Upstairs living room, Downstairs living room and out in the Alfresco area. I have just connected my first Sonos unit and find that it works really well. I have the up and down satirs runnig off the one unit at present. If you were to have a sonos in each area you can play differnt music/radio in each area, all can be controlled via an iphone/itouch or the more expensive option if you don't have either you can use the Sonos controller. So far it had been great, you can also register as a US resident and use Rhapsody (for a monthly charge) which gives you access to a huge selection of music, so far I have found it to be unbelievable how much is on there, just using the Free 30 Day trial. I'm sure Sonos is not the cheapest option around, but i find it very easy to use and my wife does as well. Building the Henley Ascot 483: Handover 1/4 Re: In ceiling speakers 3May 18, 2010 1:26 pm Rob&Kat Hi Syd, I have just moved into a new house, I had 3 sets of speaker cables pre wired during construction, Upstairs living room, Downstairs living room and out in the Alfresco area. I have just connected my first Sonos unit and find that it works really well. I have the up and down satirs runnig off the one unit at present. If you were to have a sonos in each area you can play differnt music/radio in each area, all can be controlled via an iphone/itouch or the more expensive option if you don't have either you can use the Sonos controller. So far it had been great, you can also register as a US resident and use Rhapsody (for a monthly charge) which gives you access to a huge selection of music, so far I have found it to be unbelievable how much is on there, just using the Free 30 Day trial. I'm sure Sonos is not the cheapest option around, but i find it very easy to use and my wife does as well. Thanks Rob & Kate, The Sonos was recommended to us from one of the retailers around our home. I didn't realise you can run the one unit in 2 different areas - the salesman was telling us to get a unit in each area. I want to reduce the amount of "units" in each room as none of the rooms are very big. One question - are the speaker cables different to data cables eg Cat 5/6 cables? (Excuse my ignorance) Should we get the hi-fi people to put them in rather than an electrician? Re: In ceiling speakers 4May 19, 2010 12:53 pm Hey Syd, I'm no expert on this, but speaker wire is different to Cat5 / 6. I'm not sure whether or not you can run speakers with Cat cabling. We had our speaker cabling installed by a cabler, not electrician. But if you are building a single storey house, then you can easily run the speaker wire in the roof yourself once you take possesion of the house. I only got it prewired as we went double storey. In regards to running 2 zones on one unit, according to the Sonos manual it can handle it. The only downside of this is both zones have to play the same music and at the same volume. I plan to upgrade later down the track but for now it will do. Building the Henley Ascot 483: Handover 1/4 Re: In ceiling speakers 5May 19, 2010 1:13 pm Rob&Kat Hey Syd, I'm no expert on this, but speaker wire is different to Cat5 / 6. I'm not sure whether or not you can run speakers with Cat cabling. We had our speaker cabling installed by a cabler, not electrician. But if you are building a single storey house, then you can easily run the speaker wire in the roof yourself once you take possesion of the house. I only got it prewired as we went double storey. In regards to running 2 zones on one unit, according to the Sonos manual it can handle it. The only downside of this is both zones have to play the same music and at the same volume. I plan to upgrade later down the track but for now it will do. Thanks Rob & Kat. We are building a multi-storey house so will get someone to put in the cabling for us. Re: In ceiling speakers 6May 20, 2010 3:58 pm Rob&Kat Hey Syd, I'm no expert on this, but speaker wire is different to Cat5 / 6. I'm not sure whether or not you can run speakers with Cat cabling. We had our speaker cabling installed by a cabler, not electrician. But if you are building a single storey house, then you can easily run the speaker wire in the roof yourself once you take possesion of the house. I only got it prewired as we went double storey. In regards to running 2 zones on one unit, according to the Sonos manual it can handle it. The only downside of this is both zones have to play the same music and at the same volume. I plan to upgrade later down the track but for now it will do. Thats right speaker cable is different to cat 5/6 cable and is more expensive than it to just to clarify. How do you remove one of these ceiling air con vents? 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