New Home - Outfit My Home Audio

Budget is pretty important and things like if you want a sub or not. I'm assuming you want in-ceiling speakers?

Why go wireless if the wires are run?

Do you have a receiver to control everything from a central area? Can it handle multiple zones?

I’m building now and planning to install Polk speakers in the ceiling for rear surround and general fill in kitchen/living/outdoor. I will use a receiver with multi-zones to control the audio through a speaker selector.

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I like the idea of a sonos or wireless type system but not sure about getting power to the speakers if I go this route.

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i was on the fence about sonos but i'm sold now.

the sonos play:1s (which you'll use the most) have dropped in price even more and the more you 'sprinkle' around your house the better and more immersive your sound is.

power is definitely a consideration. you should put ceiling or wall outlets in areas you *know* you want speakers.

play:1s are loud enough for just about any room. i have 2 play:3s on my back porch and stereo-paired with a sub they sound absolutely amazing. luckily my back porch backs up to hundreds of acres of woods so i can blast it with inpunity.

a set of stereo-paired play:5s is probably overkill but if you have a very large room, you might consider it. personally I think more play;1s scattered around will even out the sound more.

playbar & sub are pricey but LOOK FOR DEALS ON CRAIGSLIST AND EBAY! start collecting speakers now so its not as painful.

as a guide; here is what I paid over the last year for speakers:
- play:3 $250 (newegg...my first sonos speaker and not acclimated to looking for deals yet)
- play:1 $100
- play:3 $100 (craigslist)
- sub $400 (craigslist)
- playbar $450 (ebay)
- play:1 $50 (2 for $100 -- facebook marketplace)
- play:3 $140 (well i haven't picked it up yet..getting this for django)

use those numbers as a 'rough guide' for about what you should pay. YMMV but every speaker i've bought has come with the box and they look brand new. the *ONLY* imperfection out of all of those purchases was a tiny tear on the cloth at the very back of the playbar which you can't even see unless you put your nose about an inch away.

retail price for play:1s has dropped to $149 so don't let ebay/craigslisters fool you into paying anywhere close to that.

the sonos:1 is "ok", but it more gimmicky because it has voice control built in and at $199 is NOT worth paying almost twice what you can pick up a play:1 for.

the best part of sonos is even if you do mount them; if you find the acoustics are not optimal you can easily move them around or try things out like setting up a stereo pair of 1:s to see if you like that better before deciding to purchase one.

sonos has some flaws..the biggest 2 right now are a shitty app update (which is just software) the inability to name/save speaker groups. they build this awesome & amazing feature where you can pair your entire sonos network of speakers or break them up then don't give you the ability to 'remember' them if your power goes out or you change the grouping temporarily. borderline criminal they haven't fixed this after being out for what..a decade or more?

finally, you can push your tv audio from your playbar to your whole sonos network but you can't play tv (or anything else for that matter) through the 1:s or 3:s WITHOUT a sonos connect or playbar/base. they only work with the app. if you add the playbar or playbase, you can then, for instance, play youtube playlists on all your sonos speakers.

i have had full-on tower speakers, a hsu sub, surrounds, outdoor speakers, etc etc etc and it was ALWAYS some kind of hassle. sonos is the first audio system for my house that i've been able to setup and enjoy all the time. its like apple..great sound, easy to setup...very limited featureset.

if i was an audio geek i'd probably be willing to fuss around with wiring up all kinds and shapes of speakers..but i'm not. i have 4 kids and almost no time these days to mess with this stuff so its been heavenly to have something just always work and sound great.

and yep, it can be expensive but use IFTTT to your advantage and setup searches on craiglist for 'sonos' and on ebay..and be ready to pounce. great deals show up all the time.




eta just pick up a damn play:1 and see for yourself. very little risk in grabbing one (they're on sale at sonos and amazon right now) and move it around your house and see what you think. don't forget to use the 'trueplay' calibration if you have an iphone because that makes a world of difference.

Good info CAD!!

Who else is gonna come thru

If you are having to run power to each "wireless" speaker, why not just run speaker wire instead? You have open walls?

You will pay a big price premium using Sonos over traditional speakers

Sonos is the correct answer here, but you don’t need to buy Sonos speakers if you already have speaker wire run.

Buy a Sonos connect amp, and hook that to whatever speakers you want to buy and put in the ceiling depending on your budget.

Then you can buy actual Sonos branded stuff for the rest of your house and be able to group them all together etc.

For example, I have a Play:1 in my kitchen and can group the TV sound to there while cooking without blasting the TV throughout the house.

First, if you have closed the walls in yet do NOT stop at 5.1 wiring. 5.1 hasn't been SOTA for 15 years, if I was wiring now I would wire for no less than 11.x. (Front left, right center, two side surrounds, two rear surrounds and 4 ceiling speakers for Atmos/DTSx. Speaker wiring is less expensive than line voltage wiring and wireless speakers are really just an expensive solution to the problem of not having wires or not being easily accessible to wire. Wireless speakers are also very limited in terms of choices compared to traditional passive speakers. You also don't have to use all the wiring now, but can later when/if you become so inclined.

My approach would be a Denon, Marantz or Yamaha AVR (audio/video receiver). Then add the sources you want, all my systems have at least a UHD Bluray player, cable/sat box and a stream box (Roku for me). Then add the speakers you want in numbers and quality that fit your budget. This is more of a conventional approach but the most budgets it offers the best quality sound and video. Budgets for this approach run from maybe $1500/2000 up to as many zeros as you would like to add.

Sonos is great but power is required. You can get Sonos CONNECT:AMPs to connect to traditional in-ceiling speakers or you can use standalone SONOS devices wherever you'd like them and they're portable so the music can move with the party.

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This dude gets it. You sir are a breath of fresh air for this board.

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Nobody needs 11.1

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Nobody needs 11.1

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Well of course not. Nobody needs home audio at all. It's all a want. Since he is in e building process, if it was me, I'd pull wires for 5.1.2.