Whole home audio/Lync System

Do you already have speakers in the walls/ceiling? Just curious what your price is. If not, why not just throw some sonos speakers around the house and call it a day.

Get a bunch is Sonos1s for the smaller rooms. They have Alexa and Google built in. Then get an Arc and Sub for the living room. Maybe some Sonos 5s for the bigger rooms. Just plug them all into power.

I have seen your posts on this board before and know you are a huge Sonos guy. I actually am beginning to think you might work for Sonos . I have no issue with Sonos at all and have been impressed by the flexibility and obviously the wireless nature of their system. I may go that route for whole home audio. I have not been impressed by the sound quality from Sonos systems though, and they are incredibly expensive for what they are.

I will also say that a good friend of mine whose house I frequent has a Sonos "surround" system and it sounds pretty bad. My experience with Sonos is that you are paying a significant premium for simplicity and pseudo-wireless operation. That's all well and fine, and we may ultimately go that route for whole-home audio, but it leaves a lot to be desired when sound quality actually matters IMO.

As far as what I need, I need a.) a surround sound system, and b.) possibly a whole home audio system. Our floorplan is open in the kitchen, dining room, and living area, and we entertain a lot. So the ability to incorporate whatever is playing on the TV to the speakers in the kitchen and dining room is important. The back porch will also have a TV in the outdoor kitchen area, so it's important for us to have speakers out there as well, though they don't need to be surround sound.

ETA: it also bears noting that the Sonos surround system only technically allows for a 5.1, and even then, it's not a true 5.1. The size of our living area is close to the threshold, but I would probably prefer going with a 7.1 surround system if not cost prohibitive.

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Do you already have speakers in the walls/ceiling? Just curious what your price is. If not, why not just throw some sonos speakers around the house and call it a day.

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Negative. We haven't even started construction yet.

Sounds like you have some background on audio systems in general. You planning on pulling the speaker wire yourself? Can definitely save some cash doing it that way, and there is really nothing complicated about it.

I have a HTD Lync whole home system and a separate home theater setup. You may be planning this, but I'd definitely run them separately - i.e. an amp for the home theater and lync/an amp for the whole home audio. I don't even know if you can run them off the same setup, but you can add the home theater as a zone and a source for the whole home setup (so you can play your home theater over the whole home or the whole home over the home theater). I did that and have used it occasionally.

On HTD/Lync, we have had ours running for two years and it has been flawless. We have the twelve zone/24 speaker system with the 60 amp per channel setup (8 inch in ceiling speakers) and that is plenty. I can't imagine needing more volume and usually we listen at 25% - 30%. That said, the few times I have cranked it up, the sound quality is surprisingly good.

Everything is controlled by phone/tablet via wifi. There is no connection to a remote server, so you maintain service even if you lose internet and have no delays. There are many source options (including Sonos connect if you really want the Sonos system...I considered it at first but have not found it necessary at all given the cost). My only complaint about the system is that it does not have native streamers built in - it's a minor complaint, but it is something that should be easy enough to include. It does have a built in mp3 player via thumbdrive. Either way, it rarely affects our actual use.

I only installed 2 keypads - one in the master bath and one outside for use by the pool. In practice, I use the master bath one all the time and have barely touched the other one. Phone is easy enough. The one in the master bath is used because I just press one button to play/stop music while using the shower and can skip songs as well.

A wired solution is better to wireless in almost every manner when doing new construction. It will be cheaper, have better sound quality, be louder, easier/cheaper to update or repair, a cleaner/higher end look with in ceiling speakers, and will be more reliable overall.

Go for it. I highly recommend HTD/Lync and pulling the wires yourself. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions about the system. I know I was slightly nervous when researching as there is not a ton out there on it.

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As far as what I need, I need a.) a surround sound system, and b.) possibly a whole home audio system.

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no reason you couldnt go with a traditional 7.1 or 8.2.1 or 11.3.2 or whatever the latest is and still use sonos for everything else.

i agree 100% that sonos isn't the best surround setup. i won't argue that at all. their 'cadillac' soundbar/pad don't even support hdmi/atmos. you can only get that from the smaller beam.

eta yes the speakers are expensive as frick but you can go with ikea-branded sonos speakers for bathrooms or other rooms you don't care about really good sound.


eta yes i'm a sonos whore. its the best thing technology wise i did at my current house. it gets used EVERY DAY by multiple people in the house and its stupid-easy for anyone to do. even my little boy can use his voice to play songs.

eta2 if you ever do smart things at your house, the flexible API built into sonos means you can use it to chime or vocalize notifications (mail is here, garage door was left open, etc.) and trigger text-to-voice responses. i set up some creepy stuff based off motion detectors inside my house the week my MiL was watching it. loads of fun. it was like someone was following her around the house.

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no reason you couldnt go with a traditional 7.1 or 8.2.1 or 11.3.2 or whatever the latest is and still use sonos for everything else.

i agree 100% that sonos isn't the best surround setup. i won't argue that at all. their 'cadillac' soundbar/pad don't even support hdmi/atmos. you can only get that from the smaller beam.

eta yes the speakers are expensive as frick but you can go with ikea-branded sonos speakers for bathrooms or other rooms you don't care about really good sound.


eta yes i'm a sonos whore. its the best thing technology wise i did at my current house. it gets used EVERY DAY by multiple people in the house and its stupid-easy for anyone to do. even my little boy can use his voice to play songs.

eta2 if you ever do smart things at your house, the flexible API built into sonos means you can use it to chime or vocalize notifications (mail is here, garage door was left open, etc.) and trigger text-to-voice responses. i set up some creepy stuff based off motion detectors inside my house the week my MiL was watching it. loads of fun. it was like someone was following her around the house.

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Cool. Thanks for the input. If I went with Sonos, it probably would be only for the whole-home audio and not surround just because of my experience. I definitely get the excitement of Sonos really because of the simplicity. I would also love to avoid running wire. I see the real benefit of Sonos as those who come in trying to do what I want to do after the fact.

I also haven't really caught up with the entirety of the smart home craze, but that could just be because I haven't experienced it yet. I don't use Alexa (or even Siri, ha). That all may change with this house though. We will see. One option for us may be to do the wired 7.1 surround system and then come in afterwards with a Sonos system, depending on how much the wired system looks like it will cost us.

Good on the home theater. I would not use Sonos or HTD for a surround sound system. Maybe Sonos in a situation in which you had money to burn and no way to get wire to the surrounds. You can do a nice wired 7.1 system for a pretty reasonable cost.

I ran about a mile of Cat 6 and speaker wire in my house - some by myself and a lot with my wife helping. It is not difficult, but you need to have a good plan.

On your questions:

1. For the whole home, the HTD was $2700 all in including the 2 keypads and some mounting brackets for a rack. I spent about $1k on the speakers themselves. I bought the 8" Micca speakers on amazon for pretty much everywhere. They were $40 a piece and have sounded great for whole home use.

We use our whole home audio all the time and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The cost was easily worth it and the setup is much better than audio solutions we had previously. Being able to fire it up in a couple seconds on your phone makes all the difference. On the other hand, we do not watch a ton of movies and have not used our surround sound to it's full extent too often. Of the two, I'd choose the whole home all day if forced to pick...but that is what suits our family.

2. The HTD app controls the source selection, zone selection, volume, and built in mp3 player. To control your actual source, you need to go to that source's app. It is a two step process in theory (one area where sonos has an advantage), but we generally just leave the whole home setup on and only open to adjust the app when needed based on listening scenario. So, it really becomes a single app process (the source app) unless we need to change the whole home settings, which only takes a couple seconds and is easy.

For the sources, my main one is audiocast. I paid something like $30 for it as a temporary solution until I bought a sonos connect for a good deal, but I just never found it necessary to upgrade for the cost of a Sonos connect. I also have a google chromecast audio, and a regular old radio. The audiocast does 95%+ of the playing. I'd suspect you could use an apple TV...really any sort of media player that connects via wifi.

3. See above. There is so much variability on home theater systems. I could get into what I have if you're really interested, but I'd add a whole home system then wire for long-term and upgrade your home theater as needed if short on budget.

4. My home theater system is higher end than a base HTD system...though HTD reportedly makes some nice higher end speakers (I considered the level 3s for my L/C/R channels). On the whole home, no regrets at all. I think the next level up are proprietary systems that cost many times what the HTD system costs for marginal (if any) improvement, along with proprietary system hand cuffs. Your whole home system does not need to be clinical listening...just good to great with the coverage and volume needed.

One last thought...where are you planning to put the equipment? Including a dedicated wiring closet is ideal if possible. Also, how many zones of home audio will you actually use? All 6 or are you just getting that because it is the minimum option? If you'll really only be needing 2 or 3 zones, maybe a home theater plus something simple like Sonos is your best bet.

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Every speaker in my house and patio other than sound bar and bathroom smart speaker I use for an alarm clock.

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you use your AVR to configure an alarm clock?

Just go sonos

Buncha butthurt people in this thread trying to justify their wired setups

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The Arc does atmos. That's their Cadillac.

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you're right. forgot about that soundbar.

Try English next time. You successfully evaded the question.