Multi-room Music System

Paschcom

We're in the middle of a house renovation and want to install an Audio multi-room surround music system.

Has anyone done any research/comparisons on the various types of AV systems on the market.
We've looked at a few (Opus, NuVo, Incognito, Russounds) and its quite overwhelming between zones, inputs, control mechanisms, etc., and of course all the various salesmen are talking up the merits of their systems.

The Cambridge incognito seems like a good reasonably priced package- anyone used it - any pro/cons?

Any thoughts on where to pick these systems up without going through the local sales guys - any good website that anyone has used?
tks
P

MediaTank

Have you looked at a wireless system such as Sonos?

Homer

Paschcom wrote: »

The Cambridge incognito seems like a good reasonably priced package- anyone used it - any pro/cons?
P

Pro - Cheap!

Con - No visual feedback to the keypad so you don't know what you are listening to.

For the money you will find it hard to go wrong with Sonos.
It's expandable too, so you just need to put the wiring in place at this stage and you can have as many zones eventually as you like.
It will give you all your stored music and internet radio including all the Irish stations.
The only drawback with Sonos is that it is audio only and won't control anything else.
That's where a decent multi zone audio video system from the likes of Russound or Cambridge have more flexibility but at a little more expense.

What are you trying to achieve and maybe we can better advise on a solution to suit your needs.

Do you have a budget in mind?

Cheers,

Homer

conbon

The incognito system is quite limited.
It is an A-bus system so the power for the speakers comes through the keypad. It will give you aprox 7 watt per side.
Second prob with any a-bus system is if you wire for one of these your wiring wont do for most of the more advanced systems.
(because you only wire speaker cable from keypads to speakers)
On the other hand there is no programming.

If you are thinking of getting a system from the internet and you can't programme.
Stick to SONOS or russound cas44 or cas66 systems.
If you have an iphone or itouch you can control your SONOS system from it and you wont need the CR100 or CR200 controllers. should save a few quid.

Most of the systems that have nice feedback on the keypads will require installing by a professional.

mchammer

Paschcom wrote: »

We're in the middle of a house renovation and want to install an Audio multi-room surround music system.

Has anyone done any research/comparisons on the various types of AV systems on the market.
We've looked at a few (Opus, NuVo, Incognito, Russounds) and its quite overwhelming between zones, inputs, control mechanisms, etc., and of course all the various salesmen are talking up the merits of their systems.

The Cambridge incognito seems like a good reasonably priced package- anyone used it - any pro/cons?

Any thoughts on where to pick these systems up without going through the local sales guys - any good website that anyone has used?
tks
P

Sonos system is great - have it now for a few months and can't say a bad word - you can pick it up cheap enough from ebay in the states especially when the exchange rates are good!! you don't need a transformer as they are built-in already... would buy the speakers from US also! even if you do pay a customs charge when they are shipped over it still makes sense - I got russound ceiling speakers 8.5" and they are very nice indeed, jamo are good too!

mattclancy

Check out this crowd www.affordableintelligenthomes.com