House pre-wired with coax - can I make multi-room work?

CharlesParnell

So I've moved into a house built around 2014, the previous owner never made use of the in-ceiling speakers (6 rooms). The builder wired all the speakers back to the utility with coax & f-connectors. Aside from the hassle of using coax as speaker cable, what would it take to get some kind of multi-room audio going?

I used to have a sonos system which was incredibly easy to set-up and choose zones etc., but I assume I'll need some kind of amplifier plus control system?

Would a Yamaha MusicCast system work? What would I need to connect the coax cabling to?

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058279163/house-pre-wired-with-coax-can-i-make-multi-room-work

Hi CharlesParnell.

Thanks for the post.

Would it be possible to take a few photos of the cable for me please?

Usually if speakers are wired with something other than speaker cable it can be a nightmare or else the speakers are wired for a 100 Volt line. Are two coax cables ran to each speaker?

Are there currently any speakers installed, if so could you drop me over the brand so I can check them out.

Sonos would be the easiest option due to how easy it is to use and the controller can be downloaded onto multiple devices.

A Sonos amp can run 4 speakers but you would need 6 amps in total if you wanted control over each room individually. They are priced at 765 Euro Each.

https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-203836-sonos-amp-black-inc-6-year-guarantee-network-amplifier.aspx

There is currently the Musiccast version the WXA5 but it is only designed to run the one pair of speakers priced at 449 Euro

https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-202359-yamaha-music-cast-wxa50-network-stereo-amplifier.aspx?swapstore=1

Again you would require one of these for each room.

CharlesParnell

Thanks yes either could be good but they are quite pricey!

The ceiling speakers are Adastra CS6. I misidentified the cables originally, they’ve been wired with what looks like

power cable of sorts? These are labelled per room

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

Hi CharlesParnell.

Not ideal but still useable.

It seems the have used electrical wire instead of speaker cable.

All you need to do is use the same colour of cable of positive and negative. So if you use Yellow for positive at the amp then it needs to be yellow at the positive of the speaker. Or the same with either the blue or brown cables.

How many speakers are located in each room? Each room would need 2 speakers which would be four wires to each room for left and right speaker.

You can use a stereo single speaker but it would still require the four cables ran to it. (In your case it would be two of the white cables to each room with the two ends on each making the four cables. Each speaker requires two cables, positive and negative).

If it is only one cable to each room you are in trouble unfortunately.

Let me know your thoughts.