Hi, recent lifetime subscriber, there doesn’t seem to be many current threads about multi-room audio, so I thought I’d ask. I currently have a custom HD Plex based i7 based PC running ROCK and a NAD C658 which handles music and movies to the lounge.
Hopefully I’m moving soon and would love to install music in each room, it’s a small victorian English house so not massive and the extra rooms would mainly be background, and not critical listening.
My current thinking is:
Kitchen: ROCK Roon server - NAD C658 - main speakers
Lounge: Bluesound N130 & Apple TV - small bookshelves for mainly tv.
Dining room. ?
Bathroom. ?
Bedroom. ?
What I can’t quite work out is how best to install sound through the rest of the house, I enjoy building speakers and have tons of parts including some in ceiling speakers that could be used, but how best to power them? I should add at a low end budget, as mainly it will be background music/talk radio/podcasts.
Easy option: Throw in some Bluesound Pulse/Flex, should all play well with the other NAD/Bluesound gear, or Apple HomePods, but the costs adds up quick when multiple are needed.
Cheap option; Add some Chromecasts or Wiim Mini and a multi channel amp and run passive speakers around.
(Budget) Audiophile option. Add some NAD CS1 and some Hypex Class D amps and run passive speakers around.
Pro option: Some integrated home audio solution, Control4 or similar…
I use the Elac Discovery Z3 roon ready speaker systems in each room with Ethernet. Works like a charm for whole house music or something different in each loaction. I have 4 of them, office, kitchen, master bedroom and another bedroom. It’s a single box solution with multiple amps and speakers built in. Worth a look no mater what you decide to use.
I would set up following my habits. If I move to a new house and spend all money and never do upgrades is one way. The other is that if I am an upgrade type of person I’ll have something to cover me up in the start. But with this second way I would be careful to be a system easy upgradable. So as a start maybe Pis with passive speakers. Maybe Hypex now or later, better dacs and so on…
That will get you four zones, but no amplification.
I drive four zones using a distributed audio approach. These are ceiling speakers in our main bath, dining room, and an outdoor covered patio as well as outdoor wall-mounted speakers in another location. Similar to you, these aren’t critical listening zones.
I started with Sonos but was unhappy with the Roon integration.
My current approach is 4 x BluSound Nodes and an NAD C-120 DSP. You could go with that amp and then add the 4-zone streamer you referenced.
Other approaches worth considering, if you’re interested in BluOS are:
4 x NAD CI 720V2. This is an interesting product that combines streamer and amp. It’s Roon Ready. You can buy a housing for 4 of them, which is nice, but you still need a power cable running to each. There’s just not much discussion or info on this product - in fact I don’t know if anyone on this forum is using it. I’ve asked in the past. Still…might be worth it.
4 x BlueSound POWERNODE (or POWERNODE EDGE).
Distribution amp (or 4 small amps) of your choice and 4 x Raspberry Pis running RoPieee with DAC HATs. or ChromeCasts or Wiim somethings.
If I knew then what I know now, I might have tried that last approach. Four Pis feeding a distribution amp. Raspberry Pi availability may be the blocker, though.
@gTunes, Nice, can I ask what ceiling speakers you are using?
Do you use the DSP in the NAD unit, I figure I could build and package up a decent nCore Hypex amp (I have an OEM account for other company) I have a few amp cases and modules kicking around. But I think I can do enough DSP in Roon Server if I need to tweak eq etc.
I just installed a Zen Dac V2 at work for music its directly connected to a little Roon ROCK unless NUC. For the money the tech looks great, I’m not sure if its Roon Ready yet, but works fine, and volume can be controlled in Roon DSP, it was the cheapest dac I could find with a volume control and balanced outputs. I have a little Hypex NC252 for powering some speakers, the Zen is powered off the NUC too, maybe not the best sonically and can have a separate PSU, but nice to know you wouldn’t need tons of power cables if running 4…I might simplify the work set up, for £160 a unit for the V2, could I run a few V2 Dacs of a single NUC for a shoe box sized multi way Roon distribution?
The 720V2’s would be worth exploring, but I think the same can be accomplished with 1/3rd the money. If I was building a house and had a dedicated AV cupboard maybe it was worth the splurge.
I started from that and still use that. First I was powering from the usb. I upgraded to a iFi xPower, do not know about the SQ difference but for sure via USB it was getting warm and via PSU is cold. After that I upgraded to Zen Dac Signature V2 and it is not much to add from the $$ pov but no more headphones out.
I use a combination of B&W CCM683 and CCM7.5 S2. Outdoor wall mounted speakers are B&W AM-1.
I don’t. I haven’t played with it at all.
It’s worth noting that the amp can sleep and then trigger awake based on audio on the RCAs. In that mode, it takes maybe 30 seconds for the amp to power up.
I find ceiling speakers great for ambient listening but not for any sort of critical listening. I’m glad to hear that this is how you’re approaching it. Music just doesn’t sound the same when coming from above, though the B&W speakers I have do a pretty respectable job.
Exactly. If you find yourself creeping up into the 4k range, though, it’s worth considering.
Nice, I have a few old Cambridge Audio ceiling speakers I should test to see if they still work.
I just realised I can avoid expensive networked endpoints by utilising the core, with multiple dacs (WiimPro/Zen Dac/Schiit etc).
In a dream world I wouldn’t rely on wifi, I would rather run long ethernet cables and short speaker cables but the runs won’t be very long.
At the moment my NAD pre-streamer utilises the ethernet port from the core. I could easily just add a few DACS and a multiway amp or a few Hypex modules directly connected to the dac & core.
I’m not entirely following what you’re thinking but it sounds like you have a plan
I wasn’t involved in building the house. My ceiling runs are long runs of inexpensive, contractor-grade cable. I probably would have done something more expensive. It probably would have made no difference whatsoever. I did replace the speakers, though. That’s a big difference.
Do be careful with WiFi, though. Roon endpoints don’t always work great when they’re WiFi based. RAAT can be a little finicky. Opinions on this may differ but for something like ceiling speakers, longer speaker cable runs are, in my opinion, preferable to using WiFi and then shorter speaker runs.
For dedicated listening setups, get an ethernet cable to the destination if you can.
It’s really wonderful having music around the house. Congratulations on your new home - I hope this all works out wonderfully!
Hi. I managed to pick up a Nuforce (nuprime) 8 channel power amp. I want to run a couple of roon channels. What would be the most cost effective way of doing this?
From the 8 channel, 4 stereo zones I would have 1 output shared with an rca splitter so only require 3 ‘zones’ but I would require volume control…
I see a couple of easy ways; any better (and ideally cheaper options)
Get three Wiim Roon Ready streamers
Run a nuc (I have) with bridge and connect 3 dacs.
Here is the setup (and possibly the cheapest multizone Roon kit?)
Roon core on i7 server in hifi rack. Hegel for main speakers.
In the bathroom airing cupboard I’m installing;
i3 NUC/ROCK fanless (£350)
NuForce 8 channel amp (£330)
1x iFi Zen Dac v2 (I had already)
1x USB C- phono dac (£6.99 Amazon)
2x USB A - phono dac (£7.99 on Amazon)
I’ve got some little full range drivers for the office and dining room and a heavily discounted ceiling speaker for the bathroom and some refurbed Cambridge Audio outside speakers for the garden. QED install cable to link them all to the amp discretely.
Lounge has an Apple TV and a custom sound bar which means the bedroom is the only room without a zone, hopefully the other 6 zones will play nice on RAAT
