Multizone receiver (1 Viewer)

[Mark Sposato]

I am looking for a decent receiver which has multizone/multisource capability. I am trying to find one that can do 3 zones for under $800. Does such a device exist? I am looking for decent sound out of this device. I can find a bunch of receivers that will do 2 zones and then I can find the $2000 devices which do 6.

I am trying to have two zone whole home audio and my third zone be my thater room. Any thoughts? Budget is big for me which is why I am looking in the $800 range.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ClintS]

The Sony STR-DA5000ES will do three zones but its a little more than your budget at around $1100.

On a side note can you explain they two audio zones? Do you want independant volume control or do you want seperate sources playing?

 

[John S]

Yeah.. That is a nice AVR for sure....

http://www.tvcity.tv/productview.aspx?ID=543


Lots of places have it in his price range. In stock ready to ship.

 

[Mark Sposato]

I am looking at it now. Seems to be pretty good. Do I have the ability to control volume, source, anything from each room with the use of control panels?

 

[John S]

Well it has two DSP's?? I think one zone would be limited to analog source. Not real sure, it looks like it will even switch video for different zones.... Looks promsing for you though. I think you going to have ot give it a shot. maybe choose a place with liberal return policy in case it doesn't work out so well for you.

 

[Ted Lee]

the yamaha 5890 does two zones right out of the box - you can control source & volume for each zone. if you add an external amp, you can do three zones.

you can get them at best buy for about 800 bucks. if you're lucky, maybe you can score the 5790 (last year's model) for a cheaper price.

 

[Mark Sposato]

I am new to the world of audio. The yamaha 5890 seems to do everything I want except in specs does not say 3 zones. How are you getting a third zone using an external amp?

My scenario that I would like to work is:

zone 1: first floor - stereo sound
zone 2: second floor - stereo sound
zone 3: theater room - dolby digital 5.1 or > surround sound


I would like to be able to control minimum of volume from each zone. Would be nice to be able to also change source from each zone but that might be pushing it for my price range. Can I add an impediance volume control to this receiver? More than one per zone?

 

[Ted Lee]

check under the "advanced facilities" section. it says
trust me, i have the 5790 myself ... it does three zones as i stated (source/volume). however, the zone assignment would be more like:

zone1 = ht room
zone2 = where ever / stereo sound
zone3 = where ever / stereo (ext amp required)

 

[Mark Sposato]

I see what you mean about advanced. It does say it there. The Yamaha seems to be about $100 cheapre than the Sony. How do they compare in sound quality?

Would I be able to do this with these receivers? Again excuse my questions if they are obvious I am reading all this information and trying to get a grasp on this technology.

Zone 1 - HT Room
Zone 2 - Game Room, Master Bed Room, Outside (I would like to have separate impedance volume controls that I can turn off individual speaker areas)
Zone 3 - Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen (I would like to have separate impedance volume controls that I can turn off individual speaker areas)

Would I be able to have more than one set of speakers (more than one room) per zone?

 

[BillyHC]

aren't you asking a lot out of your receiver?
it seems like you want to put sound in 7 rooms

I have the 5790 and it sounds good enough for my needs.

 

[John S]

Well, no problem at all... For your multi-room zone, just buy distribution type amp(s, the AVR will hook to this line level. You will need to get speakers / electronics geared for this sort of distribution, but it is totally possible / do-able.

That dang 5 year warranty on the Sony probably would sway me that direction over the Yamaha, I'll bet I'd like the sound of the Yamaha a little better though. But both are really decent peices of equipment with respectable performance.

 

[Mark Sposato]

am I asking to much from the receiver? that is what i am trying to figure out.

 

[John S]

2 zones is becomming pretty darn common. Since the thrid zone needs an amp, I don't see that it is asking to much. Just asking to use features the manufacture has decided to add.

 

[Mark Sposato]

John

I appreciate all the help. Is having a couple of subzones within a zone to much to ask. So I wanted to run out of the receiver and split the wire to go to a couple of impedance sound controllers and then from there go to separate speakers.

Or would using something like the Phoenix Gold Speaker Selectors off of zone 2 on a 2 zone system work better. So zone 1 would go to home theater and then zone 2 would go to the phoenix gold unit which would go out for audio to rest of house. Is this a better solution for my needs?

 

[DaveHo]

I just picked up one of these:

Denon DRA-395, 4 Zone, 2 Source

Zones 1 & 4 are the A&B speaker outs and share the same source and common volume control. Zones 2 & 3 need outboard amps, share the same source, but have individual on/off & volume control from 1 & 2 & each other. The cool part is all of this is controllable via the remote. Since I only need one pair of speakers in each zone, I use a universal RF remote to control the whole thing. Way slick install with only the speakers to wire up. I got lucky and found one on E-Bay for $131 to my door and am using an Adcom 535 I already had for the external amp.

-Dave

 

[Mark Sposato]

Interesting. Thanks for the info dave.
There are a couple of those up on ebay still for around the same price as you got it for. I will wait and see as the auctions run out maybe I can pick one up cheap.

am I able to take one of the two outputs and then connect another speaker switch (such as phoenix gold speaker selector) off of that zone and in essence end up with a bunch of sub zones which need to be manually controlled. Will this work ?

 

[John S]

There are amps out there made for distribution.

Niles Audio makes some killer stuff I have used....

The 70v stuff isn't made to much anymore, which is how you used to do it. they all sounded like crap anyways.

The Niles audio just gives you channels w/individual volume control and can cascade amps from just one L/R connection.

You can even decide mono or stereo or any mix of the two for any room. Stereo takes two channels. The 12 channel smaller amp sounds really great though. I think that model number was SI-1230....

I only used it once, but it was real nice and wasn't that much money. I love what they lable as the Bus-Matrix" thingie, really versitile.

 

[Mark Sposato]

John

From what I have scene the Niles stuff is incredible like the 4630 but out of my league in price. I don't fully follow your last post. Is what I am trying to do called distribution?

 

[John S]

Yes.. Same source being fed to a myriad of rooms, ect..ect.. Like mainly for company in building paging systems, but many run music over them. They were 70v, and each speaker had a tap tranformer to pull it off, the transformer would have it's own volume control wired into it, sometimes some other minor electronics.


The SI-1230 can be had for around $700 and sounds really really awesome. Don't let the low per channel wattage full you on this one. It cranks any room. The owner paired it with Infinity In-Wall model 250 speakers. It rocked hard when you wanted it to, and delicate when you wanted that as well.

http://www.elegantaudiovideo.com/pro...roducts_id=349

Hmm well nix that link.. I pulled it up, and it says all Niles stuff has been discontinued?? WTF??

Man, It seems every time I find a product I really like for specialized applications when I go to duplicate it. I can no longer get the stuff. UUHHGG..

I dunno.. do some searches, I can't believe nobody would have that Niles amp somewhere.

 

[Mark Sposato]

So in my setup this would act as my switch and I would still get a receiver to be my source. But if I am spending roughly $700 for this switch and probably another $400 for a receiver am I better looking at some of the receivers that are in the $1100-$1200 range which do this kind of multizone?

Is it because I am trying to do multi speakers off of a single source that I will have trouble with the Denon or something like that? If I was to limit to one set of speakers off of each zone then would something like the Denon, Yamaha, or Sony be fine?