Looking for help on adding the right amp to my existing reciever (1 Viewer)

[SalS]

Hello guys first post here. Could use some assistance with adding some additional speakers to my basement. I know enough to hook up a surround sound system but have no idea what is needed in terms of hooking up an amp and a good one to buy.

Right now I have an Onkyo TX-NR801 for my receiver. I have 2 Sony ss-k70ed speakers for the front. (I think 150 watts per speaker?), with the center channel that came with the set. The surround speakers are some decent sonys as well. My sub is a Sony SA-WX700, 250 watt with powered amp inside. I think I have decent enough equipment to have my moderate sized basement sound good.

What I want to do is add 4 more in ceiling Bose 191 speakers (2 pairs) for over my pool table and by my bar area. I would like to have it setup so that if we were listening to music or watching a football game, that if someone was in the bar or pool table area they could just hit the wall control and turn up the volume to listen to the sound.

Could someone tell me what I would need to do this? I went to tweeter and they want to charge me $2000 to install all this, I find it hard to believe that I can't buy the 2 $36 wall controls from radio shack, pick up a solid 2 or 4 channel (don't know what I need) amp online, and some speaker wire and do it for less than half of what they are asking.

Thanks in advance for any help and replies to my problem.

 

[Nick:G]

You can approach this in one of two ways:

1. Buy a stereo receiver or integrated amp and run a dedicated system that's controlled separately from the home theater. You can get a Denon DRA-395 and two impedance-matching volume controls and add a CD player for under $1,000.

2. Run a 2-channel power amp fed from the 2nd zone output on the receiver. With this method, you can share the sources hooked up to the home theater with the other speakers. Again, use impedance-matching volume controls daisy-chained to each other and you'll be in business. You're looking at a little less money with this method because you'll be sharing the sources.

As far as the Tweeter quote is concerned, consider this. The industry standard these days is about $75 per man hour. Assuming that say a $1,000 of the quote is the labor and you have a two-man team doing the install (pretty typical), you have almost 7 hours of work. They have to retrofit the wires to be hidden through the wall and depending on ceilings, fire breaks, available attic space, etc., these jobs can be very tricky without the right tools and expertise. If you have very open attic access between the theater room and your bar area, it could be feasible to do it youself. You also need to consider that you'll have to fish down a 4-conductor wire drop going into the first volume control and then another 4-conductor jump to daisy-chain to the second volume control. From each volume control, you run a pair of 2-conductor cables for the speakers.

And yes, I work in this business. If you're capable of doing it yourself, that's a lot of extra cash in your pocket. If not, labor isn't cheap. And it never has been.