Audiophiles- Seperate controll of 5 sets of ceilings speakers

[chemocean]

We just bought a house with ceilings speakers (3 sets of two speakers in three different areas, 2 sets of single speakers in two different area). So, the sound would be stereo and not sound surround. The five sets of wires come out of a wall in the closet with 4 electrical plugs nearby. There is no electronic device in the closet.

I have not bought audio equipment since the 1980s.
So, I need to buy A) an amplifier/receiver and B) figure out how to get audio signals to the receiver/amplifier

A) I was looking at amplifiers/receivers and it looks like most receivers cannot independently control 5 sets of speakers. It would seem that there is a device to connect the speakers wires for each set into five separate contacts as output and then connect the device to the L/R output of one speaker on the receiver for the input. I probably only to control on/off function of each speaker, but volume control of each set of speaker might be nice.

What is that device to control the five set of speakers called and where can I buy it?

B) I have a lot of music as MP3 files converted by Audacity from cassettes and vinyl , but the quality of sound is not that great. I could connect the MP3 player into the mini-mic input of the receiver and control the music selection from the mp3 player.

Do some receivers have WIFI capability built in and that would have an input ability to enter the WiFi password. The W-Fi router is about 10 ft from the closet through a wall in the adjoining room from the closet. I then could control the music selection from my computer by using a media program accessing my music selection as MP3 files on my computer or I could stream music from the internet with the speakers set to a receiver device with the driver of that device loaded onto my computer. I also saved the .aup files from the Audacity output onto disks DVR-R before converting to MP3.

If the receiver does not have WiFi capability, I would also buy a device that would connect into the USB port of the receiver to receive wi-fi signals from my computer. I image that there is a USB device that would connect directly to my computer through the WiFI router. There would need to be a way to enter the WifI password from the receiver (similar to the limited screen input for a printer).

Are such USB devices for receivers available, what are they called, where do you bought them, and how do you enter the wifi password.

[elcadarj]

5 of these: Acrylic A30+, or 1 of these: Dayton DAX88 should work.

I don't have experience with either, but I have been considering using the former for multiroom sound in my home.

ETA: I currently use Apple Airport Expresses for multi-room streaming: How to Make a Multi-Room Audio System

[telemark]

I recently converted my apartment to use Wiim multiroom streaming devices. They have a number of choices at different price points, either with an amplifier or without, if you prefer using your own amp or have powered speakers. You can group rooms together or play different music in each. They all use wifi and most also have ethernet ports. You can connect to optical or RCA inputs, use Airplay, run your own server, or use streaming services.

https://www.wiimhome.com/

[PottedPlant]

We use this https://nilesaudio.com/products/all/spe ... ectors/all
The 6-speaker one works great for us.
Recommended.

[Northern Flicker]

Do you want the sound from one system replicated in all of the rooms? In that case, do a search in multi-zone amps and you will find many options.

[wunder]

So to confirm you have a total of EIGHT physical speakers spread between five rooms?

One possibly less expensive option would be a 7.1 home theater receiver that has an adequate number of wire connections. You can likely find one for <$500 any many newer ones have Wifi, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, etc. built in. The key with this kind of configuration is to look for a receiver with at least an A/B main and then a multichannel stereo (7 channel stereo) type configuration. You can then use the A or B main to toggle that specific room on/off and enable the 7 channel stereo (rather than 2 channel stereo) when you want to activate the other rooms.

This is what I run in my personal home with EIGHT physical speakers (three separate indoor pairs plus one outdoor pair). I actually use an older receiver Yamaha V663 with a good amplifier but no smarts and then provide source data with a WiiM Pro streaming device.

Downside of this setup is that it could be a little more complicated and you don't have on the fly volume control between rooms (but can individually balance each speaker within the receiver menus). You can also wire a pair of individual speakers into a single amplifier line (I have one pair wired together in the center channel port).

[Kenkat]

On item B, there are receivers that have internet capability and streaming functions. I don’t know the specifics of Audacity support however or how that is hosted.

The other option is Bluetooth. I have a couple of older iPod Touch devices that I use that are able to connect via Bluetooth to my receiver and I can use the iPod from my chair to select tracks, adjust volume, pause, etc. There’s a theoretical or real loss of fidelity depending on who you ask, but it works well enough overall for me.

If your receiver does not have that capability, you can search something like “bluetooth adapter for stereo” to see options.

[retiringwhen]

amazingly, I just help solve the the same thing with a family member.

He bought the WIIM Pro Plus for streaming and in his case he had an 8 speaker pair (16 channel) configuration all using Russound speakers and wall controls. He decided to buy the modern amp for this configuration and a WIIM stream device: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_399WIIMPP ... -Plus.html
He talked to Crutchfield and came up with this solution: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_543D1675/ ... tml?tp=180

Below would be the amp for 5 speaker pairs assuming you have 8ohm speakers not configured in series or parallel: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_543D1290/ ... tml?tp=180

This supports 6 pairs independently driving each channel and allows leveling of amplification as needed. Do you have local volume controls in the wall s for each pair?

[retiringwhen]

Further reading your post, do you know the impedance of the speakers? normally you will find it very hard to find an amplifier that can drive all 10 channels from one set of outputs on the amp (you'll burn out the amp due to impedance mismatch). It may be possible to use a distribution block to run 2 channels into one output, but unlikely to drive more than 2 channels per output.

That is why you will probably end up buying an amp that supports as many channels as you have speakers.

[123]

I would inspect one or more of the ceiling speakers to get an idea of how old or current they may be before I acquired any more equipment. Do they have paper or plastic cones? If you can find a manufacturer and/or model number on them you may be able to look up their manufacturing period and electrical characteristics (watts/ohms). Do the speaker grill sets all appear to match or were they likely installed at different times?

Sometimes the manner of installation and nature of the wiring to the speakers (lamp cord versus alternatives) can give you clues about whether you have a system that was professionally installed or a DIY effort. That said some DIY installations can be superior.

[beernutz]

Ask the previous owners what they were using?

[adamthesmythe]

I have speakers in three rooms and two of the rooms have L-pads* that allow independent adjustment of the volume in each room.

I THINK two sets of speakers are in parallel and connected to one amplifier output and one to the other. (I don't feel like pulling it out to look. Old-fashioned amplifiers often have A and B speaker outputs).

It is desirable to know the speaker impedance. Many amplifiers are OK with speakers as low as 2 ohms so 2 8-ohm speakers in parallel is no problem at all.

I know a totally passive arrangement doesn't have the coolness of multiple streaming connections. Essentially foolproof however and cheaper.

* Do a search on Google, read about it on Wikipedia.