Multi room - new home with in ceiling speakers recommendations?

[srssrs]

Purchased new home pre-wired with 6-1/2”in ceiling speakers. Four in living room meant for surround sound (all mono 2 way).
Also, 3 outside in patio area. All 7 pre-wired into AV closet in bedroom. Also have pre-wired communication cable behind TV going to same AV closet in bedroom.

Want to set up surround sound for TV using all 4 in-ceiling speakers so thinking I need an AV hdmi extender to communicate with Wiim amp in AV closet?

Want to play music in both living room and patio area as well.

Hoping someone here can make some recommendations for my setup? Would like to use the Wiim app and products if possible but am open to suggestions.

Mainly using an iPhone, Spotify and would like to be able to manage everything wirelessly if possible. Thank you……new member today…..Steve

 

[srssrs]

Thank you dtc.

Yes, 3 speakers on patio for streaming music only. Probably use each as mono.

Would like to consider using the four speakers in living room for both surround sound for TV and at least 2 of them for stereo music streaming. I have determined they are wired in pairs, front left and right, and rear left and right.

There is a cat 6 cable installed behind the TV that terminates in the media closet and is clearly labeled. There distance from the TV in living area to the media closet is between 25-30’.

I hope this clarifies my setup enough to help make recommendations for equipment needed. Thank you.

 

[rccarguy]

Thank you dtc.

Yes, 3 speakers on patio for streaming music only. Probably use each as mono.

Would like to consider using the four speakers in living room for both surround sound for TV and at least 2 of them for stereo music streaming. I have determined they are wired in pairs, front left and right, and rear left and right.

There is a cat 6 cable installed behind the TV that terminates in the media closet and is clearly labeled. There distance from the TV in living area to the media closet is between 25-30’.

I hope this clarifies my setup enough to help make recommendations for equipment needed. Thank you.

You need a AVR.

Surround sound calls for a AVR, not a stereo product, and you have more than two speakers.

 

[dtc]

Thank you dtc.

Yes, 3 speakers on patio for streaming music only. Probably use each as mono.

Would like to consider using the four speakers in living room for both surround sound for TV and at least 2 of them for stereo music streaming. I have determined they are wired in pairs, front left and right, and rear left and right.

There is a cat 6 cable installed behind the TV that terminates in the media closet and is clearly labeled. There distance from the TV in living area to the media closet is between 25-30’.

I hope this clarifies my setup enough to help make recommendations for equipment needed. Thank you.

The cat 6 wire is most likely meant for a HDMI extender. As before it might want to be an eARC one, although not necessary if you use a cable box or something like a Roku for streaming.

A couple of more questions.

Are their speaker wires between the L, R, Center and the closet? There would need to be to put an AV receiver in the closet. Or do you want to use a sound bar connected to your TV? You may have sync problems with a sound bar connected to your TV and the surround speakers separately connected to a receiver.

Are you going to have a Blu-ray player? How about a cable box? If cable, is it an IR or RF remote? If streaming only, a Roku in the closet is a possibility. Or maybe a Firestick or Roku connected directly to the TV and sent to the receiver via eArc.

Is there possibly another wire from the TV area to the closet that could carry and IR remote signal? Otherwise remote control is going to need to be addressed. The distance is probably too far for a reliable RF signal. You may need an WiFI IR extender to connect an IR remote (like a tthe AR receiver and a Blu-Ray player).

It sounds like you likely need a HDMI extender, an AV receiver with zone 2 out, probably some sort of external amp to drive the patio speakers, possibly a WiFI IR extender, plus whatever inputs you want to use.

Wiim would probably only come into this to provide music streaming services and possible to play music from a PC. You could do that with a Pro or Pro Plus connected to the receiver. I do not see how else Wiim works with this setup.

The AV receiver could play music through all, or at least 5, of the speakers in the TV room and mono/stereo to the patio.

This is a pretty classic setup. Others may have different ideas.

EDIT : a BluRay player could go either in the closet and connect directly to the receiver or connect to the TV and use eARC to send the sound to the receiver. Same with a cable box, Roku/Firestick.

 

[srssrs]

Yes the cat 6 wire could be used as an HDMI extender.

We use an ONN streaming device connected to Wi-Fi for streaming TV content. No cable, satellite, etc. Will not use a blu ray player, etc.

Could you recommend an AV receiver with 2 zone out? Would you recommend an inexpensive Fosi amp for the patio? Trying to do this on a budget.

 

[srssrs]

Would like to control the AV receiver from my phone via Wi-Fi if possible. Otherwise maybe Bluetooth?

 

[dtc]

Would like to control the AV receiver from my phone via Wi-Fi if possible. Otherwise maybe Bluetooth?

I am partial to Yamaha but their are certainly other brands. I would stay away from Sony. Most companies have a phone app these days but I have not used most of them. That will remove the need for an IR repeater. I believe for Yamaha the RX-V6A is the least expensive 7.1 receiver with zone 2 output.

If you want to use the ONN voice control the device probably needs to be plugged into the TV and eArc used for connection to the receiver. I have no experience with that.

How about a sub? Is their wiring for that back to the closet? If not, you can connect the L/R speakers through most subs, although you have to be careful about sync issues with that.

For the patio, you have to be careful about impedance. You might want to look at an impedance matching speaker switch so you can use just1 amp and that also allows you to adjust each speaker's volume if needed. Niles, Russound, Monoprice make them. Otherwise, you can wire them in series and use 1 amp, as long as that gives you enough volume. If the amp supports 4 ohm speakers you could also hook 1 speaker to L and 2 speakers to R output, although that might cause volume issues.

Wiim Pro would be a good option for streaming music, connected directly to the receiver and controlled by the Wiim app.

Assuming you have L/R/C/sub wires from your closet.