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Multi-zone (minimum 4) reciever, with web control - suggestions - ?


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Hi all,

        a few years ago I built a new place and my sparky (who is mate of mine) put in a multi-zone speaker system - and basically it has never worked.

 

I have the 4 zones wired back centrally - and im keen the bypass the sparkys "home-automation" system, and just wire the speakers directly to an amp.

 

I'm looking for a amp that will let me output different audio to at least 4 different zones simultaneously, accept input from at least 4 different sources and has a web interface for controlling which zone is playing which input etc.

 

While looking for this, there seem to be many marketing claims which muddy the waters - which is why I'm coming here for advice.

 

Some points which may help narrow it down (for those of you in the know)

- we are a household with many PC's.... so iPhone and android apps aren't important to us, but control via PC's (web interface or desktop app) is very important to us

- Any device that can use DLNA sources, internet radio sources etc. natively, without having to stream these via and attached PC, while not a requirement, would be awesome

 

There seem to plenty of devices that support 4 simultaneous outputs, but control via iPhone and android is common, but web controls seem to be rare. DLNA access comes across to me as a fairly simple thing, but I haven't found any that support this. I get that this is a market I don't understand, so if I'm asking for things no-one else wants  - fair enough.

 

Any suggestions/links appreciated.

 

Edited by verukins
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welcome to the forum, first thing to ask is budget? There is a myriad of options to stream audio to four zones but you eliminate a lot of options by wanting to stream different audio to all zones. Sonos is the obvious one that comes to mind, ticks a lot of the boxes you want to fill.

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Guest thathifiguy

The Heos Drive is a 4 zone amplifier, but I don't think Heos has a desktop application, though I could be wrong.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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thanks for the replies.

 

My impressions (and tell me if im wrong)

 

Sonos seems to be very geared towards using their kit for everything - I already have all the speakers setup and just want the amp. All their gear also seems to be all wireless.

 

Heos Drive looks like it meets many of the requirements, is rack mountable (big tick), HOES app for ios, android and kindle is mentioned - but no PC - which is why I stopped looking at it previously. It also streams from a bunch of sources - but no DLNA.

If the HEOS drive is as close as im going to get - fair enough.

As far as budget... im more focused on getting the right solution....the figures im seeing of $3.5k for the heos drive are fine....

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Guest thathifiguy

thanks for the replies.

My impressions (and tell me if im wrong)

Sonos seems to be very geared towards using their kit for everything - I already have all the speakers setup and just want the amp. All their gear also seems to be all wireless.

Heos Drive looks like it meets many of the requirements, is rack mountable (big tick), HOES app for ios, android and kindle is mentioned - but no PC - which is why I stopped looking at it previously. It also streams from a bunch of sources - but no DLNA.

If the HEOS drive is as close as im going to get - fair enough.

As far as budget... im more focused on getting the right solution....the figures im seeing of $3.5k for the heos drive are fine....

Heos supports Plex media server, I set one up for my dad's iMac when I got him a Heos amp do he could stream his iTunes library.

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ok, that's a good point.... interesting why they wouldn't list that on the product page... I might contact them and see what they have to say.


 


Thanks for that.


 


Edit - Contacted denon support via their web page - pretty much got told to go away.


Edited by verukins
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Guest thathifiguy

ok, that's a good point.... interesting why they wouldn't list that on the product page... I might contact them and see what they have to say.

Thanks for that.

Edit - Contacted denon support via their web page - pretty much got told to go away.

Haha! My understanding is that they have one guy taking all calls, emails etc for support for Heos.

Maybe he was having a bad day?

At any rate, it definitely supports Plex in the very least.

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You mention that you want to be able to accept inputs from 4 different sources but do you mean 4 physical inputs like tv, dvd player, etc or just 4 concurrent network streams?

Edited by BaileyAV
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yep, fair point, I didn't specify.

 

the sources I would like would be multiple internet radio stations, multiple DLNA or network sourced mp3 playlists, old-school am/fm radio (lower priority than the others) and anything I can output from a PC over old-school methods like RCA - just for flexibility

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the only music streamer that i work with that has web browser control is Casatunes.

 

http://www.casatunes.com/ct4plus.html

 

The ct-4 has 5 outputs (4 analog 1 digital) and one analog input

 

A huge range of internet services, 1 tb of internal storage to store local music, plays lossless audio, can also stream to 5 airplay zones at the same time for a total of 10 zones. if you use itunes it can automatically transfer them to the server.

 

Only problem is you need to supply amplifiers and the RRP of this unit is 3 grand (you could get your dealer to take a few hundred off i reckon)

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I looked into a simple way to do this and used an apple airport express with airplay, plugged into a Sherwood RX5502. This could then stream everything from iTunes.

I also use the harmony ultimate which allows control of zones via app on phone, tablet or computer. I know it's not a one stop solution but worked well for me and might trigger some thoughts for you.

Cheers.

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thanks for all the suggestions guys.... I hadn't even considered something like chromecast - and for $59A.... unlike the other solutions - I can cheaply find out by using it if its going to fit my needs.... so going to pop down to JB tomorrow and grab one.

 

Casatunes - yep, that looks like more what I was originally thinking of (but going to look at chromecast first now) - even has control4 integration.... separate room scheduling... these guys are clearly thinking along the same lines I am - so thanks very much for that... is very much worth a look.

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Hey guys, so I got a chromecast audio, installed plex on my NAS.

 

Can stream fine via chrome for youtube etc to the chromecast

 

Can play music from the plex web app fine - but when I hit the cast button the select the device, the audio track stops (within plex) and no audio is presented.

 

Still, once I work that out, it looks like a reasonable solution.

 

I find the idea of casting from the browser a bit odd... as it means I need to use chromecast supporting apps (as audiocast didn't seem to work for me) - it also doesn't fit the multiple-input scenario well, as while I have a machine with 4 sound cards (my initial setup for the 4 RCA ins the electrician provided me with) - you seem to be able to only cast from the primary sound card - not select a sound card (which was handy when running multiple instances of VLC, with the 4 sound cards)... ill try the VLC method - but get the impression, because of the way that chromecast is made - that it probably wont work... still ill give it a shot.

 

Thanks for putting me onto it - while it doesn't really meet all of my wants - its hard to pass at the pricepoint its at!

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys,

                 so I've gone a little further with this now - and im after some more advice - as im not sure if im doing something wrong/missing something, or its just the ay things are.

 

So I have 4 speaker pairs around the house - so need to get an amp to power them, that's makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is how I make the solution truly "multi-room".

 

If I connect up 4 chrome casts to 4 inputs (and connect the 4 speaker pairs) - from what I can see, the amps are only going to allow me to select one input to one on speaker pair at a time.
 

In addition, I can cast from my plex, but cant cast multiple instances - so in order to cast 4 different playlists, I would need to have 4 virtual machines (or 3 + the NAS running Plex) - which seems quite limiting.

 

Am I doing something wrong? or am I just looking at the wrong amps? or am I missing something about the chromcast casting method ?

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