Multi room without the bolx
Discussion
Just a heads up. I recently added some sounds in another room (bedroom) which has the same uber quality as the gear in my lounge for a mere extra £50! Err, plus cables and speakers, which cost a few quid 
Anyway all you need is a QED ss21. It's basically a high grade switch. That's it. Simply place it after your amp and it diverts the signal to either the speakers in your lounge, or into another room (or all at once if your wandering about). They do other models so you can add loads of extra rooms, if you want. Note they do cheaper versions but those with a "1" at the end signify audiophile grade internals.
Anyway, listening through some very revealing Dynaudios (in both rooms) and studio quality DAC, amps & front end you cannot tell the switch is in line at all. I suspect the principle may upset some beardies with no friends, but in reality it's impossible to tell it's there. Plus you have the bonus that there is no kit at all in the other rooms, or the silly expense sometime associated with multi room.
So there you have it. You simply don't need to waste £10k for some solder monkey to install servers, remote control curtains and tacky coloured lights to have some integrated 'multi room' instal. Just a switch and fifty quid
Enjoy
Anyway all you need is a QED ss21. It's basically a high grade switch. That's it. Simply place it after your amp and it diverts the signal to either the speakers in your lounge, or into another room (or all at once if your wandering about). They do other models so you can add loads of extra rooms, if you want. Note they do cheaper versions but those with a "1" at the end signify audiophile grade internals.
Anyway, listening through some very revealing Dynaudios (in both rooms) and studio quality DAC, amps & front end you cannot tell the switch is in line at all. I suspect the principle may upset some beardies with no friends, but in reality it's impossible to tell it's there. Plus you have the bonus that there is no kit at all in the other rooms, or the silly expense sometime associated with multi room.
So there you have it. You simply don't need to waste £10k for some solder monkey to install servers, remote control curtains and tacky coloured lights to have some integrated 'multi room' instal. Just a switch and fifty quid
Enjoy
Edited by zagato on Friday 22 May 14:59
Agree with Plotloss, it's not multi room, just two pairs of speakers in deifferent rooms! And can you change what is playing in the second room (without leaving that room?).
BTW the QED switch effectively halves the impedance that your amplifier is seeing when both sets of speakers are run at the same time, putting a much bigger load on the amplifer. And since many Dynaudio speakers are rated at 4ohms nominal, each one will appear as 2 ohms to the amplifier. Unless your amplifier is a very good current driving design, it will really struggle in this environment. See the Understanding Ohms thread.
(Oh and of course if the switch goes wrong and effectively shorts its bye bye amplifier and possible speakers too!)
This things have their place but require careful consideration before global recommendation!
davidy
BTW the QED switch effectively halves the impedance that your amplifier is seeing when both sets of speakers are run at the same time, putting a much bigger load on the amplifer. And since many Dynaudio speakers are rated at 4ohms nominal, each one will appear as 2 ohms to the amplifier. Unless your amplifier is a very good current driving design, it will really struggle in this environment. See the Understanding Ohms thread.
(Oh and of course if the switch goes wrong and effectively shorts its bye bye amplifier and possible speakers too!)
This things have their place but require careful consideration before global recommendation!
davidy
It's been running rather well for a few weeks now. Also I can control the equipment from anywhere in the house with remote repeaters too. Available from an extravagant £15. That covers full control of what's on the plasma screens or the tunes I'm listening too. I suspect it's not quite expensive and wasteful enough for some though. But I've kind of been there and done that all before.
zagato said:
It's been running rather well for a few weeks now. Also I can control the equipment from anywhere in the house with remote repeaters too. Available from an extravagant £15. That covers full control of what's on the plasma screens or the tunes I'm listening too. I suspect it's not quite expensive and wasteful enough for some though. But I've kind of been there and done that all before.
this all sounds a bit antagonistic/bitter, did you get your fingers burnt once or something?What you achieved isn't multi-room. It's multiple single room, surely?
Multi-room means different music in each room. Not switching the destination of your amp's output to different rooms or playing the same music in multiple rooms. And if you're doing the latter, good luck with your amp.
In car terms, this is like ramping up the boost on a turbo-charged car with a SuperChip and claiming that your car is now as good as a Porsche for a fraction of the price. Errrr, no, it isn't.
Multi-room means different music in each room. Not switching the destination of your amp's output to different rooms or playing the same music in multiple rooms. And if you're doing the latter, good luck with your amp.
In car terms, this is like ramping up the boost on a turbo-charged car with a SuperChip and claiming that your car is now as good as a Porsche for a fraction of the price. Errrr, no, it isn't.
No, in car terms it's like having two Porsche turbo's and only paying for one 
But I take your point. I guess there are some that want to watch two different films in two different rooms simultaneously.
ps
I did try listening for a difference between all at once and one at a time. But I couldn't tell any. Mind you, these days it's at more normal levels so it's still cruising I guess.
But I take your point. I guess there are some that want to watch two different films in two different rooms simultaneously.
ps
I did try listening for a difference between all at once and one at a time. But I couldn't tell any. Mind you, these days it's at more normal levels so it's still cruising I guess.
Edited by zagato on Friday 22 May 16:38
zagato said:
No, in car terms it's like having two Porsche turbo's and only paying for one
But I take your point. I guess there are some that want to watch two different films in two different rooms simultaneously.
Or two different songs in two different rooms at two different volume levels.But I take your point. I guess there are some that want to watch two different films in two different rooms simultaneously.
In short, this, isnt multiroom.
zagato said:
I guess there are some that want to watch two different films in two different rooms simultaneously.
Well, yes. Those people who don't live on their own for a start. It's not beyond the realms of plausibility that in a multi-occupancy house the term "multi-room" might mean "different feeds to different rooms".
I'm not knocking your solution of feeding the same audio to multiple rooms and it obviously works for you which is great. I'm just saying it's not multi-room, that's all. It's multiple room. Which, despite the similar names, is a very different thing.
Way to go well done with your DIY multiroom (even though it has been pointed out several times your terminology ist quite right)
If your happy with it thats all that counts. I too have a similar 'multiroom' by feeding the line level audio output from my sky box into the aux input on a stereo in the kitchen, that cost me the grand total of about 30 mins as i had all of the stuff to do it with lying around in the back of my van
well done with your DIY multiroom (even though it has been pointed out several times your terminology ist quite right)If your happy with it thats all that counts. I too have a similar 'multiroom' by feeding the line level audio output from my sky box into the aux input on a stereo in the kitchen, that cost me the grand total of about 30 mins as i had all of the stuff to do it with lying around in the back of my van
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