Multi room speakers

[jase888]

Looking for some recommendations on the cheapest way of doing a multi room speaker setup (not sure if thats correct term. Basically want to put ceiling speakers in a few rooms then 2 speakers in the garden that all go to the same system and you can decide which speakers are playing. I would ideally like to have a tablet control it.

Im moving into the home tomorrow and plan to redecorate it all so wiring speakers to one location will be fine its just not sure what type of hub or dock i should be looking for to connect to a tablet. Im techy just not done a setup like this and there seems to be a lot of different ways to do this.


Whats peoples experiences? Thanks

 

[jase888]

after further digging ive found https/multiroomaudioplayer.com/

Am i right in thinking all i need to do is connect each ceiling speaker to the aux port on a sound card if its got 5.1 so you can have 5 speakers?

 

[americanaudiophile]

That's for surround sound (which you can;t use) and you still need amplifiers, That also only allows sources from the PC which has to be on all the time too.
How you set this up depends on whether you want to be able to play different things in each room or zone. Most people want at least volume control of each room.
If you want to make a project of it and cobble something together you can
parts-express.com will have some stuff for that but, if you want something that just works and everyone else can use then use either Sonos or Denon Heos as your house music system. You can use a Sonos ConnectAmp or Heos Amp to drive up to 4 speakers as a zone. They also have units with line level output that you can use with any power amps to drive the speakers. Both have well developed apps that run on lots of gear so control is excellent. Both do internet radio, streaming services and play music files
There are ways to do it but with less control. A single Sonos Connect of Heos Link can to the source to a stereo amplifier that is connected to impedance matching in wall volume controls for each room The speakers are connected to the volume control. You can't play different things in each zone. You can choose your source from the control app and adjust overall volume but have to use the in room volume control for zone volume. If you use a multi-channel amp instead of a stereo amp you can add more Sonos Connects or Heos Links latter to expand the control.
Price differences too so your budget makes a difference.
Sometimes you don't want to reinvent the wheel but enjoy the ride.