Solved! Retrofitting In-Ceiling Multi-Room System

[truejonas13]

I moved into a house that was prewired with in-ceiling speakers. It had a Speakercraft SoundSource wall receiver installed as well, which we ended up pulling out and drywalling over the mount, as the rest of the system (power supply and a receiver) were missing. We do still have the receiver, but the thought was to purchase a receiver/amplifier/whatever the proper device is with something a little more up to date that would play nice with Alexa/Google.

We have five speakers (garage, master, kitchen, living room, bonus room), all of which have a corresponding volume knob in the wall. The speaker cables currently end in what appears to be a keypad connector - not sure what the official name is, but that's easy enough to find similar images for. Most likely we'll have to pull those connectors off anyways.

I'm figuring a two-zone setup would be best, as we'd only use the living room and kitchen speakers for the most part.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to pair with these speakers?

 

[americanaudiophile]

The keypads will be part of the Speakercraft system and won't work with anything else. I don't think you will need them though.
I would suggest you get 2 Sonos amps or 2 Denon HeosAmps. One for each zone.
You need to find out if the in wall volume controls are impedance matching. There will be switches on the vc panel itself. If the controls aren't impedance matching then you would also need an impedance matching speaker selector for the three speaker zone.
Either Sonos or Denon Heos will give you excellent app control and should be compatible with Alexa and Google. Check to be sure. You would add the appropriate device for voice control in each room.
I find using a phone app to be better in many cases.

 

[americanaudiophile]

The keypads will be part of the Speakercraft system and won't work with anything else. I don't think you will need them though.
I would suggest you get 2 Sonos amps or 2 Denon HeosAmps. One for each zone.
You need to find out if the in wall volume controls are impedance matching. There will be switches on the vc panel itself. If the controls aren't impedance matching then you would also need an impedance matching speaker selector for the three speaker zone.
Either Sonos or Denon Heos will give you excellent app control and should be compatible with Alexa and Google. Check to be sure. You would add the appropriate device for voice control in each room.
I find using a phone app to be better in many cases.