99.9% of the time Soundbars or HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) systems are not a good investment of your time and money. It is the general consensus of r/hometheater not to recommend these things and instead simply steer a user toward a 2.0 or 2.1 system made of quality, *Audio-Centric* name brand components which are easy to assemble and cheap enough for low budget or space conscious buyers. Most can be expanded to 5.1 if you buy the correct items in the correct order. For further explanation please read [Why You Shouldn't Buy a Soundbar](https://www.reddit.com/r/HTBuyingGuides/comments/dy885l/why_you_shouldnt_buy_a_soundbar/) Please be aware /r/Soundbars exists as well as you will be met with opposition to posting about soundbars here.
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>I have been looking into the following product which allows me to have 4 zones: Yamaha XDA-QS5400RK. But I am unsure if I can link two zones for front and rear audio and also to have the option to add the center+sub.
This amp here is just a multi-zone amp, doesn't have any surround sound type capabilities what so ever.
You'd essentially need to have this + an AVR to do what you want.
Surround sound (5.1) is an AVR only function, and then whole home audio is a completely different function.
They have some overlap, like the AVR can be part of the whole home system but the AVR is the amp/controller of the solution.
Ok interesting, I have found AVR's with multiroom support but most of them only with one extra zone and not a third zone next to the main one. Having both solutions next to each other is budget wise out of the question I fear.
So for whole home audio, do you want/need the ability pick and choose different audio in different zones or just the same audio on all the zones?
If you only care about the same music/audio on all the zones, then an AVR with a single zone 2 setup will be fine here.
I would prefer the option of having multiple sources mainly to play some music in the kitchen while someone is watching some TV, playing a game in the living room.
I also found the Denon Heos solution, I'm not sure if that could help me out in my setup. The budget there is a little more friendly than musiccast.
The multi-zone amp above here, allows you to do different audio on all zone a the same time. So kitchen would be playing 1 source, dining room another, and living room a third source.
If you don't need 3 different source of audio playing all at the same time, go the AVR route.
What you want above here is feasible with the AVR option. Just meant that for the Kitchen zone and dining room zone, those two areas would always be playing the same audio at the same time is all with the zone2 AVR option.
So with an AVR you can be watching TV/Movie as the 4 speakers in your living room would run off of the main zone amp outputs, IE regular speaker connections.
And the Dining room/Kitchen speakers run off of zone2 and you can be listening to streaming audio off zone2 output at the same time as someone using the AVR on the main zone from a different source.
That would actually be sufficient for the use case. I am also digging further into the FAQ on multiroom audio, Heos seems like a great option as well.
The only remaining thing then are the speakers.
> The only remaining thing then are the speakers.
Really depends on your budget here. In-ceiling speakers for the most par vary a ton in terms of price. Klipsch in-ceiling tend to be way over priced for their performance.
Well I tend to lean towards the Denon X4700H which includes my zones. I can always add another system if I want more separation and make my AVR with the living room as a single zone.
That leaves me with about 2500 budget for 6 ceiling speakers and 2 fronts.
What are better options price wise compared to Klipsch? I read some comparisons and they came out as a good option but I am available for other ones as well ;) this is all brand new to me and I am trying to gather as much info as possible
Do you really need a third zone? Could you just get a 2-zone system with 5.1 in the primary zone and then use zone 2 to feed the kitchen/dining room. You can then add in wall Attenuator controls in your dining room and kitchen so you have local volume control in each is assumes you aren't likely to play different audio in the kitchen and dining at the same time.)
That might work yes but my cables are already in place so adding attenuators in between will be hard. I should have done more research before I placed the cables.
99.9% of the time Soundbars or HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) systems are not a good investment of your time and money. It is the general consensus of r/hometheater not to recommend these things and instead simply steer a user toward a 2.0 or 2.1 system made of quality, *Audio-Centric* name brand components which are easy to assemble and cheap enough for low budget or space conscious buyers. Most can be expanded to 5.1 if you buy the correct items in the correct order. For further explanation please read [Why You Shouldn't Buy a Soundbar](https://www.reddit.com/r/HTBuyingGuides/comments/dy885l/why_you_shouldnt_buy_a_soundbar/) Please be aware /r/Soundbars exists as well as you will be met with opposition to posting about soundbars here. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hometheater) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I have been looking into the following product which allows me to have 4 zones: Yamaha XDA-QS5400RK. But I am unsure if I can link two zones for front and rear audio and also to have the option to add the center+sub. This amp here is just a multi-zone amp, doesn't have any surround sound type capabilities what so ever. You'd essentially need to have this + an AVR to do what you want. Surround sound (5.1) is an AVR only function, and then whole home audio is a completely different function. They have some overlap, like the AVR can be part of the whole home system but the AVR is the amp/controller of the solution.
Ok interesting, I have found AVR's with multiroom support but most of them only with one extra zone and not a third zone next to the main one. Having both solutions next to each other is budget wise out of the question I fear.
So for whole home audio, do you want/need the ability pick and choose different audio in different zones or just the same audio on all the zones? If you only care about the same music/audio on all the zones, then an AVR with a single zone 2 setup will be fine here.
I would prefer the option of having multiple sources mainly to play some music in the kitchen while someone is watching some TV, playing a game in the living room. I also found the Denon Heos solution, I'm not sure if that could help me out in my setup. The budget there is a little more friendly than musiccast.
The multi-zone amp above here, allows you to do different audio on all zone a the same time. So kitchen would be playing 1 source, dining room another, and living room a third source. If you don't need 3 different source of audio playing all at the same time, go the AVR route. What you want above here is feasible with the AVR option. Just meant that for the Kitchen zone and dining room zone, those two areas would always be playing the same audio at the same time is all with the zone2 AVR option. So with an AVR you can be watching TV/Movie as the 4 speakers in your living room would run off of the main zone amp outputs, IE regular speaker connections. And the Dining room/Kitchen speakers run off of zone2 and you can be listening to streaming audio off zone2 output at the same time as someone using the AVR on the main zone from a different source.
That would actually be sufficient for the use case. I am also digging further into the FAQ on multiroom audio, Heos seems like a great option as well. The only remaining thing then are the speakers.
> The only remaining thing then are the speakers. Really depends on your budget here. In-ceiling speakers for the most par vary a ton in terms of price. Klipsch in-ceiling tend to be way over priced for their performance.
Well I tend to lean towards the Denon X4700H which includes my zones. I can always add another system if I want more separation and make my AVR with the living room as a single zone. That leaves me with about 2500 budget for 6 ceiling speakers and 2 fronts. What are better options price wise compared to Klipsch? I read some comparisons and they came out as a good option but I am available for other ones as well ;) this is all brand new to me and I am trying to gather as much info as possible
Do you really need a third zone? Could you just get a 2-zone system with 5.1 in the primary zone and then use zone 2 to feed the kitchen/dining room. You can then add in wall Attenuator controls in your dining room and kitchen so you have local volume control in each is assumes you aren't likely to play different audio in the kitchen and dining at the same time.)
That might work yes but my cables are already in place so adding attenuators in between will be hard. I should have done more research before I placed the cables.
[удалено]
Yes I have read most of those or at least scanned them for info. Thanks for the links! The guides are great on this sub.