Subject: From: Date:

help with whole house audio A.J. Griglak Sat, 22 Jan 2000 08:51:05 -0500

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I have three sets of ceiling speakers that were pre-wired while the house
was built.  Each set was wired for a volume control knob, and all were
home-run into my basement.  I would like to have my computer hooked up to
those three sets of speakers full time, and have my stereo system available
on demand.  The computer system is running ECS home automation software,
which uses a Text to Speech engine for reminders, etc. - which is why I want
a full time connection for that, hopefully with no noise coming from the
speakers when ECS is not talking.  I would also like to listen to MP3's on
the whole house speakers.  The computer is in the basement, roughly ten feet
from where the cabling is home run to.  The stereo system is on the first
floor, roughly 25 feet from the home-run point.  My first question is, what
type of equipment do I need to tie this all together?  Does the computer
need to route through my stereo, or can it go directly to the speakers?

Also, I started messing around and hooked up one of the pairs of speakers to
my stereo (a ten year old receiver that I paid $179 for)  It has connectors
for 2 pairs of speakers, so I hooked up the ceiling speakers as pair "B"  I
also hooked up a volume control (with impedance matching).  Although the
sound coming from the ceiling speakers sounds good, it's at a substantially
lower volume than the speakers hooked directly to my stereo system.  I would
like to have both the whole house audio and the stereo speakers on at the
same time and not have to blast the stereo speakers... how can I do this?

I have spent hours searching the web for this kind of information, and can't
seem to find anything close.  If anyone knows an online guide for this type
of thing, please let me know....

-=A.J.

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