Multi-Room Music

Which Strategy Fits Your Needs?

Multi-room music systems (sometimes called “whole house” or “multi-zone” music) are now available in three configurations: single zone, multi-zone, and so-called “second” (or even third) zone systems. Recently, wireless multi-room solutions have also become available.

Single zone

A single-zone system allows one source (CD, streaming, or FM, etc.), to be selected and played—in any room having speakers connected to the system. A volume control—either wall-mounted in the room with the speakers, or near the amplifier—is assigned to each speaker pair to control the sound level in that room. With this approach, each room hears the same music.

Single zone systems make sense for small apartments, homes occupied by only one person (or perhaps two with the same taste in music), or homes with open floor plans (where isolating the sound within a room isn’t feasible).

Most consumer-grade stereo amplifiers and receivers cannot drive more than two pairs of speakers at the same time. If three or more pairs are needed, special impedance -matching volume controls or other devices are employed to protect the amplifier. Or a special distribution amplifier designed to drive more than two speaker pairs at the same time may be used to handle the additional load.

Multi-Zone

With this system type, a keypad located in each “zone” (or room where speakers are located) is typically used to control a special multi-zone pre-amp/amplifier, typically located with the sources.

This keypad allows the user to select a music choice for that room, from whatever sources are available (FM, CD, streamed audio, etc.), and also to adjust the volume, change stations or songs, and to switch between sources.

Multi-zone preamp/amps are typically available for 4, 6, or 8 locations, and can be combined for additional zones if needed. A sub-zone may also be created—for example, by adding master bath speakers to the master bedroom zone, with each speaker set receiving the same music source, but with separate volume controls.

Some multi-zone systems allow a single keypad to control two or more zones. And it may even be equipped to display the name of the song (or program) being played. This feature—called meta-data display—is useful when navigating sources that provide the name of the song, as with streamed audio content.

Second Zone

Some surround receivers provide an additional choice. Called second zone capability, this feature allows for the reassignment of unused “surround” channels (a 7.1 receiver which is set up as a 5.1 system, for example) to send powered stereo content to speakers in a second (or even third) location—without the cost and complexity of adding additional amplification and having to cross-connect the sources.

Wireless Music

For conventional multi-room music, each of the above approaches requires speaker wiring run from the multi-zone amplifier to each room where music is desired. Multi-zone systems also require control wiring from the pre-amp to the keypad in each zone.

Wireless multi-zone systems are now available from numerous manufacturers, which simplifies installation when wiring is not already in place. They consist of a wireless preamp/transmitter unit at the source (or “head”) end, plus a wireless amplifier and bookshelf-style speakers (or a unit that combines both) at the listening location. While these devices receive the music signal wirelessly, they still require 110 volts from a wall outlet to power the amplifier.

By eliminating the need for signal wiring, wireless multi-zone music products can make retrofit installations easy, and can be cost-effective when adding a zone or two to a single-zone system. But for larger systems (3 or more zones), it may be less expensive to opt for a wired system, if simple wiring pathways are available for pulling new wires. See INFRASTRUCTURE.

Note also that wired systems may provide higher audio fidelity, deeper bass response, and greater audio power (for large rooms) than wireless systems. But the latter are getting better every year.