Surround me in sound

February 20, 2016 7:14 PM

I'm moving into a new apartment that, although built in 1790, seems to have hookups for speakers in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I don't know anything about speakers or stereos, but I would like to take advantage of this set up.

I think these hookups take banana plugs (here's a picture for reference) but I haven't tested these out if they actually work. If they do work, I would like to be able to enjoy them. I'm not looking for mind blowing sound, but I would like to listen to the radio in my kitchen and boost the sound on the TV. I've tried to research this a little but get incredibly overwhelmed by all the stuff: receivers and stereos and wires and subwoofers and on and on.

I like having good sound, but my ear is not so discerning that I want to invest thousands of dollars. Where do I start?

posted by thefang to Technology (4 answers total)

Are there actually speakers (e.g. in the wall or ceiling), or just the jacks? If it's just the jacks, you're probably going to need to trace out where each end of it is to get a good sense of what the right setup is.
posted by primethyme at 8:59 PM on February 20, 2016

If you store your music on your computer or on your phone, then you might find it easier to use a bluetooth music system. Look into Sonos.
posted by conrad53 at 6:46 AM on February 21, 2016

Here's a basic diagram of a multi-room stereo setup.

The room that has the 4-5 pairs of jacks is probably where the receiver should go, and the rooms with 2 (stereo) pairs of jacks are where speakers could go. Based on the # of jacks in your photo, it looks like there was once a 5:1 surround receiver there at one time, but that's not required to just listen to the radio in the kitchen

So you would start with a basic receiver that has at least A-B channels which connect to speakers via banana plugs. Here's are photos of the connections.
posted by TDIpod at 7:31 AM on February 21, 2016

Best answer: Larger multi-channel receivers will have "zones" they can drive in stereo. Some can even drive different program audio in each zone. Some of the newer ones can do stuff like play spotify in one room and a movie in another(!).

These are rapidly cycled out every year or so and replaced by the newest model that supports super duper duper HD or whatever.(this year it seems to be support for 4k bluray encryption/HDCP, not just "4k support") It's always a really minor change. Stores like best buy clear the older ones out REALLY cheap. Like, $500 ones for $60 cheap. Sites like slickdeals usually monitor this to an extent, but i'd also just shop around.

All the major brands make about the same processed cheese product as far as receivers go. Onkyo, pioneer, harmon kardon, yamaha, denon, sony, etc.

As far as speakers go, i've never really stopped recommending this basic but great series pioneer makes. Those and infinity's "primus" series are kind of the fire-and-forget solution to budget but good speakers. I have some of both, and have nothing negative to say about them at all.

Any multi-zone capable modern receiver will support streaming from spotify and such AND airplay/bluetooth. This will also end up being way cheaper and more versatile than sonos, which requires "bridges" for certain inputs and other silliness. Wanna plug a turntable in? Buy a cheap $15 preamp(or some yamaha receivers still come with one!) and go for it without needing some dongle or silly several hundred dollar box.

The hard part of multi room systems is usually the wiring. That's done for you. Sonos and other wireless solutions are expensive. For very very likely less money you could have better sound and more versatility just using this wiring and some $200/pair speakers. I paid $150 for my pair of primus towers, and there's been similar deals on the pioneers more than once. I think there was actually a $99/pair deal at one point.
posted by emptythought at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2016