posted 12-09-1999 11:45 PM               

We found a sale on these speakers for $3.00 a set with power supply from MCM Electronics. They are easy to find for $6.00 and up all the time. For $40 we put stereo audio into aech main area of the house.

If you have a dedicated home server you can run the output of your sound card the length of your home (use your imagination) and tap off of it with a resistive splitter as it passes each room to supply audio to the input of your speakers. Plug the power supply of each set of speakers into an X10 appliance module. Now you can control every set of speakers in the house for zoning and you have independant volume control at each local speaker.

There are a lot of options to choose from here. Send MP3 or DVD audio. Voice announce Caller ID. Announce the door instead of ring a chime.

Are we having fun yet?

posted 12-10-1999 09:25 AM               

A solution may be a second sound card for that output, but I'm low on slots and I know the SBLIVE that I use has a bug where two cards won't co-exist, oh well.

posted 12-12-1999 07:26 AM               

Nathan, if you have details, this is the kind of thing I'd like to add to a hardware how-to section, diagram etc.

But since I'm lazy, I'm probably trying the FM idea!

posted 12-12-1999 12:52 PM               

I think you're confusing a distribution amplifier with a mixer. A mixer will combine multiple "input signals" into one common "input" to a sound card.

If you chose an active device for distribution you must use a distribution amplifier to multiply "one output' from the sound card to multiple outputs feeding the amplified speakers in each room that I suggest.

For simple "passive" distribution......

You have a "low impedance" speaker output on most all sound cards and a high impedance input to the amplified computer speakers so matching is not very critical.

You can experiment with various values but we ended up using 200 ohm resisters in a "T" pad to split off to each room. This gives you some isolation between each taps.

Because you are looking up in impedance from the sound card's 8 ohm speaker output into the higher resistive taps and the still higher input impedance of each amplified speaker set input paralleled across the line from the sound card, the loading is minimized.

If the sound card line/speaker output is balanced and both sides are floating above ground, place a "T" in the + and - of each left and right audio line.

However, if your sound card line/speaker output is unbalanced and one side is grounded place a "T" in only the + side of the left and right audio line and tie the grounds together.

Depending upon the sound card output power and how many speakers you use the resister values can be changed. This is line level audio distribution and is very forgiving provided the final load does not go lower than 8 ohms.

Each "T" tap for left and right speaker output will look like this.

Soundcard Speaker
+ Output>>>> Next Tap>>>

>-----/\/\/\/\----+----/\/\/\/\------>
200 ohm | 200 ohm
|
>----+ \
| /
| \ 200 ohm tap --- /
= \
- | _________
| | |
\|/ \|/ ---
| | =
-
X2 amplified speaker input

A more expensive alternative to this method is to use a small audio 600 ohm transformer across the L and R line for each tap.

Use these transfomers only if you have hum from ground loops you can not resolve or if you are planning to run loud music levels though this system. This system will still allow music at moderate levels but this designed primarily for low level speech to text or paging system. This is not offered as a HI-FI stereo system although I have found it more than adequate for low level music distribution.

I like Rick's idea of using an FM wireless system and I gave it serious thought but it added about $40 per room to the overall cost. Aside from the cost, it is a reasonable alternative to running cable.

If you have problems with this email me for more.

Nathan

posted 12-12-1999 04:00 PM               

Your diagram got messed up somehow, I assume there are supposed to be leading spaces.

posted 12-13-1999 01:29 AM               

I wasn't assuming stereo so I was confused on that point. I don't plan on music distribution necessarily, but the fm could give me that I suppose if I got something better than an el-cheapo xmitter.

posted 12-13-1999 02:54 PM               

If you want to move a copy to your site in Netscape click on: File|Edit|Save As, to your hard drive and it's yours. It only consists of the HTML file and a backgound graphic.