Home Theater / Home Audio Questions

[ckurt25]

Hello!

I'm looking for some direction with a set up in my home I'm trying to create. Right now I have a television hooked up to an 4th gen Apple TV in my living room. My Apple TV is not hooked up to my surround sound receiver, yet as I think I may be looking to replace it. I also have a television in my family room in my basement hooked up to another 4th gen Apple TV. There is no receiver in the basement but my basement is wired for one with in wall / ceiling speakers already there.

What I'd like to do is have the ability to have all the speakers (or receivers) in the house "connected" so that I could occasionally connect to one audio source, like an iPhone or iPad. I will also say that I plan on adding a couple outdoor speakers as well.

Is it possible to connect via Airplay or bluetooth to 2 receivers? It doesn't sound like that is a standard thing but I've seen some references online to connecting to multiple wireless speakers via Airplay. In this situation though I want to connect to the receivers and have basically the whole house with two surround sound systems connected to a single audio source. I don't mind spending a little bit of money to get the right equipment, as long as its reasonable. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Hello!

I'm looking for some direction with a set up in my home I'm trying to create. Right now I have a television hooked up to an 4th gen Apple TV in my living room. My Apple TV is not hooked up to my surround sound receiver, yet as I think I may be looking to replace it. I also have a television in my family room in my basement hooked up to another 4th gen Apple TV. There is no receiver in the basement but my basement is wired for one with in wall / ceiling speakers already there.

What I'd like to do is have the ability to have all the speakers (or receivers) in the house "connected" so that I could occasionally connect to one audio source, like an iPhone or iPad. I will also say that I plan on adding a couple outdoor speakers as well.

Is it possible to connect via Airplay or bluetooth to 2 receivers? It doesn't sound like that is a standard thing but I've seen some references online to connecting to multiple wireless speakers via Airplay. In this situation though I want to connect to the receivers and have basically the whole house with two surround sound systems connected to a single audio source. I don't mind spending a little bit of money to get the right equipment, as long as its reasonable. Any advice would be much appreciated.

You would need a two zone receiver in the main room and run HDMI or Analog to the receiver in room 2. HDMI would give you more options, since many receivers won't send analog out from HDMI sources. As long as you were on the HDMI input of the zone 2 receiver, you could essentially play the same source that you have in room 1.

Outside of that, you may be better off with a Chromecast Audio device in both rooms.

 

[fortuneteller33]

Hello!

I'm looking for some direction with a set up in my home I'm trying to create. Right now I have a television hooked up to an 4th gen Apple TV in my living room. My Apple TV is not hooked up to my surround sound receiver, yet as I think I may be looking to replace it. I also have a television in my family room in my basement hooked up to another 4th gen Apple TV. There is no receiver in the basement but my basement is wired for one with in wall / ceiling speakers already there.

What I'd like to do is have the ability to have all the speakers (or receivers) in the house "connected" so that I could occasionally connect to one audio source, like an iPhone or iPad. I will also say that I plan on adding a couple outdoor speakers as well.

Is it possible to connect via Airplay or bluetooth to 2 receivers? It doesn't sound like that is a standard thing but I've seen some references online to connecting to multiple wireless speakers via Airplay. In this situation though I want to connect to the receivers and have basically the whole house with two surround sound systems connected to a single audio source. I don't mind spending a little bit of money to get the right equipment, as long as its reasonable. Any advice would be much appreciated.

If you want to stay within the Apple ecosystem I would strongly recommend Sonos. You can upgrade as your budget allows and can use the Play 1 speakers with the Playbar (as well as the Sub) to create a surround sound system for your living room setup. Their Connect components also give you the freedom to add your existing speakers to your Sonos setup (even permanently installed indoor or outdoor speakers). It uses Wi-Fi for the connection (not Bluetooth or AirPlay) and you can select groups of speakers to play simultaneously, just a single speaker or even multiple groups playing different music in select zones of your home. If bandwidth is a concern you can also add their Boost component to your setup to create a separate Wi-Fi network all-together for the Sonos speakers to connect through. Oh and the Sonos app also supports Apple Music! We invested in several Play 1 speakers earlier this year and they sound fantastic!

 

[ckurt25]

I did neglect to add that I have speakers in both rooms in the walls / ceilings so I'm not looking to add more speakers, except for the outside ones.

I was doing more reading online about an application (Whaale Multiroom Player) that would allow me to send airplay streams to multiple destinations. I believe I could connect both Apple TVs to their own surround sound receiver, which would be connected to each TV and set of surround speakers. From the app I could stream music from the iOS device to all the speakers in the house. I'll have to check my existing receiver in the living room (to make sure I have the right HDMI ports) but this may minimize the amount of hardware I have to buy to get this up and running.

 

[Uofmtiger]

I did neglect to add that I have speakers in both rooms in the walls / ceilings so I'm not looking to add more speakers, except for the outside ones.

I was doing more reading online about an application (Whaale Multiroom Player) that would allow me to send airplay streams to multiple destinations. I believe I could connect both Apple TVs to their own surround sound receiver, which would be connected to each TV and set of surround speakers. From the app I could stream music from the iOS device to all the speakers in the house. I'll have to check my existing receiver in the living room (to make sure I have the right HDMI ports) but this may minimize the amount of hardware I have to buy to get this up and running.

I have an article about that app on my webpage...it is limited by the amount of third party apps it supports. If you are mainly using it for music on your network or internet radio, it should suffice. However, if you want to use it with a lot of third party streaming music choices, many won't be supported.

The Chromecast is $35 and works with a lot more stuff than Whaale. The other option is you can run Airfoil Speakers and Airfoil on a computer and set Airfoil up to stream to the two AppleTVs and then just send any audio from the iOS device to Airfoil Speakers (which shows up as an Airplay receiver on iOS).

 

[ckurt25]

I have an article about that app on my webpage.

Thanks! Yeah, it does look like it'll fit my needs.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Thanks! Yeah, it does look like it'll fit my needs.

I updated that post above, but if you have a free computer Airfoil is a decent option (I have articles on it, as well).

 

[ckurt25]

I updated that post above, but if you have a free computer Airfoil is a decent option (I have articles on it, as well).

Well I have the 2 Apple TVs, one existing receiver and all the speakers (except outdoor ones). I'm going to need a new receiver regardless. I'm only going to utilize this occasionally. My wife and I throw parties from time to time and I'd like all the music in the house coming from a single source. From what I understand, adding Chromecast will get me more options for the audio source but it's more hardware to buy and Airfoil would mean buying more too. I do only plan on using audio stored locally on my iOS device so it sounds like the Whaale app, at least for me, is the way to go. I'll probably use an "extra" iPad that doesn't get much use to run this from.

 

[eyeballtickler7]

Another mention for Sonos. Expensive, yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

 

[jdag]

I will bring up Sonos like a couple of other people have already. In particular, the Sonos Connect:Amp for driving existing speakers or outdoor speakers and Sonos Play speakers for other rooms. Sonos is drop-dead simple to install and, more importantly, use. However, it will not be cheap, and you didn't mention budget.

I am sure people will chime in that Sonos is overpriced, but cost/value is subjective. personally, I find it well worth the cost, and consider my Sonos system the best technology I've purchased in at least 5 years.

All of the other options mentioned, such as adding an additional receiver, Sonos Connect or Google Chromecast hooked to existing receivers/speakers, Airfoil, etc. are "cobbled together" systems. They may do the job for you, but they will not be without some headaches. Minimally, you will need to coordinate inputs and use vendor-provided apps to manage. I used to use AirPlay plus the Denon AVR app and it was not a very polished or user-friendly experience to say the least.

 

[yofx]

What you seem to be looking for is whole home audio. And I'm not sure if Apple TV is necessarily needed. Having just moved into a new home, I was in the same boat as you. We did all of our own low-voltage wiring, so we wired the in-ceiling speaker (indoors and outdoors) runs to a central location. So if that's possible for you, you may want to consider a Monoprice 6 Zone Home Audio Multizone Amplifier ($500 when on sale). This gives you 6 zones with 6 different inputs that each zone can use independently or at the same time. We hooked up two Airport Express (since they have audio out + AirPlay support built-in) as inputs (as well as a couple Chromecast Audios, though we hardly use those inputs), which allows my wife to AirPlay music upstairs and me to AirPlay music downstairs. If you're having people over, you can turn on all 6 zones and play the same input if you'd like. For you, sounds like you may want to hook up that computer as one of the inputs. We also hooked up an FM radio that's tuned into our favorite local station on an input, so it's nice for those times when you'd rather listen to the radio instead of AirPlay (or Cast) something.

 

[ckurt25]

What you seem to be looking for is whole home audio. And I'm not sure if Apple TV is necessarily needed. Having just moved into a new home, I was in the same boat as you. We did all of our own low-voltage wiring, so we wired the in-ceiling speaker (indoors and outdoors) runs to a central location. So if that's possible for you, you may want to consider a Monoprice 6 Zone Home Audio Multizone Amplifier ($500 when on sale). This gives you 6 zones with 6 different inputs that each zone can use independently or at the same time. We hooked up two Airport Express (since they have audio out + AirPlay support built-in) as inputs (as well as a couple Chromecast Audios, though we hardly use those inputs), which allows my wife to AirPlay music upstairs and me to AirPlay music downstairs. If you're having people over, you can turn on all 6 zones and play the same input if you'd like. For you, sounds like you may want to hook up that computer as one of the inputs. We also hooked up an FM radio that's tuned into our favorite local station on an input, so it's nice for those times when you'd rather listen to the radio instead of AirPlay (or Cast) something.

The living room on the main floor and family room in the basement have existing wiring for their wall mounted TVs and in wall / ceiling speakers. In each room the wiring terminates in a closet. Buying new speakers (as some have suggested) is not an option. Each room has its own television and I'll want to be able to use both at the same time and watch different things. Unless I'm missing something, I'll need two receivers for the cable boxes and Apple TVs for each.

I actually don't want to hook up a computer. I have a "spare" iPad that has all the music stored on it that I need. With the Whaale app I can send music from the iPad to each Apple TV (and receiver) via Airplay.

 

[Uofmtiger]

The living room on the main floor and family room in the basement have existing wiring for their wall mounted TVs and in wall / ceiling speakers. In each room the wiring terminates in a closet. Buying new speakers (as some have suggested) is not an option. Each room has its own television and I'll want to be able to use both at the same time and watch different things. Unless I'm missing something, I'll need two receivers for the cable boxes and Apple TVs for each.

I actually don't want to hook up a computer. I have a "spare" iPad that has all the music stored on it that I need. With the Whaale app I can send music from the iPad to each Apple TV (and receiver) via Airplay.

I think Whaale is you answer.

 

[satcomer]

What I did was as have LG TV that has optical out port! So I connected that to my receiver so what ever I put to my TV on ant HDMI connections (Apple TV & Blu-Ray player) comes out of my receiver!

 

[shaneakus]

If you use iTunes as your source, you can select multiple airplay outputs when playing music. I do that and use the remote app to control it. best scenario would be to pony up for a couple of sonos connects to add to your home theater receivers.