Good Morning -

New poster to this particular forum so go easy on me.

I live in a house that I built (make that had built) for my family 12 years ago or so. At that time, I though I was fairly high tech and wired in wall speakers in the rooms where I wanted to have sound. Each room where there are speakes has its own individual Wall mounted volume controller. The volume controller is wired back to an Adcom 6 speaker selector box.

I also wired the Xantech IR remote control system in each room where needed (780-10 Receivers wired to the 789-44D In wall connecting block) The connecting block is placed in a room where all my gear is and uses the little 286-M emmitters stuck to all my gear.

As nice as this syetm is, it has one serious shortcoming that I would like to address if at all possible. With my current in wall wiring, can I somehow remotely turn on/off the speakers in the rooms that have the 780-10 J-Box receiver? It would sure be nice to have some more control over the system. The way it currently works is that I either have to do one of the following, any of which are not convenient:

1. Punch all the speaker buttons on the adcom on and leave the volume controls in all rooms off. Then as I enter each room, turn up the volume to where desired. Remember to turn off volume when leaving.

2. Leave all the Adcom speaker buttons off. Run downstairs and punch each button where I think I will want to listen to music.

It would sure be nice to be upstairs in the morning and be able to turn on the radio/cd whatever from my bedroom without worrying that I left speakers in another room on that would then wake up the whole house.

Any and all comments are most welcome. I have my Xantech catalog in front of my and am looking at the 686-10 Remote Speaker Switcher. Would this be the ticket?

Mark W.

You could also use Xantech RAT-1's, this would provide not only Remote On/Off, but remote level control as well.

Look at the Niles RVL-6 as well. You can add Remote On/Off OR Remote on/off/Volume Control modules to it to make it do what you want.

Thanks, I'll look into this.

One thing that I think I missed in the above post. not every room that has speakers and volume controls have a Xantech J Box receiver. So, some rooms only have speaker wire going to the volume control and then to the speakers, while the rooms with the J Box also have the 3 wires needed for the IR system. Does this make adifference with what you suggested?

As I can tell, purchasing the Xantech remote speaker switcher would cost me somewhere around $300-350 plus the cost of the power supply. I'm thinking that I can get the codes for the remote controller somewhere on this page or somewhere else.

Thanks again.

Mark W

I would suggest a description of each room and how it is equipped. From there the forum can suggest different control preamp/amp/ keypad models to look at.

Spend the money on the one that will suit your needs. You and your family will not regret it.

Family room - IR J Box receiver, volume control
Office - IR J box receiver, volume control
Dining Room - volume control
Kitchen - Volume control
MBR - IR J Box receiver, volume control
MBR Bath - IR J Box receiver, volume control
Pool Room - Volume control (probably add IR J Box)
Theater - Volume control, IR J box receiver

Kitchen, dining room and family room can all see the ir receiver so there is only one.

Theater is set up so that the mains are controlled through the volume control on the wall. Surrounds, front, sub controlled through Yamaha RXV-2200.

All speakers are not in use. Everything except the theater speakers are hooked up through the Adcom 6 speaker selector.

We don't use the whole house stereo that often. Mostly when company is over or I am alone and want to rock a little. I think that keypads are a bit too much to spend altough I do believe that they would do the trick. So rather than adding different stuff in regards to volume controls, remote control systems, I'd like to keep what I have if that is possible. That's is why I was wondering if the Xantech would fit the bill or something else similar.

I appreciate the help. This has been a weakness of what I have for quite some time and has always bothered me. When I did my hime, there was no such thing as remote control switching of speakers. I think that Niles came out with something that cost an arm and a leg right after I had everything up and running.

Thanks again.

Mark W

Audioplex has a nice system of muting etc. You can find it here. They also allow have a system that you can incorporate paging into the system as well, it's actually pretty slick. All controls are also available with IR repeating on the same plate.

Do I interpret this correctly to mean that the only place where you could not stand with a remote right now and hit a sensor is out by the pool? If that is so, then you don't need to worry about sensors for the dining room and family room.



Huh? Not all speakers are in use? All speakers are turned off? All speakers sound like crap so I never turn 'em on? Okay, sorry about the sarcasm. I don't get what you are telling us here.


Anyway, it looks to me like the Xantech switcher is the simplest and probably cheapest approach, if I understand that first point above correctly. Out by the pool? That's a bit of a problem because of sunlight; look for threads here or advice from Xantech about how to deal with IR sensors outdoors.

You could use a Xantech waterproof keypad out by the pool, with macros built into it so that a few controls will do the speaker switching you want, something like
"only pool speakers on," "all speakers on," and then commands for the amps and such. If you are going to use a keypad and you are far from the system, you might as well use its ability to control other components.

I have 7 pairs of speakers not including the theater speakers and the Adcom only works for 6 pairs - thus the reason for not all of them being hooked up at the time. The speakers are good (B&W something or another - too many years ago to recall the model number). 6 pairs are hoooked up right now trhough the "B' speaker output with the mains (speaker A) and rest of the theaters hooked up through the proper outputs on the receiver.

The pool room is the pool table/game room - sorry about the confusion. No windows in the room, just sunlight coming in from the other rooms downstairs so I don't think there will be an issues with IR and sunlight.

I'm not against keypads, just looking for the answer that offers me the best value. I don't use the whole house stereo often, but would if I could economically resolve this situation.

Thanks again for the comments Ernie.

Mark W

Did you check out my link?

If you don't mind changing your 1-gang box to a 2-gang box, you could add an A-B speaker selector, such as the Niles Audio ABA-1D, and just don't connect anything to the B speaker set. That way, when you select speaker set A, you get sound, when you select speaker set B, you don't. Buying a bunch of these may end up being more expensive than adding one of the other options, however.

CJ

Matt -

I did look at the web page you mentioned. The VC mute volume controllers retail for $166 without optimatch and $175 with it. That would total $1,162 to do 7 rooms. There must be a less expensive way to do the same thing. I do like Audioplex's solution, and I do like the otherproducts they offer on their web site. Thanks for pointing them out.

Mark W

Probably less than a keypad solution though...

oops. It probably wouldn't be a pool a)in Minnesota and b)because the billiard balls could not be hit hard enough, in the water, to get them to the pockets.

The Niles rvl-6 doesn't have remote controlled individual cahnnel on/off... i asked their tech help guys, and they acted like I was from Mars for wanting something like that...

I'm about to install a Xantech 686-10 into a customer's office that does exactly what you want a system to do- individual channels on and off.... It came highly recommended by a fellow forum member