As we've all experienced, helping out friends and relatives can give the biggest challenges, because we try to keep costs all the way down. Here's one such situation.

A friend with multiple computers but only wireless in his condo wants to get rid of his free (and worth no more than free) HTIB. He's thinking of adding sound in the two bedrooms, and of course any hard wiring has to go from the extreme south wall (living room) through a soffit between the kitchen and living room, through a soffit over the entry, and across a hall, still through the soffit, to the bedroom and office.

We're probably going to run three CAT5s through this path, to get the bedroom and office hard-wired, but then there's the audio.

I've found I could use Soundcast or Earthquake products to transmit zone 2 audio to the other rooms, with local amps, of course, but suddenly it occurred to me that it would be great to have control in those rooms. And, of course, the budget is less than what you're thinking.

We can assume there's an iPad in the place.  If they don't have one now, they will soon.

Could I use one Sonos piece to get audio from Zone 2 and from their computer, then get line level audio out of that to send to the actual zone?  This would give them iPad control of Zone 2 volume, and complete control of computer music.  He won't want to spend the money required for a second Sonos piece, although that's the instant answer.

Could I tie a Yamaha Aventage amp into their network, allowing any computer to control Zone 2?

This sounds very incomplete because I'm just tossing ideas around right now, wondering what's the simplest way to get him control of zone 2 from the zone itself.

I'd love to hear what you have to suggest, and thanks.

Are you a Denon dealer?

3312 with a separate amp for the third zone would work for this situation. He would have control of all the zones, sources and volume through Denons Ipod app/PC control.

No need for sonos in this situation as he can stream pandora/PC stored music directly to the AVR...

 Sounds like a perfect Sonos application.   Throw a ZP-120 or S5 in the secondary zones and use a ZP-90 in the main room.  All the boxes have an aux input that can be played in any other zone in the system.  

EDIT:^^^   Sonos would cost more than just using the Denon, but would save the hassle of running wires through the sofits.  Worth the $$ in my book, especially on a buddy hook-up type job.

Good point! however, i took the OP as he is removing the crappy HTIB and upgrading.

This could be a very good ZP120 installation. Especially if he only plans on streaming Internet radio/ locally stored music in those zones

Can still upgrade and ditch the HTIB, thus the ZP-90.  Unless they were set on hard wiring the bedrooms w/ ethernet, in which case it wouldn't save any labor going w/ Sonos.  On a side note, the zone players make a pretty good wireless bridge for devices that need to be hardwired.

?? Please tell me more. I'm not sure to understand well what you mean...

Yeah, please tell me, too, what you mean.

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This is baffling. Why would we use the third zone instead of the second zone? Would this not be possible with the second zone?


The Sonos idea was a hare-brained idea I had this morning, and I can't even remember what I thought it would buy me... oh, yeah, it would buy me iPad control. But if the Denon can be controlled that way, well, spiffy.

Anybody think the Yamaha can't be controlled that way, or are you just familiar with the Denon and not the Yamaha?

Sonos has two ethernet ports on the back of the unit. It acts as a switch and probably the only reliable wireless extender for data that I know of.

I always knew it acted as a switch but didn't realize it would act as a wireless extender until now. I just tried it and am posting this message with my wifi turned off plugged into my Play:5.

The real key here is that using Sonos Nets very reliable mesh network you can extend a "wired" network pretty far.

Im having trouble believing this myself as I type this but it works. Im surfing the web through my Zone Player which is only plugged into power (and my laptop) with a zone bridge at the main equipment location with my router.

Sonos continues to amaze!

I wonder how it would act with a Wireless access point such as an airport express attached?

This is WAY cool! I didn't knew about this fact. I'll try it today for sure.

Looks like a couple people beat me to the punch, but yes it works great as a wireless extender.  I've been meaning to pick up a couple Zone Bridges to see if I can use as an extender without a Zone Player.  

Short of trying it, I would say the answer is yes since the bridge is identical in components to the zone player without the "player" portion.