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[jmone]

This is a cross post from the Axiom Forum

I've been conversing with Axiom about the setup for some outside speakers and how to drive them. Looks like I need
- Area 1 needs 2 Pair of M3 Outdoor Speakers (already have them)to cover the entire back yard
- Area 2 and 3 each need a Pair of in celling speakers for two separate roofed deck areas

So I have 8 Speakers I need to drive, and at present I have only a Yami RX-A3000 (7.2ch) that is currently doing duty driving my Axiom 5.1 setup. I used to drive one pair of the Outdoor M3's with the spare 2 channels as a separate Second Zone and it was OK and I could control it via the Yami Android Application.

The Axiom Power Amp was recommended but I have a few questions about what would be the best configuration between the Yami and the Axiom Amp.

- Most of the time we use the inside HT 5.1
- I'd like to have all of the outside as a separate Second Zone but be able to switch ON/OFF each of the three areas independently. Sometime we need just background music on one of the decks, other times all going flat out in "Party Mode"

I figure the easiest setup would be to keep the current Yami Setup as is but feed it's Zone 2 to an 8ch Axiom Amp and put in some manual switches on the speaker cables to turn on/off the 3 desired outside areas.

The thing I don't like about this setup is my 8ch Axiom Amp would be sitting there doing nothing most of the time, which seems a waste.

I was then toying with if I could use the Axiom to drive at least the front 3 of my 5.1 setup and use the remaining Yami and Axiom channels to drive the outside speakers.... but this seems pretty complicated.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Nathan

[Scolex]

What are your power requirements/desires?

[jmone]

The recommended Amp from Axiom is this one http://www.axiomaudio.com/1000-amplifier#t-3 in each of the 8 channels to match the existing/new speakers.  I'm more confused on what a good taxonomy for this setup, eg just push Zone 2 out of the Yami to such a power amp and switch on/off each Area manually or.....

[Scolex]

I have a RX-A3010 how does the 3000 compare as far as outputs/zones the 3010 has Main and Zones 2,3,&4.
I see the Axiom 8 channel has 4 sets of inputs but after a quick scan of the manual it makes no mention of
any sort of input or output jack sensing. With that in mind is there an option to bridge the inputs to other
output stages or do you have to use a splitter setup. If you have to run a splitter setup I would get a splitter
that allows you to turn on/off individual outputs. I would then consider an output switching system to enable
a bi-amp setup for the HT 5.1 system.

I know how you feel about equipment just setting there most of the time I rarely use my basement HT setup
and it drives me crazy. Me and the wife work different shifts so I can't use it through the week at the volumes
it was built for which also seems a waste so I just deal with my office setup (2 Klipsch Promedia 4.1s configured as 5.2)

[jmone]

The A3000 has 4 Zones, and I have (and would now also) use only 2 zones.  My current setup is the HTPC feeds the "Main" Yami 5.1 Zone over HDMI for Video, Music etc and then I feed the two spare channels on the Yami (Zone 2) for the "outside speakers" from the Analogue Out from the HTPC's Sound Card.  I could then select Music in Gizmo to control the content and Yami's Andriod App to tune Zone 2 on/off etc.

So my thinking was by just adding more amplification I could drive 8 in a similar way but using the Axiom amp instead of the Yami.  These 8 Speakers will never have different content so that is fine but I may want to run only 2, 4, or all 8 of them pending where we are and what we are doing.  Hence I don't need any "smarts" just more mono blocks of amplification.  The axiom amp looks like a bunch of Mono Blocks as it has an RCA input for each channel (eg 8 on the 8ch amp) + a 12volt tigger so the Yami can turn it on/off.

If I do put 3 x switches in to control what outside speakers are On/Off would it be an the Input Side (eg RCA) or the Output Side (eg the Speaker Cables)? 

I guess the best way is to just buy one and have a play, as I may be able to config / assign

[jmone]

The other option I did toy with (and have used previously) was to add 2ch amps closer to each set of speakers and feed them from a device like the "id".  When playing with the ID before I did have some issues with getting all the playback in Sync and you had to tune it each time.  It was fine for one seperate set playing unique content but this sync is to hard for party mode with all going at once.

[csimon]

Here's one idea: just have one stereo output from MC (soundcard, DAC, DLNA renderer etc) and split it 4 ways with something like http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/kramer/1x5-stereo-audio-distribution-amplifier-/105A.html, and local small stereo amplifiers at each pair of speakers. Probably one amp could do for both sets of speakers in Area 1. I think the main issues in your situation are likely to be synchronisation and local volume control, so this method solves both and is also power efficient in that you only amplify what you need.

Looking at the point of view of how I would do it my own house, a speaker-level Zone 2 output from a main AV Amp is fraught with difficulties when it comes to switching and local volume control, as well as being akward to control via a separate app or remote control. I think I would probably prefer to distribute the line-level audio.

[csimon]

Or...doing it via speaker-level outputs...

Use the Zone 2 output from the amp, setting it to the max volume you think you'll need, and feed its output into a switch like this: http://www.btechavmounts.com/product-range/consumer/av-cables-controls/controls/products/bt913 so that you can switch each pair of speakers on or off as necessary and it will intelligently connect the speakers in combinations of series and parallel to ensure the impedance doesn't go too low or too high for the amp.

You can get these types of switches with volume control as well, or you can put a local volume in each area with one of these: http://www.btechavmounts.com/product-range/consumer/av-cables-controls/controls/products/bt936

Remember though that you cannot increase the volume with post-amp volume control, only decrease it.

[jmone]

Thanks for the ideas...... Now, the fun part... what to do.... 

[Scolex]

I forgot you were the one who had replaced their intercom system with tablets, why not do something similar for your backyard audio system.
I am doing something similar in my gazebo, re-purposed android phone and a 4.1 set of Altec Lansing speakers works great for me.
You could even use Group play for surround if you were so inclined.

Came across this the other day and thought of you.

[csimon]

You could even use Group play for surround if you were so inclined.

What technology is this, what does it do?

[Scolex]

What technology is this, what does it do?

Group play is an app developed by Samsung that allows you to link up to 5 Android devices via WiFi and play the same music across all of the devices.
It can also be used for games, images, videos, documents, etc. It comes on the S4, N3, and Note 10.1 maybe others. There are other versions of the app
by other developers that work pretty much the same way. I can't speak for any of them personally since I haven't tested them out.

[jmone]

Nice box and thanks for the info.  We will be using Tablets / Phones to control the playback, I now just need to think through the placement of the speakers (WAF), then the wiring to either a central amp or local amps + how to feed it.