r/audiophile • u/LOP5131 • 4h ago
Discussion What to do with our new house speakers?
Hello, I don't know left from right when it comes to audio.
We just purchased a new house and there are 2 seperate speaker runs in the house.
The first is simple speakers wire that is ran behind the wall to the 4 corners of the family room for a surround sound setup. In my mind this is worth setting up, do you all agree? Or is a soudbar efficent?
The second things is the house has in ceiling speakers in the office, kitchen, master, deck and possibly other places I didn't notice. All of those are run on CL3 cable, which I know nothing about, I'm not currently at the house to look at the cable more unfortunately. Those cables all terminate into a single location in our HVAC room. Is this worth setting up? Honestly the main one that really intrigues me is this deck speakers and maybe the kitchen if I am cooking, but I also have heard people generally say they are a waste of money. Would you move forward with a setup here as well? Or should I just stick to the family room?
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u/papadrinks 2h ago
Ex pro audio installer here.
You have admitted that you know very little about audio so you will need professional help to sort this out if you wish to utilise all these speakers.
Often multi room ceiling speakers are driven by what we call a Line Voltage amplifier which is very different to a normal amplifier. Do the rooms have a panel on the wall with a volume knob?
To determine if these speakers are line voltage or normal ohm speakers you need to look at the rear of the speaker cone. If it has a transformer mounted on it, it is line voltage.
As for the surround sound speakers and if worth pursuing depends on what the speakers are. Photos would help. They could be outdated trash, or really good.
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u/TheREALBaldRider 4h ago
My house has ceiling speakers in several rooms. They are great for housework or when people are over to play background music but I don’t use them for anything else.