Splitting Audio

[fallon12345]

I have a family room/kitchen that are connected. In the family room, I have a 5.1 setup and an HK receiver. When my wife is cooking, she likes to listen to music or watch tv from the family room receiver. To do this, she must make it quite loud, and I would like to solve this problem. I realize must split the signal out of the receiver, and run the wire from the family room to new speakers in the kitchen. Which of the five channels do I split? Can anyone recommend a cheap yet effective splitting box? Is there a better way to do this?

[griffelkin2002]

Have thought about geting wireless speakers, that way there is no wires to be run and the speakers are pretty small so she can put them where she wants, not mention some of them sound pretty good

[stereoguy]

Your HK probably has a Zone 2 out or somehting to that effect. You could run RCA cable from the Zone 2 out to a cheapo receiver in the kitchen with it's own speakers.

You could also just run a separate set of speakers off of your 'B' speaker jacks and toggle them as needed. No need to "split" any of your existing wire, and in fact that would be a very bad idea. Just run the kitchen speakers off 'B' and out put your audio in stereo.

[stereoguy]

not mention some of them sound pretty good

What wireless speakers sound good?

[fallon12345]

I would have to run RCA cables for about 100 ft. Is that possible?
Also, I dont think my receiver has an option for 'B' speaker jacks, seems ridiculous to me too. I have the AVR125, if you are familiar. When I said split, I meant buy a splitter that would work the same as if I had B speaker jacks.

[griffelkin2002]

The Advent SW820 sound pretty good, but my favorites are any of the RCA models they all have a great clean sound and bose also has a nice set, what kinda music do you listen to.

[fallon12345]

just about anything, classical to rap to classic rock. I will still need a splitter for the wireless, right?

[stereoguy]

I listen to a little of everything outside of country and gospel. does RCA = models sold at Radio Shack?

Here is some info on Bose. I'm not going to debate it since nothing good comes from that debate. Read whatever you want into this information

http://www.fiendation.com/300zx/bosefaq.htm

[griffelkin2002]

No Radioshack to my knowledge doesnt carry RCA, I got mine from BestBuy. I guess to each their own, some people like Bose some dont, but they did make some very good pionts on both ends.

[stereoguy]

I have the AVR125, if you are familiar.

This is the back panel of your reciever:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ScnFaclllcV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=10420&id=morephotos&pi=2&i=532AVR125&display=XL#Tab

You are correct, no 'B' speaker jacks.

I wouldn't split the speaker wire. Are you using all 6 channels for your home theater? There may be a way to make it work if you aren't. You could get a wireless RCA transmitter from radio shack and plug the transmitter into the Tape out on your receiver, and the receive into a receiver in the kitchen.

You may want to get a new receiver for your application.

[fallon12345]

good splitter to use with wired or wireless? Also which two of the five channels should I split into the kitchen. When I say split, I mean run wire from two channels into a splitter that converts it to two sets of two speakers.

[fallon12345]

hmm. I do use all 5+1 channels.
Something like this is no good?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=product&id=1051384451060

[SafeWatch]

If the receiver is 4 ohms stable (it should be, but I didn't look) then you could just use a speaker selector (like the one from BB) to split the fronts out to additional speakers. Note that it's only 55 watts, so you will be splitting that by 2.

Your best option however, is to use either the Tape out (analog out) or one of the digital outs (coax or optical) to an additional receiver (just a low-cost stereo receiver would do) and use it for the kitchen audio. The added advantage of this is separate volume controls and possibly remote control.

Good luck!

[kuhurdler]

I was going to suggest the Tape-out too. I would also recommend some computer speakers (they have their own amplfiers) and a long RCA cable... or the wireless is also a good suggestion. Do those use a line level input?

[stereoguy]

If the receiver is 4 ohms stable (it should be, but I didn't look) then you could just use a speaker selector (like the one from BB) to split the fronts out to additional speakers. Note that it's only 55 watts, so you will be splitting that by 2.


Good point on the ohms. Watts is watts, and 55 HK "watts" is generally about as good or better than 100 "watts" from most other companies. I wouldn't worry about the watts.

[fallon12345]

I think I am leaning in this direction, it is a 4 way selector so I can have whole house audio and split it to different rooms. Should I split the two fronts or the center?