Of all the electronic amenities available to your home, none are quite as enjoyable as a whole-house music system. Distributing tunes from one stereo system to speakers in far corners of a house is nothing new. Handy homeowners have been stringing wire from their stereo receivers to new speakers for years. But there is a limit to how many speakers a standard stereo amplifier can support. Plus, you may have to hoof it back to the stereo system to adjust the volume or switch from a CD player to a DSS receiver. Custom Technologies can help you  invest in a whole-house music system that's convenient to use and safely transports songs without blowing up an amp.

There are basically two types of whole-house music systems from which to choose: a system that distributes the same song to every speaker, or a more intelligent system that lets each family member listen to a different music source (such as a CD player and tuner) simultaneously from different rooms.

Planning Ahead...

• Pre-wiring
  It's hard to say where you might listen to music, especially if your home has yet to be built. Certainly, the family room, dining room, kitchen and living room make sense. Its always a good idea to run speaker and control wiring to those rooms. In other rooms, such as the master bedroom, the guest rooms and the basement, you may feel less certain about installing speakers. The good news is, you don't have to. But do make sure that the wire is routed to those rooms, and always document their locations. Should you convert the bonus room into a den, for example, you can easily add a pair of speakers and a volume control-if there's enough wire waiting for you behind the walls.
  
• Zoning Out
  Initially, you may be wowed by a whole-house music system's ability to serve each room independently, but to preserve music quality and keep your budget in line, it's probably better that adjacent rooms (like a kitchen and a breakfast nook, or a bedroom and a bath) receive the same song. Grouping rooms together is called "zoning." This is much like having "zones" for your heating and cooling system.
   
• Speakers
  Speakers come in a wide variety of styles and shapes.  Improvements in the designs of in-wall and in-ceiling models make them an eye-pleasing alternative to box speakers, with no sacrifice in sound.
                            
• Room to Grow
  You wouldn't buy a PC with insufficient memory to support new programs. The same thinking goes behind selecting a whole-house music system. It must be expandable, i.e., able to handle new music sources (a second CD player or a hard disk recorder, for example) with no difficulty. Some whole-house music processors can be upgraded via software.

Speakers...

It’s easier than ever to have music in every room. If you are building a new home or planning to remodel your existing home—it’s a no-brainer. These days there are speakers designed for every situation and listening preference. Custom Technologies can help you choose the right speakers and ensure that your home is properly wired for optimum performance.
There is both an art and a science that go into the placement and installation of speakers for a whole-house music system. For foreground music, it is usually best to place the speakers in the room in such a way as to provide stereo left and right imaging when you are facing the main feature of the room. This feature could be a large picture window or fireplace in a family room, an entertainment center or armoire in a living room, or a centralized cooking area in a kitchen. In a bedroom, the speakers are best placed over the foot of the bed. Always face the speakers toward the main sitting location of the room.

Balance is the key to a quality sound system. Large rooms, such as living rooms, typically have acoustic challenges. These rooms have soft, sound-absorbing furniture and carpets that effectively muffle music volume, or conversely, leather furniture or a lot of glass can reflect the sound.

In any room, bear in mind that sound propagation is very similar to that of light (angle of incidence equals angle of reflection). When we design your system we can use this information to make a room “sound” larger or more intimate, much the same way as lighting is used to define a room’s ambiance and establish comfort.

Controlling the Sound...

Devices to control the volume in each room are what make the system accessible and usable. Every room should have a means of adjusting the volume independently of the other rooms in the home. Because each volume control requires its own wiring, this is an important item to review during the wiring phase of installation.

As you can see there are many details that go into planning a home-system.  Even with extensive planning its never a bad idea to route wire to more locations than you are going to use immediately, keeping your options open for the future.