# iphone controlled home audio



## panelbuilder (Jul 12, 2013)

I was looking at whole home audio systems with the keypads the other day and I wondered,

do whole home (central amp) systems exist where the system can be controlled with just an iPhone?

I have looked into sonos but when a house is already wired for speakers, I don't see why a wireless system is needed.

Thoughts?


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

Russound can be controlled with an iPad/iPhone and probably even iPod.


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## Hulkulous (Jun 10, 2014)

I actually have some experience with a number of systems that allow for iphone/android controlled audio systems. In my experience the best value is that "Nexus" brand. I think it does up to 6 zones on its own, and up to more with zone expanders. Nexus stuff uses Bang&Ulfson parts I think so it sounds really good (at least to my ears) with decent speakers.

And yeah, full iphone support with those guys.


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## Wired4Life10 (Jul 9, 2011)

I prefer the Russound C series. Check out the C5 kit. Sounds like what you need and it's stackable to 48 zones if I remember correctly.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

Wired4Life10 said:


> I prefer the Russound C series. Check out the C5 kit. Sounds like what you need and it's stackable to 48 zones if I remember correctly.


Careful though, you only get 8 sources. And for control wire, run shielded with a drain to any keypads. 


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

I have Russound C5 in my house and always put that in customer's homes.. haven't tried other stuff though, it just works and works well and sounds great, why fix what isn't broken.

Like Wired4life said, one controller does 8 zones and you can stack up to 6 controllers for 48 zones.

I just run regular old cat5e to the control pads and have never had any trouble. YMMV.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

FrunkSlammer said:


> I just run regular old cat5e to the control pads and have never had any trouble. YMMV.


Yea, me too... Until you do have trouble......in a house with all venetian plaster walls and retrofitting cable isn't an option. You can have all sorts of fun, locking up every few days for Hors d'oeuvres, coming on full blast 3:00AM for the magnum opus....

Run shielded control wires




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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

Shielding protects against poltergeist!? They should put that on the box!


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

IMO, it's either mistro dinners or specific LED drivers that cause the problem. After dozens of emails and phone calls to russound on this issue they admitted that tie data corruption was cumulitive and the work arround was to put the MCA-C5 on a timer that powered it down for 5 minutes at 3:00AM and that solved the problem. Stacking ferrite cores on the CAT5 helped a lot, frequency went from hours to days, but it took a daily power cycle to solve the problem.


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## panelbuilder (Jul 12, 2013)

Thank you for the advice guys!


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## Hulkulous (Jun 10, 2014)

I dunno about the Russound. We have the Russound systems in some of the show homes that I host at on the weekends. Its not like the systems have any problems working or anything like that but I just don't like the sound that seems to come out of them. There are 3 houses that use the Russound systems and I find that the Russound don't sound nearly as nice as the one with the Nexus and they all use the same speakers.

Plus the Nexus one is way cheaper. In my opinion the only draw back of the nexus system is it is not "home automation". Its just sound. But its great sound and its easy to use and it works.


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

five.five-six said:


> IMO, it's either mistro dinners or specific LED drivers that cause the problem. After dozens of emails and phone calls to russound on this issue they admitted that tie data corruption was cumulitive and the work arround was to put the MCA-C5 on a timer that powered it down for 5 minutes at 3:00AM and that solved the problem. Stacking ferrite cores on the CAT5 helped a lot, frequency went from hours to days, but it took a daily power cycle to solve the problem.


That sounds like a horror story for sure. Was it just one zone that was haunted?



Hulkulous said:


> I find that the Russound don't sound nearly as nice as the one with the Nexus and they all use the same speakers.


Which speakers are you referring to?


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## Hulkulous (Jun 10, 2014)

I'm not sure what the model is but the brand of speakers are "monitor audio".


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

Next house I should install my Russound C5 and put Nexus in my house and see what it's like. I really like Russound, but if you're saying Nexus sounds even better.. it's worth trying! I like that Nexus is a Canadian company.


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## Djnigel (Dec 10, 2011)

russound is ok but i prefer nuvo myself, you could also go the sonos way they do have zone amps that have a built in amp that you can wire your speaker lines- i.e 16-4 to and control it from your iPhone, also nuvo has a app that you can control it to.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

FrunkSlammer said:


> That sounds like a horror story for sure. Was it just one zone that was haunted?


26 years in the trade and it was far and away the worst. It would lock up the entire C5 mostly, occasionally it would just come on. Early in trouble shooting i had made the false assumption that it was not the keypads by disconnecting 1-4 for a few days then 5-8 and failing under both conditions. A lot of time was spent power and temp logging and Rnet isolating before i returned to the keypads. By the time the customer made it not my problem (kicked me off the job) i had identified 3 keypads that were responsible. 

It sucked. 




> Which speakers are you referring to?


I didn't say anything about speakers, i like proficient... I just got authorized for Martin Logan today! WOOT! 




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## Kiknads (Nov 30, 2012)

My neighbor picked up one of these the other day

http://www.htd.com/Products/mid-level-whole-house-audio

He seems really happy with it. I've only really intstalled the breathe audio stuff before.


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## Tikola Nesla (Aug 3, 2014)

So looking to test out the competition to Russound... what is as good or better than Russound, but cheaper? I can probably put together a Russound C5 with 6 room controls, and 6 sets of speakers for just under $3000CDN.


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## jeffmoss26 (Dec 8, 2011)

Worked on a Sonos system last night, the controller plugs into the router and speakers are wireless, control via iPhone.


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## Batfink (Jul 9, 2014)

I was just about to order a Russound system but last second I got the sonos instead. 6 play 5 systems and I am a happy guy, easy pleasy. In a couple weeks I plan to get 2 for the shop.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

Batfink said:


> I was just about to order a Russound system but last second I got the sonos instead. 6 play 5 systems and I am a happy guy, easy pleasy. In a couple weeks I plan to get 2 for the shop.


I think sonos costs quite a bit more than the russound and i don't think it integrates as well with 3 rd party control solutions. It does seem really good for a wireless solution. 

Wholesale on a MCAC5 with 8 sources, 6 amplified zones and 2 line level zones is under $1700, at $450 zone sonos will cost about twice that. 


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## DCooper (Dec 6, 2011)

Have you looked at iRule?


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