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A Unique Home Audio Question (1 Viewer)

ChiefD

Footballguy
Hi there. This may be a unique question or maybe not. But here is what I've got.

My house was built in 1967. At the time they installed one of those whole house audio/intercom systems. Each room in my house has a speaker where I can hear the radio or use the intercom if I so desire.

In the kitchen is the original control center: basically a radio with buttons on the side where I can control which room gets music and such. Believe it or not it still works, though it has to "warm up".   :lol:

I have a couple of options here:

1. I can just remove all the speakers and the unit itself, patch over the holes, and move on.

2. Come up with a solution to replace the speakers and the control center with a house house system. I have wires run to all the speakers back to the control center. So I "could" do a wired system. The downside is the wires are not optimal for high end audio, but I'm not looking to spend thousands of dollars here.

I could run new wires - I have open attic space above each room and could pull new wires by using the old wires as pull cords. By the grace of God the original installers were morons and didn't secure those speaker wires inside the walls. I know wireless is an option, but would seem to be pricier?

Any ideas would be appreciated.  :banned:

 
I like what you found on Amazon.

I think you just need to figure out what you want for your house. I rarely listen to the radio while at home, but I stream music a bit. I am using google home, with 4 speakers around the house (and can add more if I like). I can stream to all, a few, or one speaker.. and different sources to different speakers. So my wife can stream to a speaker in her office while I am streaming in my kitchen or while outside.

 
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I bought Sonos speakers, including the One, which runs on Alexa. I have a bunch of 3s and a 5 throughout the house. They are awesome and NOT bluetooth. They are networked.

Stuff is pricey, which is why I bought them most on Craigslist. Great sound, great tech. Perhaps an option for you?

 
I'd keep that tube amp somehow and try to add inputs to it somehow. 

But I don't do wireless speakers or Alexa or any home automation cuz I don't trust it. 

 
I had one very similar in our Houston house. I would not replace it with a modern equivalent wired system since you will wind up with an oddball system that will be tough to fix or possibly use in the future, especially since they aren't popular.

Amazon Echo can do everything those old systems can do better and also provide more options. I would focus on a modern alternative like that.

 
I'd keep that tube amp somehow and try to add inputs to it somehow. 

But I don't do wireless speakers or Alexa or any home automation cuz I don't trust it. 
You're not alone, but what exactly don't you trust?  Eventually there's only so much other people can listen to.  I'm sure they've moved on from our boring home.

 
You're not alone, but what exactly don't you trust?  Eventually there's only so much other people can listen to.  I'm sure they've moved on from our boring home.
I don't trust that Amazon and Google aren't listening to me a building even bigger data profiles on me and my family.  Sonos might be OK... haven't looked at them really.

 
We had the early-1990s version of that in our house. It barely worked. We took it out after we bought the house and patched the holes. 

We have Amazon Echo devices in most of our rooms. The Alexa app allows you to use your phone to contact the Echo device in any of the rooms and talk anyone in that room. My teenage daughter has a cell phone, so I can just reach her that way, but my younger son doesn't have a phone. I was at the grocery store and needed to ask him something, so I was able to connect to the Echo in his room via my phone and talk to him. But that's pretty much a once-in-a-great-while kind of situation. We do use the devices as an intercom to talk to other rooms in the house, though. Also, if you have an Echo device in your bedroom, just know that Amazon will be able to listen to you and your wife have sex. Maybe you're into that, who knows. 

 
I don't trust that Amazon and Google aren't listening to me a building even bigger data profiles on me and my family.  Sonos might be OK... haven't looked at them really.
They probably are.  I just wonder what the concern is at this point with that.

 
If you set up a wireless network (I have three Google Nest routers), you can link them to spotify and play music on any end-use device you add to the network.  So your TVs, Alexas, XBox, computers, etc all become remote options to play music.  Not sure if that's on point for your Q, but it's doable for like $500 and a good internet connection if you have smart TVs.

 
They probably are.  I just wonder what the concern is at this point with that.
I don't want to support further erosion of privacy for more features.  I have wired speakers in my house and an old Denon receiver to drive them.  I have a small bluetooth dongle that I can use to send audio from my phone to the receiver and a 110 disc CD changer and turntable to use for non-streaming.

 
Hi there. This may be a unique question or maybe not. But here is what I've got.

My house was built in 1967. At the time they installed one of those whole house audio/intercom systems. Each room in my house has a speaker where I can hear the radio or use the intercom if I so desire.

In the kitchen is the original control center: basically a radio with buttons on the side where I can control which room gets music and such. Believe it or not it still works, though it has to "warm up".   :lol:

I have a couple of options here:

1. I can just remove all the speakers and the unit itself, patch over the holes, and move on.

2. Come up with a solution to replace the speakers and the control center with a house house system. I have wires run to all the speakers back to the control center. So I "could" do a wired system. The downside is the wires are not optimal for high end audio, but I'm not looking to spend thousands of dollars here.

I could run new wires - I have open attic space above each room and could pull new wires by using the old wires as pull cords. By the grace of God the original installers were morons and didn't secure those speaker wires inside the walls. I know wireless is an option, but would seem to be pricier?

Any ideas would be appreciated.  :banned:
I had one of these (or similar, house built in 1976) and I just removed it and patched the holes.  Also terminated the power lines to the main unit.  

I considered what you're looking at but my house is two story and I cannot run wires from the attic so I really didn't have the options you have.  We still have one unit outside next to the back door, but I would have to patch the brick wall if I replace it.  Otherwise the other 5 units in the house have been patched over and it looks like they were never there.  

 
i had a matador back in the day and it was a real pile of crap mostly rust and bondo and hell if a magnet would even stick to it but it had that straight 6 and she just ran no matter what anyhow the old 8 tracker in there still worked fine but the speakers were all blown so i went to the junkyard and just pulled out as many speakers as i could find and i put them damn near everywhere i could in that baby used a couple 2x4s and some wire to hang them in the trunk under the rear window added a couple in the front doors i mean everywhere didnt have enough amplifier so it sounded like crap but hey it was fun any old how that is what you should do go to the junkyard and get a literal crapton of old speakers and just wire them off of every intercom box and just let the tunes rip you will have the happenest pad in the city take that to the bank and you are welcome in advance brohan 

 

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