Boys Toys- ceiling speakers

Finally some fun stuff-I am bored of looking for light switches , windows , bathroom taps. Some of the toys I want - Audio gear.

As explained earlier the whole house will be decked out with multi room audio. All the rooms will have ceiling speakers.

I got in touch with Simon at Bartlett's Hi-Fi in London. I explained what  my requirements and budget were and Simon came up with the below package.

For the Lounge

I will be having a 5.1 home cinema set up which will have 3 Monitor Audio CT-265IDC for the Front Left, Centre and Right. Ceiling speakers aren't ideal for a 5.1 set up as it's hard to separate the left, right, centre , rear speakers from one another as they're firing downwards. The good thing with these speakers is that the tweeter is directional and you can point it to where you're sitting which helps address the problem of being able to focus the sound. They are 3 ways speakers so should be able to handle most frequencies with ease.

The 2 rear speakers will be Monitor Audio CT265-FX. These speakers have dipole tweeters to help with the rear surround.

To handle the bass I am going to go for a R370HD subwoofer. It comes in various colours to match most interiors. I am waiting till the interior is done before I commit to this. It will most likely be white or oak.

The kitchen diner, will have 4 speakers, the bedrooms will have 2 and the Study will also have 2. These will all be Monitor Audio CT165. There are perfectly good for background music and do not need to be as focused as the 5.1 speakers however they still have a directional tweeter.

The bathrooms will have one speaker unit in the ceiling but the speaker will handle both the left and right audio. These will be Monitor Audio CT165-T2.

Outdoor Audio

I will have  a pair of speakers outside. I am going for a pair of white all weather  Monitor Audio CL50s for this.

Overall I am very pleased with range of speakers that Monitor Audio provide which is why I have gone with them. The speakers are very pleasing to the eye , as well as the ear and have a good range that suits most budgets. 

A big thank you to Simon at Bartlett's Hifi. He was extremely patient through the selection process and worked very hard to get all the speakers within my budget. 

Kit list, the Audio Visual Gear

I wanted a clean minimalist look with the Audio Video Gear. I've had years of AMPs, 5.1 speakers etc on show , but now want a clean look. Because of this I will be compromising on sound and will be going for ceiling speakers in the lounge, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen. One of the bedrooms will double as my music room which will house a dedicated hi-fi.

Kit in the lounge

Amp
Denon AVR 3313 

This amp has 2 video zone outs, meaning it can feed Sky in the lounge area to the speakers and TV, as well as feeding a Blu- Ray to a bedroom , and playing the Radio to speakers in the Garden - all at once.

It also has two video outputs for one zone- which means I can plug in my projector and TV to the amp and make do with out a HDMI switch.

I will have the Amp feeding the 5.1 speakers in the lounge and TV and Projector, I will use the 2nd Zone to feed Video to the TV in the bedroom and the 2nd Zone for music to power some Garden speakers. The Amp is also controllable by an iPad or iPhone.

Video Sources

Sky HD Box- this will feed into the AMP
Sony PS3 for both gaming and Blu ray discs
Mac Mini running Plex - I use a Mac running Plex to organise all my movies and TV Shows.
Toshiba HD-E1 - Yes i got suckered into buying one of these before the PS3 when I thought it would win the HD battle. It's still a great machine and does a great job upscaling DVDs so will have this connected too.

Projector Epson TW-3500

TV ,a new Samsung LED will be bought which has Smart Apps built in

Storage
2 TB ReadyNas Duo by Netgear
3 TB Apple Time Machine

Both the above will store movies for the Mac and music for the Sonos.

Bedroom/Bathroom/Kitchen and dining area

2 ZP120 Sonos Zone players - Multi room Audio , bought to the masses. The only multi room solution in my opinion.

One player will power 2 speakers in the master bedroom and a speaker in the en-suite and the other speaker in the shower room downstairs.

These will be controlled by two CR-200 controllers, an ipad and iPhone.

One player will power 4 speakers in the kitchen and dining area.

Speakers in Lounge , bedrooms and bathrooms will all be monitor audio. Yet to be determined which exact model.

Master bedroom will also have a Samsung LED 40"6000 Series

Music room

TDL rtl 3 speakers- I have had these for 16 years and still love them
Ariston RD-40 record deck
Linn Kolektor and LK140 amp
Linn Genki CD player
Sony 510 Mini disc deck

The guest bedroom and study will be wired for ceiling speakers but will not be connected to any yet.

All the equipment will be house in a the space under the stairs. With sonos running on it's on Wifi network , this means I do not IR repeaters and such.