Can this be done and if so, how?

[jkmu]

Ok, newb question here as I am not good with electronics. I am having a house built and am going to be having the electrician start the prewire soon. I am going to have whole house audio and most likely will be using a Russound multi-source setup:

http://www.futurehomesystems.com/ruabk.shtml

My question is I am going to have a 5.1 surround setup in my living room but also want those speakers to be used for whole house audio preferably only the front left and right. I would like for that surround setup to be wired to the same receiver that is going to power the whole house audio. The receiver is a Sony model that is a few years old. For reference here is a link to it:

http://www.epinions.com/content_78452985476?sp=irev

How can this be done?

[Brian B]

It wasn't clear what Russound pieces you are getting, but usually you just wire the tape output of one receiver into one of the unused inputs of the 2nd receiver. Then, whatever source is playing from the 1st receiver can easily be selected as an input (ex. AUX) on the 2nd receiver.

You can use coax cables and terminate with RCAs or buy balanced line drivers or the like and send the signal via CAT5 and convert it at both ends, etc.

Brian

[Greg C]

Do yourself a favor and don't have the electrician do the pre-wire. Hire a professional. Most electricians don't know th right way of handling what you are requesting, and since you are a newb yourself, you can't guide him either. You don't have a location listed in your profile, so no one who is in your area can recomend any one to you. Try going to www.CEDIA.net for a listing of integration specialists in your area.

[jkmu]

Good advice Greg. I have already prepaid the builder for the electrician to prewire for whole house audio speakers but maybe I can hire a professional to do the other stuff like you were saying. I am in Columbus, Ohio if anybody has any good referrals.

[Scott Tucker]

jkmu, first thing is don't use the same receiver for whole house audio and your home theater unless you live alone and are sure you will never want the theater playing one thing and the speakers on the patio playing another. Unless of course the receiver in question is dual room/dual source then i guess you could get away with it. If at all possible get another receiver for the whole house system. Also, i believe you only need to run speaker wire from each keypad to each speaker, so make sure the electrician knows that. I know that sounds silly, but i know a guy who had no clue and his builder ran all the speaker wire to a home run, and never ran cat5 wire either. Even i screwed my own house up. I have 10 zones, and on one of the zones somehow i ran the cat5 to where the abus keypad went, but ran the speaker wire to the home run. Well, i will never really be able to hook up that zone without some major work. I would make damn sure the electrician knows exactly what and where to run wires cuz you can't do it later.

Scott

[Brian B]

Sounds like I misread your question. Do you want to have that older Sony receiver running the 5.1 system AND use it to run the whole house audio system??

As the other poster pointed out, this is not a good idea. The receiver is a bit long in the the tooth anyway. If you want to use a single piece of equipment, your best bet is to buy a 7.1 receiver that allows you to re-route 2 channels to be used for multiroom audio. That way you can listen to different things in the 5.1 area and throughout the rest of the house. You could always put on the same thing in the 5.1 area if you like.

Otherwise, you should investigate separate multi-room systems for maximum flexibility.

Brian