ᐅ Planning and implementing a home audio system in a renovation project?

Hello everyone,

We are currently planning and carrying out the renovation of our single-family home. Right now, the focus is on electrical wiring and networking, making sure there are enough power outlets (about 12 per room) and network ports (at least 2 connections per room).

A question about audio systems came up rather spontaneously, and I’m wondering if, with today’s technology, it is still necessary to install large amounts of speaker wire. How have you handled this, or how would you approach it, especially regarding speakers in the kitchen or bathroom?

Does anyone have experience with ceiling speakers?

I would be very grateful for any ideas and suggestions and look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
DerZert

Wow, that brings back memories. Thirty years ago, I read everything about whether you can hear if you cross the shields of gold-plated cables 🙂

With fully digital setups, you can probably treat the music as a bitstream, but vinyl is making a comeback. And analog cables are never too thick or have too many strands, amplifier power supplies are never too fast, and so on. As an enthusiast, you can really open endless discussions on these topics.

Still, my experience with *clears throat* waiting room speakers is that they’re not as bad as you might expect. The resonance volume makes a big difference, and even using something like “loosely defined padding” can work wonders. Car speakers are also quite decent for this.

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In times of Sonos and Echo, I wouldn’t even consider something like that for the bathroom and kitchen.

I’ll admit I’m a HiFi fan with a Yamaha and Onkyo system paired with Canton Fonum speakers. We didn’t install anything concealed in the walls, as that feels too restrictive. The two-core pure copper cables run discreetly along the baseboard and don’t interfere visually. I consider multi-room sound systems unnecessary. First, you shouldn’t have to impose the “Rhenish Symphony” or Ten Years After on everyone in the house just because you want to listen. Second, to me, HiFi means sitting down centered between the speakers, closing the door, and really listening. Not background noise playing all the time. That’s better achieved with Sonos or MP3 players via Bluetooth. So why install ceiling speakers and multi-room audio?

Otherwise, I can only encourage you not to give up on HiFi. I know Teufel Raumfeld, Sonos, and Bose setups that are probably expensive, high quality, and wireless—but none of them deliver the warmth or clarity in the highs that a true stereo system provides. They all perform well with Helene Fischer, but not with a symphony or Pink Floyd. Everything sounds too bass-heavy and compressed. Karsten

For hi-fi, as described by Nordlys, a permanently installed speaker cable is, in my opinion, unnecessary and, if anything, rather inflexible (location, cable type).

For "background music" through ceiling speakers, like in a doctor's waiting room, I really don’t see an application in a single-family house. The question then is, where does the music come from, and where is the playback device located? The trend has long been moving toward Wi-Fi active speakers (Raumfeld, now Teufel, Sonos, etc.).

I am planning a fixed wiring setup for our house construction. However, it will follow a certain multiroom architecture, so that, for example, you can hear the sound from the living room TV while preparing food in the kitchen.