Poor Man's Whole House Audio?

robtheauditor asks: "I would love to have my music in all the various rooms of our house. I can't afford the thousands for a turnkey system. What are the possibilities for a poor man's whole house audio system? For example, would it be possible to take my PC external audio connector and feed it to a bunch of powered speakers in different rooms? Could I just bring a bunch of 3.5mm plugs wired together in parallel, or would that not work? I was thinking that even if the signal is weak because it is split to 6 different speaker pairs, because the speakers are powered it wouldn't matter. Or will I risk burning out my sound card?"

Comments

Preamp necessary

[TripMaster Monkey]

Could I just bring a bunch of 3.5mm plugs wired together in parallel, or would that not work? I was thinking that even if the signal is weak because it is split to 6 different speaker pairs, because the speakers are powered it wouldn't matter. Or will I risk burning out my sound card?

Doesn't matter if the speakers are powered...by the time you split the signal six ways it'll be so attenuated that amplifying it at the destination will also amplify the problems, including distortion and noise in the line (especially if your speaker wires are unshielded). If you want to supply six pairs of speakers, you'll need a very strong starting signal..and your soundcard by itself is probably not up to the challenge. You'll have to preamp the signal before you split it. Shielded speaker wires wouldood idea as well. be a g

FM Transmitter + Cheap Radios

[wcspxyx]

Seriously. Spend your money on getting a really good FM transmitter. Then any radio you can buy becomes a speaker for the system. No wires to run, no hassles.