Building a house with a whole-home audio system (2024)

Why it pays to plan your system before you build

Step 1 — Decide where you want music

A lot of people waituntil their new house is built to decide where they want to put speakers. But if you plan before construction starts,you canchoose the perfect locations for all your speakers. And it's a whole lot easier to run wires to them before the walls are in place!

After finalizing the blueprints for his house, Mark and his wife Brittany began planning their system. "We wanted to agree on where we wanted sound, how we wanted to control it, and then wire everything accordingly," Mark said.

Theydecided on one pair of Polk MC60 in-ceiling speakers in the basem*nt, one pair on the front porch, and one on the screened backporch.And for the master bathroom, they chose a stereo input speaker — a space-saving way to get two-channel sound from a single speaker.

For the back patio and out front by the garage, they chose two pairs of Polk Atrium6 outdoor speakers. "I like them because they have big woofers for more punch,"Mark said of his outdoor speakers, adding that it's great to have tunes pumping by the basketball court and out back.

Step 2 — Choose gear to power and control your system

In-ceiling and outdoor speakersneed power. So you'll need one or more amplifiers to hook them up. Mark chose a single 12-channel AudioSource amp that could direct power to all six of his in-ceiling and outdoor speaker locations.

Now that he had his speakers and amp picked out, Mark needed a preamplifier to add music sources to his system. He wanted to play Spotify, Pandora, and internet radio stations throughout the house from his phone. So he chose the Yamaha WXC-50 streaming preamp.

The WXC-50uses Yamaha's MusicCast wireless multi-room audio platform to stream music through all ofMark's in-ceiling and outdoor speakers. "I've always been partial to Yamaha for sound quality and reliability," he said. He also mentioned that the MusicCast app is easy to use.

Mark also has MusicCast equipped Yamaha receivers in his home theater and basem*nt surround sound setups, so he can use the MusicCast app to control everything at once.

Step 3 — Decide where your control center will go

Next, Mark had to decide where to put the amp and preamp. "We decided to put the gear in the basem*nt so it was out of sight, and away from the kids," he explained. They had planned to build a closet under the basem*nt stairs, which would be theperfect location for a rackto housethe control gear.

Step 4 — Run wire and install speaker brackets and volume controls before drywall goes up

Before walls go up, run all the wire you think you might ever need! Once the framework for his new home was in place, Mark ran more than 1,000 feet of speaker wire to the speaker installation locations, all leading to the basem*nt closet where he would later install his amp.

Though Mark wanted to control the system with his phone, he decided to run his speaker wire through volume control boxes in each room. "We wanted volume controls in case the internet ever went out," he said. "It's not the best in rural America."

Mark also installed preconstruction brackets for the ceiling speakers. These brackets help pinpoint the exact location for each speaker and make installation easier. They have wings that can be attached to the framework with screws, staples, or nails.

Once the wire runs were complete and the brackets and volume control boxes were in place, the drywall went up. Then Mark installed the speakers and volume controllers.

The finished product

When we visited Mark after the house was finished, he had music playing everywhere. "I'm really happy with how everything sounds," Mark said. "For get-togethers, it's nice to have music playing throughout my house that's easy to control."

Need help figuring it all out?

There's a lot to consider when shopping for whole-home audio gear. If you need personal advice, our expert Advisors are happy to answer any questions you might have. Contact ustoday.