The key factor for me was the ability to have a local source in each zone. I wanted to have the TV’s in some zones utilize the whole house audio system and in ceiling speakers in those zones. For example, I can have the master bedroom TV playing on the master bedroom speakers; I can also pick up the master TV in any other zone if I want - in my case that’s typically the master bathroom. I did local sources in the master bed, game room, and home office. I also wired the local sources with HTD’s separate source input panel so I don’t have audio cable strung across the room.
If having a local audio source in your zones is not a requirement for you, you can certainly go with the mid-level system; I have no doubt it will still impress you and save you some money! I would, however, present your design to the folks at HTD before you make your decison. They may have ideas you hadn’t considered. I did this prior to buying my system, and they made some recommendations that saved me potential headache’s down the road with WAF issues!! ;D
I received an email this afternoon from HTD that the HTDNET-LYNC controller, which allows you to control their Lync system from a smart phone or tablet, is now available. Now if the SQ Blaster folks could just start shipping their new product,I’ll be in business!
Oh, and I do not work for HTD, I’ve just really been impressed by their products and service.
Is this the only sale they do? We are building a house and I was planning on doing a prewire, but I was getting the controller/amp later. Any idea if they do sales mid year?
Is this the only sale they do? We are building a house and I was planning on doing a prewire, but I was getting the controller/amp later. Any idea if they do sales mid year?[/quote]
Good Question. The answer is no. I was in the same position as you and missed the sale by a month. Had to wait 11 months for the sale. My wife is REALLY tired of the wires hanging out of the wall all year.
There is a mid year scratch and dent sale but that is for speakers. No amps or in-wall stuff that I have seen.
Is this the only sale they do? We are building a house and I was planning on doing a prewire, but I was getting the controller/amp later. Any idea if they do sales mid year?[/quote]
Good Question. The answer is no. I was in the same position as you and missed the sale by a month. Had to wait 11 months for the sale. My wife is REALLY tired of the wires hanging out of the wall all year.
There is a mid year scratch and dent sale but that is for speakers. No amps or in-wall stuff that I have seen.
Short answer: Buy it now if you want the 10%.[/quote]
What exactly are you trying to find? I am a Custom AV Integrator, I’d be glad to try and get you what you need. I’m a dealer for hundreds of brands.
[quote=“rogercfl, post:22, topic:169563”][u]I received an email this afternoon from HTD that the HTDNET-LYNC controller, which allows you to control their Lync system from a smart phone or tablet, is now available. Now if the SQ Blaster folks could just start shipping their new product,I’ll be in business!
Oh, and I do not work for HTD, I’ve just really been impressed by their products and service.[/u][/quote]
Me too, I like their products. I will buy some of it for my tablet.
I am new to all this as well but I am a computer programmer and sure I can figure it out with a little help.
I have a htd system with sq remote. A usb to serial adapter for my vera system to connect to my HTD mca-66. I got the serial rs232 commands from HTD but I do not know how to send serial commands.
Can someone point me in the right direction to where I can find documentation to get my self started?
Just call HTD for the information on the interface.
For the record, I spoke with HTD recently as I’m about to buy a system from them. They told me that they are going to be phasing out their proprietary control unit in favor of the iTach. Apparently there is an iTach interface for all of their systems. I’m going to be going this route.
Please share as you learn more about iTach and vera integration. I just checked the website quickly and did not see any info. I hope the info about the update is coming soon. That update might be just the ticket to make integration a little bit simpler.
So… I just called HTD to place my order and in the process the GC functionality was explained to me a little better. Apparently it’s an RS232 GC device they were speaking of. I was under the impression that there was an IR receiver on the amp which a normal iTach could send commands to. This is not the case. The only IR receivers are at the keypads. So a blaster would be needed for each keypad. Drag. Back to the drawing board I guess. I have all of my speakers installed with wires run. You’d think that Whole House Audio would be a little better integrated with Home Automation. At this point I too am willing to kick in a few $100 to have someone write and maintain a plugin for HTD systems. Maybe if all of the HTD system owners on the forum pitched in we could make it worth someone’s while.
Sonos has the advantage of no wires (absolutely no advantage for me as I’ve already run the wires and prefer a wired solution every time any way) and decent Vera integration. Aside from that it’s all cons for me. I play all of my music from my PC and I create playlists on the fly as my mood demands. It’s expensive. You have a clunky device in every room. Outdoor solutions are always a hack.
reading all this make me wonder if i should consider buy such a system like sonos or HTD. i now have my pc do about everything AV related and it let itself steer very well by vera and VLC player http input and can directly play on my samsung tv’s . i just want something to play separately from my livingroom amp for the doorbell and phone. i considered multi-room audio but im only sleeping in my bedroom and do not wish to have audio on the toilet or bathroom . i have a 1500 Watt RMS Yamaha Amplifier+subwoofer setup which does multi-room sound easely by cranking up the volume a bit. it will even let the neighbours across the street enjoy the music i play and shake the windows 6 houses ahead for that matter xD thing is i need something simple and running all day without to have to look at it for the nightly hours without getting the neighbours strait up in their bed. sonos looks nice but rather expensive for what my cellphone with a separate speakersystem also can do…
I keep running into things (sometimes by choice, sometimes not) that prevent me from plunking down $2000 for my multi-zone home audio. My AV amp has two zones and I’ve run speaker cable. My next step will be to get a pair of HTD in ceiling speakers and use as 2nd zone. It’ll be a baby step towards getting the fancier system. Newer home theater amps have web control. In my case, I’ll us my Sq blaster.
This will give me the ability, if I choose, to also control via Vera. It would probably be messy, but you could probably set things up so that a tripped sensor or other zwave event triggers a sound file to be played.
It would be pretty easy to set a “party” macro on sqremote that set the lights and music to pre-determined settings.
yeah, thats an idea to use the B speakers to do this stuff but my yamaha amp has a normal switch for that and no separate input for the B zone, just the output. i resorted in having a door-sensor wired to my doorbell button and let this trigger a scene where it makes a http call to my home-pc with VLC running on it. i could make it so that at night it would just turn on a light or something and during the day it switches a fibaro duo-switch which has the doorbell connected to it.
Of course the nicer HTD amp set up has add on doorbell and intercom functionality, but that costs even more. I have another thread where I detailed connecting a Dakota Alert doorbell and driveway sensors to Everspring z-wave door/window sensor. Pretty straight forward since both devices have outputs and inputs. Basement and hall lights blink if driveway alert is tripped. Bedroom lights blink if doorbell is tripped. It would be nice to figure out a simple audio add on solution to play a recorded file.