49 speakers, $30,000
Sonance Virtuoso speakers flood the great room
(Credit: EH Publishing)What would it take to flood sound into every inch of a 7,500-square-foot home? Try 49 speakers and $30,000.
That's how Marge and Chuck Dushek did it with their Midwestern home, where "even the steam shower and walk-in closet have their own speakers," according to Electronic House. "There are absolutely no dead zones in this house," Ken Walker of Sound Design Systems says.
Top-grade Sonance speakers were built into walls and ceilings of the great room, master bedroom and an area adjacent to the kitchen. Alas, compromises had to be made in the rest of the house to meet their budget (they had a budget?), so lower-end speakers from Sonance and Elan were used in the rest of the home. Most of the equipment is hidden in the basement, all controlled by an Elan System 6 "whole-house" audio system.
The only thing it needs is a home theater in a pool like the one we mentioned yesterday installed in a Wisconsin home. What is it about the Midwest these days, anyway?
With all those wires running around I hope there is a fire department close by and their homeowner's insurance is up-to-date.
By the way, water (steam shower) and electricity dont mix...but I guess the midwest hasnt learned that yet...
anyone's concern. the fact that they installed 49 speakers is interesting, but i
don't think its really necessary to get worked up over it.
As for this article, it's not a "49 speaker surround sound." It's a house with 49 speakers in it, and it's not that rare. I sell and install this stuff for a living, and we've done a house that had a $130,000 bill from us when we were done, and that was an excellent deal. (To be fair, his house was built for $7 million.)
I'm sure that some would argue that 30k is an absurd amount to spend, and some would argue that it's a pittance for today's custom installation market, but it's a challenge that I face every day in selling Bang & Olufsen that people don't understand the investment they're making even when they are spending a lot of money.
You can look at the room and see the lack of imagination with which these people live. There's no personality to the architecture, like every other McMansion across the US, and there's no personality in the decor, as if it all came out of the same catalog!
What kills me as an A/V salesman, and I think that many who sell higher end gear of any brand would agree, that people don't yearn for the real performance stuff anymore. To use a car analogy, I drive a Honda, but I dream of driving an Aston Martin. It seems that most people drive Hondas and dream of driving other nearly identical Hondas! Not that there's anything wrong with a Honda, I'm just saying that when you've got a 30k budget, is Sonance in every room really the most gusto you're capable of?
- $30,000 isn't that much...
- by bigwormonmine March 21, 2007 3:46 PM PDT
- in the grand scheme of things, this is not that much to spend on what you like if it is your dream house and you are going to be there for 10+ years. I seriously considered a similar project with each b&w in ceiling costing $600. But I decided against it because I knew that was not going to be our final home. I decided on a sonos system instead.
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