Low Voltage Archives

audio system – roon with meridian endpoints

I used Roon with a combination of Meridian DSP and Monitor Audio speakers. I am sold on Roon’s interface and am a long time Meridian fanboy, so this was an easy one.

Roon server, they call it a “core,” is running on a Hackintosh I built a few years ago. It is still a pretty solid machine, 3.5 GHz i7 with four cores, SSD, etc. Roon is set up with a Tidal HiFi plan, which serves up at least CD quality (16 bit 44kHz) and also MQA (they call Masters, typically 24 bit 96 kHz), plus a local library of music on the server,which sits on a shelf in the Middle Atlantic rack in the mechanical room.

We have two Meridian DSP speaker zones and four pairs of Monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers. The Meridian speakers are the main living area surround sound setup, which is a G61R processor hooked up to 2xDSP5500s (24/96 model), 1xDSP5000C (also 24/96), and a pair of DSP320s in the ceiling for surrounds. A Meridian 218 feeds the G61R through a Reviver (and I am using Revivers for the older DSP speakers). Then we have a MS200 feeding an AC200 that is hooked up to a pair of DSP520s in the master bedroom.

The Monitor Audio speakers (three pairs of CWT160s inside, one pair of AWC265s outside under a soffit over the main deck area) are fed by MS200s and Meridian 258, and I ran Monoprice 12 gauge speaker wire, which was maybe overkill, 14 gauge or even 16 gauge might have been fine. But while the walls were open I figured might as well err on the side of caution and run fairly hefty wires.

I put all of the Meridian end points on fixed IP addresses. While setting up I noticed firmware versions were not consistent. We have a Mac household and as far as I can tell the only way to update firmware in the MS200s, maybe the 218 too, is to fire up the Meridian Sooloos Configuration utility on a Windows machine. I always had trouble configuring Meridian kit with a Mac running Windows in a virtual machine, so I knuckled under and bought a reconditioned Dell Latitude 630 with a SSD on eBay for $225. The way the Sooloos configuration tool updates things is strange, it just does it, no messages, no user interaction required or possible.

System is awesome. Sound is great, interface is easy to use, etc.

doorbell – DoorBird

New house and seems like you have to go with some sort of a smart video capable doorbell. The obvious choices are Ring and Nest, maybe SkyBell, the less obvious choice is DoorBird, which is what we went with. Ring and other lock you into recurring billing arrangements and they are closed API, big negatives for me. DoorBirds don’t pop up on all the top 10 lists, but they are on some of them and probably should be on all of them. Open API, good functionality, German company, good documentation, pretty good looking, cost in line with other options at $350, not cheap but Ring is trying to sell their high end model at the same price, and I think they started at $500. Also important to me was hard-wired (vs wi-fi) and POE.

I ran Cat6 to the doorbell location, 48 inches above the entry deck level, which seems to be the generally accepted height for video doorbells. The electrician also ran 3-conductor to the doorbell location, and also to a doorbell location in the entry foyer area. In hindsight I should have also made a Cat6 run to the doorbell location.

The DoorBird comes with a fairly bulky female RJ45 to a connector that goes to the doorbell, about an inch by an inch, so if you want to use that you need to have room behind the sheathing for that, and if you have already blown insulation probably more trouble than it is worth. We have Cembonit siding at the doorbell location, furred out by an inch from the sheathing, but subs just left me a hole a bit bigger than the wires so no way to stuff the dongle in there without some siding surgery. So I just spliced in connectors to the Cat6, and I also hooked up the doorbell wires in case I want to try to use the NuTone bell my electrical sub put in.

I drilled holes in the Cembonit a bit bigger than some 2″ #8 wood screws and fastened the bracket to the sheathing, being careful not to torque down on the unsupported Cembonit. Drilling holes in the cement board is hard, they call out using a carbide tipped drill and I went to get a few of those to get the job done.

Here is the mounted doorbell. Patched it in to the switch and it fired right up. Download the DoorBird app to your smart phone and set up is pretty straight forward.

I also hooked up a DoorBird IP Door Chime, for now it is just hanging on the side of the equipment rack in the mechanical room. It is not very loud so probably can’t be too hidden away to be useful, and/or might need to get another one.

The smartphone app is pretty slick. Live video any time you like, and you can talk to a person at the door. The DoorBird people provide some level of free hosting of pictures and maybe video for free, if you want to keep more than that there is a paid plan. Or you can integrate this thing with a Synology NAS, which I will do for video storage (along with a couple of Hikvision cameras). As I said DoorBird’s API is open and there are a lot of integration options.

low voltage wiring/structured cabling diy overview

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do for data/audio/video/security so I figured it didn’t really make sense to have to explain what I wanted to someone else and then pay them a lot of money to do it. A high end installer might have added a little bit of value, but again at a high cost and based on a couple of conversations I had with installers I knew more about what I wanted to do than they did.

For data plan was to wire the house pretty thoroughly, I settled on using Cat 6a. More on that here.

For audio plan was Roon with Meridian endpoints. That required some data, 120v to Meridian DSP speakers, and speaker wire to some in-ceiling speakers. More on that here.

For video plan was for a cable box and a Plex server hooked up to a HDHomeRun with a cable card. One or two RG6 Quad Shield runs to each TV location for that. There are Plex client apps for Apple TV and smart TVs, so my plan is for a cable box at the main TV, everywhere else live TV via a Plex app and so delivered over ethernet.

Security and safety plan was for an Elk alarm/security system and Nest Protects for smoke and CO2. For the Elk control pads I ran Cat 6, rest of that will be wireless. Nest Protects are wired for power but interconnect is wireless. More on security here, and more on the Nest Protects here.

I also ran 2-conductor low voltage wire to locations where I guessed we would want powered roller blinds. More on that here.

Lighting I was initially thinking we would go with Lutron RadioRA 2, so I completed the online training for that and pulled down the application to design the system, but along the way they came out with RA2 Select, which uses the same wireless (and wired) switches, so I redirected over to RA2 Select. Back on installers, I had a proposal from one installer for a Lutron Homeworks QS system for the house at $33k for just lighting. I think I ended up spending about $6k for RA2 dimmers and switches to get me pretty much the same functionality in a system that I can easily maintain myself (not to mention that I don’t really like home run wiring for lighting, when there is a glitch you are more at the mercy of the electronics controlling the system, vs RA2 which also operates as conventional switching with the wireless control and programming flexibility as an added layer). More on our lighting here.

HVAC control is a combination of Nests for the radiant heat and proprietary LG thermostats for the forced air. More on that here.

Structured wiring in the house all goes back to a Middle Atlantic rack in the mechanical room.

I decided to take a pass on running fiber. Path for that inside the home is too unclear for me, and 10Gps ethernet is going to be enough for quite awhile, I think. I also didn’t run much conduit, the amount of steel in the house combined with the open living area/layout meant that runs were pretty convoluted and installing, never mind pulling, through conduit would have been tough …