earthling @ Aug 23rd 2008 1:42PM

I think you really have to consider what you get with a Nuvo system. I looked at all the whole house audio systems on the market and nothing comes close to the nuvo, everything else is more expense and/or more complicated or simply so far below the nuvo, especially the grand concerto, that its not funny.

I picked up my nuvo system (GC) off of ebay for $3100 WITH 6 sets of speakers (new). Compare that to the other whole house audio systems. Installation was a breeze, and the expansion capabilities are decent. I have about $5800.00 tied up in my system now with the nuvo expander and I have 12 zones, 12 rooms plus two sets outdoors wired up with really decent background music. The six sources are AM/FM/XM, plus 4 different virtual MP3 servers (casatunes software running an m-audio card all in one PC), and a dedicated channel that allows me to monitor any of the television channels from two different PVRs (pace HD set top boxes).

Adding music is very easy. I am using windows media center which auto-rips my cds, and casatunes (www.casatools.com) as my control software, it completely supports the Nuvo system right out of the box. From any internet connected devices (two PCs, an iphone, and three macs at the house or from work or anywhere else) I can see my entire music library, dial up any track, album, playlist etc and send the audio to any one of 12 zones. (still have 4 spare zones).

On the video side I am using windows media center extenders (read xbox 360) which double as game machines. The output is pumped through an HDMI matrix and HDMI extenders (75 foot run) which allows each TV in the house to choose between two HD PVRs and two xbox 360s. All media is served by the same media center system. With the video side included I have about $7K in my system (not counting TVs).

Compare that to my neighbor across the street who has a crestron/kaleidoscope system which is restricted to standard definition and three audio sources. Yeah, he can control his curtains and the doorbell mutes his audio, but he has more than $70K in this system (12 zones, 16 rooms, three touchscreens,some home automation). Our systems were finished around the same time, when he saw ours he just about had a fit. Our keypads are more intuitive (Nuvo OLED), we have more options for music sources, the whole thing is easier to use and more flexible, and it sounds and looks better (HDMI 1080p vs component 1080i). His comment was.. I spent $60K more so my wife didn't have to twist a rod on the blinds, which just about sums it up.


getting back to the original post.

The hardest part of the entire installation was wiring it into the house and believe me, that can take days if you are doing it prior to the walls going up and a week or more if you are adding into an existing house. Being able to extend the system over powerline would be a HUGE timesaver and well worth it to anyone who is interested in adding whole house audio.

just sayin..