Audio

Entertain in style or relax to soft background music, cuddled up with a good book in front of the fireplace. Need a quick pick-me-up in the morning as you get ready for work? Crank up the tunes and get the blood flowing with your own personal sound system conveniently located in your master bedroom or master bathroom.

Single Source Multi-Zone – This means if you have multiple rooms/zones of music throughout the home, each room would have access to listen to 1 source at a time. Each zone would be able to adjust via a volume control located on the wall.

Multi-Source Multi-Zone – Here each room/zone of audio can select from multiple sources of audio, ex: CD, AM/FM tuner, IPOD, satellite, DVD and control the source and the system independently from each room via a keypad control located in the wall.

Audio equipment will consist of several pieces of equipment starting with either a receiver (Stereo or audio video surround), amplifiers, processors, and/or controllers. These devices will take the audio source (CD, DVD, satellite, tuner, IPOD, music server) information, amplify it, and distribute it out to speaker systems.

Speakers come in many shapes, sizes, styles and qualities.

In-ceiling and In-wall – These speakers are flush mounted inside walls or ceilings and are very popular ways to distribute quality audio while blending into the house decor.

Bookshelf – These speakers work well when you have a cabinet or floor space to set the speakers in or on. This type of speaker will usually perform louder and more efficiently as long as you have the space to put them.

Tower or Floor-standing – These speakers are the highest performing type of speakers. They tend to be larger, but with new designs and styles they can become gorgeous pieces of furniture that enhance the decor of a room. These are also well suited for the main speakers in a home theater sound system.

CDs and DVD's play small discs loaded with the music. Audio can be stereo (2 channel, left and right) or with DVD, can be multi-channel capable (5.1 channel, left, center, right, left rear, right rear, and subwoofer). Satellite audio can be DSS which is also carrying video (DirecTV or DISH Network) or either form of satellite audio.

XM or Sirius – These systems transmit/broadcast audio through a digital format through space to a dish or antenna system. It is then routed through a satellite receiver which decodes the information and sends it to the audio receiver, amp, and/or controller systems.

iPOD's– © Apple Computer – and other personal music players store compressed audio information via computer programs on a small hand held unit that can also output the audio to a house audio system. These devices let you store and organize and create the play list with your entire music collection on a very small portable device.

AM/FM Radio – Radio stations broadcast content via over the air transmitter and antenna systems.