Kustom Zone Sound system opinions
Brad
Anyone who's using the Kustom KHS-6640 with the KHS6D Keypads
care to comment on them? Ease of use, sound quality, is there a better way,
etc.
In one room, I would be using Bose cube/bass system. Will the Kustom drive
these adequately?
I also would like to use a 300 disk CD player to this system. Is it a
nightmare to control so many CDs thru the wall keypads?
Best place to purchase?
Thanks!
Dan Butterfield
news:t52hf27...@corp.supernews.com...
> I would like to install a zone sound system.
> Anyone who's using the Kustom KHS-6640 with the KHS6D Keypads
> care to comment on them? Ease of use, sound quality, is there a better
way,
> etc.
I installed one of these (with KHS6S keypads) to operate six zones; I
currently only have 4 sources (CD jukeboxes, AM/FM, DMX, Tape), but will be
adding at least one additional source (MP3 jukebox). I use in-wall/ceiling
Nutone speakers (surface mount on the back patio) of various sizes to match
rooms. Some comments:
1) I am not an audiophile, but the setup sounds good to me, considering the
amps are low power outputs (20 watts per channel?). Note that there is no
bass/treble or other sound field tweaking adjustments like in other systems
(e.g. Russound PR4Z), but then the cost is also much cheaper than other
systems.
2) Given the limited number of controls (source selection, volume control,
mute), usability is about as expected (easy). There are IR receivers in the
volume keypads as well, but I've found their sensitivity is not extremely
high (plus they are not really well situated for IR remote control in my
system).
3) The system allows a "master control" keypad to do source switching /
volume control for all zones from a seventh keypad. This does work, but a
couple things are not immediately intuitive. For example, the source /
muting lights on the "master control" keypad always match the lights on zone
one. At a glance, this might lead you to think someone has been playing
with the master control (since its lights have changed), when in reality it
is just following the lighting at zone one. Also, muting from the master
control is problematic: it toggles the mute state in each zone, which means
it may mute in some zones and unmute in others on a single press. For this
reason I currently use the sixth zone (aux in my system) as the "mute" zone,
and typically do not use the mute function.
4) I do not use the learning keypads (e.g. the KHS6D double-gang keypads),
only the single-gang volume control keypads (KHS6S). The "D" keypads
basically add an additional keypad section in which you can learn functions
of your source components (play, pause, etc). I do this via IR remote,
which are sent via Xantech IR components to the source components. The
usability of the "D" keypads is probably as usable or unusable as you want
to make them, since they perform functions on your own equipment. I
personally prefer to control source components via a programmable IR remote
(Phillips Pronto), and only use the in-wall keypads for simple source
selection and volume control.
> In one room, I would be using Bose cube/bass system. Will the Kustom drive
> these adequately?
If they are appear as regular 8-ohmn speakers to a receiver, I assume so
The Kustom does not have separate subwoofer outputs or anything like that,
but it does have line level outputs if you want to use those with an
outboard amplifier.
> I also would like to use a 300 disk CD player to this system. Is it a
> nightmare to control so many CDs thru the wall keypads?
I do this with an IR remote and an on-screen display from the CD jukebox
that shows CD titles, artists, track names, etc (the high end Sony CD
jukeboxes do this, as well as perhaps some others?). You could also program
in all your CD names into the Pronto remote (I know some folks on the
Internet have done this), so you can select a CD just by pressing its name
on your remote. I would guess using the wall keypad with no feedback and no
way to know which CD you wanted to select (unless you have all the numbers
memorized) would be pretty tedious.
> Best place to purchase?
I would suggest Worthington Distribution (http://www.worthdist.com) for a
good price (they have a great package deal for all the keypads and the
head-end controller), but I know other places (http://www.basshome.com for
example) have it as well. Smarthome (http://www.smarthome.com) is a good
place to look at documentation, but does not have very good prices.
- Dan Butterfield (d...@butterfields.net)
Brad
"Dan Butterfield" <d...@butterfields.net> wrote in message
news:92tiba$mgi$1...@ausnews.austin.ibm.com...
Ronald Gross
I plan to use the line out from one zone and pass that signal to an
external amplifier to a few pair of speakers (with impedance matching).
Question:
Do you know if the volume controls on the in-wall keypads will control
the volume on the line level outputs?
Thanks
Ron
dfr...@wrs.com
I was thinking of getting the Kustom system too, but instead using an
existing Xantech IR keypad system. Is it possible to control all the
Kustom functions with IR, instead of using their proprietary keypad?
Regards,
Dave
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Dan Butterfield
<dfr...@wrs.com> wrote in message news:930467$okj$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> I was thinking of getting the Kustom system too, but instead using an
> existing Xantech IR keypad system. Is it possible to control all the
> Kustom functions with IR, instead of using their proprietary keypad?
I *think* the answer to this is yes. As I've had it explained to me, the
buttons on the keypads each essentially generate an unmodulated IR signal
which goes onto the ir signal wires in the cat-5 used to connect the Kustom
keypad to the head end unit. In fact, if you wish to learn IR to correspond
to the keypad functions, you put your learning remote next to the IR input
window while pressing the corresponding button on the keypad; this not only
sends an IR signal to the Kustom head-end, it also emits IR out the IR input
window on the keypad.
You would have to make up your own cables to do this. I made up a cable to
test this; basically, I just connected the emitter output from a Xantech IR
repeating system to the IR signal / ground pins in the RJ-45 input sockets
for the Kustom keypads, in parallel with a real Kustom keypad, to see if I
could control the Kustom zone from IR received from a hand held IR remote
via a Xantech repeater. It did indeed work.
For some reason, I was unable to get an Ocelot emitter to control a Kustom
zone in a similar manner, probably due to modulated vs. unmodulated IR. I
also don't know if the keypad must be connected to the zone to allow the
zone to function at all (remember in my test a keypad was connected in
parallel with the Xantech IR input).
Having said this, I doubt Kustom supports this type of operation. Again,
you would have to make your own custom connecting cables (since the zone
control input jacks on the back of the Kustom unit are made for RJ45 cables
from the keypads), and you would have to get the IR signals from somewhere
to learn into your remotes. Either buy a single Kustom keypad (probably a
good idea for testing anyway), or you could get the signal definition in
Pronto IR format from someone who had a Kustom unit (like myself). Note
that the Kustom head-end unit itself has no IR receiver on it; it gets all
its IR signals via the input jacks from the keypads.
- Dan Butterfield (d...@butterfields.net)
dfr...@wrs.com
Thanks for the info. The Kustom seems like it'll do the job, provided
I get a keypad to test with and to do initial setup. I was planning on
replacing the Kustom keypads with Xantech Smartpad 2/3s just because it
would give me a more flexible configuration.
Pardon me if I misunderstood your comments, but it sounds like you're
not sure whether an IR receiver or keypad, used alone, will be able to
talk to the Kustom. That would be the thing to verify:
a) Teach the Kustom codes to a Pronto (nice feature, by the way)
b) Remove the Kustom keypad from the jbox and replace with an IR
receiver.
c) Check whether the Pronto can control the Kustom head-end.
Maybe you've done this and I misunderstood your note. Even in the
worst case, I could use a single gang Kustom keypad and use a single
gang Xantech wired in parallel next to it.
Dan Butterfield
<dfr...@wrs.com> wrote in message news:930hmq$4qt$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> Pardon me if I misunderstood your comments, but it sounds like you're
> not sure whether an IR receiver or keypad, used alone, will be able to
> talk to the Kustom. That would be the thing to verify:
>
> a) Teach the Kustom codes to a Pronto (nice feature, by the way)
> b) Remove the Kustom keypad from the jbox and replace with an IR
> receiver.
> c) Check whether the Pronto can control the Kustom head-end.
>
> Maybe you've done this and I misunderstood your note.
Sorry for being a little obtuse in my previous note: I have *not* tried the
scenario you list here; I only tried a Xantech emitter in parallel with a
Kustom keypad (which did work). My goal at the time was to see if I could
control the Kustom zones via Ocelot emitters; since I have Kustom keypads, I
didn't think to try w/o the keypad connected in parallel. And no, I never
did get the Ocelot controlling the Kustom either; that's where I think I
might have had an IR modulation issue. I figure it probably can be done
with some more fiddling, but since I had more pressing things to finish at
the time (like installing the rest of the speakers and keypads!), I shelved
the project.
I'll see if I can dig out the stuff I used for this test this weekend and
run it again w/o the keypad, to see if that makes a difference... I
wouldn't *think* it would, but stranger things have happened!
- Dan Butterfield (d...@butterfields.net)
Rick Tinker
I too am very interested in what you find out with that little
experiment. I too have been looking for a whole-house audio system.
Kustom and the CA series of Russound were eliminated in my mind
because I was told that A) there are no "global" IR signals for
controlling let's say zone 2 from the IR receiver of zone 4. If there
was, then my HA system's IR controller would be able to control the
entire system, which is exactly what I want. It is one thing to have
whole-house audio, it is another to be able to mute everything when
the phone rings or to use the system in one room as an "alarm clock"
in the morning (which requires computer controlled IR). and B) It uses
all 8 conductors of the keypad connections, so I cannot sneak an
emitter output up to the keypad from my IR controller. (I wrote
Russound for the answer to this question but they have yet to reply.)
If you can get 10 wires to the keypads, then the additional 2 wires
can be used for an IR emitter. You can place it inside the keypad
such that it is not visible but it will still receive the IR signals
emitted from it. That is the only way to do computer based control of
the system, but I don't have the extra pair of wires - ran a single
run of CAT5 to the keypad locations only.
The PRZ4 by Russound uses a standard IR keypad wiring scenario, so
there are no conflicts there with replacing the keypad with an IR
receiver, but that system requires a separate amplifier for each zone,
and so far I have found the cost of those (for 6 to 8 zones) to be
somewhere around an arm and a leg. (And I need those!)
Rick