Speaker Selector

Welcome to speakerselector.org, a site dedicated to all things about the speaker selector. While we don’t actually sell speaker selectors we will be able provide objective

reviews and post news about the latest products. First, we’re going to give a little background information about what speaker selectors are and why people should use them.  A speaker selector is a device that allows the user to transform one audio input source into multiple audio outputs.  Usually, the audio source is a receiver which can get the audio from a movie player, music player, or television.  The speaker selector allows you to play the audio over as many speakers as you want.  For instance, if you have speakers in the dining room, kitchen, and master bedroom, you might want to play your music in the dining room and kitchen if someone is sleeping in the master bedroom. Many new houses are equipped with speakers in every room and using a speaker selector to control which room the audio is played in is a must.

Some speaker selectors are more advanced and include individual volume controls for each output. That way, if you want to blast the audio in the living room and quietly play the audio in the rest of the house, you can.  Speaker selectors with volume control gives you even more control over the audio in your house although they can be a little more expensive.  Also, there are some speaker selectors that come with amplifiers to boost the audio output that is normally being split among several speakers.  Currently, you can purchase speaker selectors that will allow you to control the speakers in up to eight rooms. I have seen speaker selectors made with even more audio outputs, but they can be difficult to find at your local electronics store.

There are a few benefits to using a speaker selector.  Speaker selectors are relatively inexpensive considering what powerful pieces of electronics they are.  As I already mentioned, speaker selectors allow for you to have control over your sound.  If you want to play nice Christmas music while you are eating a nice meal, you might only want the sound coming out of the dining room speakers. A speaker selector gives you the flexibility to do so.  If you are using a simple speaker selector without any volume control, it does not require much power to operate. Even the speaker selectors with amplifiers will not cost you too much in energy expenses.

There are a few drawbacks to using a speaker selector however. The installation can be tricky especially if you are installing volume controls in each room.  You can always hire a professional to do the installation for you.  Also, if you are splitting your signal across several rooms, you might lose signal strength. If signal strength becomes too much of a problem, you can always get a speaker selector with an amplifier.  Overall though, I think the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.  Speaker selectors start at around $20 and go to as high as thousands of dollars depending on the features you need for your house.  You should be able to find them at your local electronics store or just about anywhere online.

There are three different main types of the speaker selector switch: one has buttons that you press to indicate which set of speakers the audio should play through, another type

is made without buttons and can sometimes be used with a remote, and the third type is an actual switch that goes in every room that has speakers hooked up to the central speaker selector.  The first two of the speaker selector switches will perform the same function, that is, they will allow you to switch between which set of speakers plays the audio. The third type that goes into each room that has speakers, allow you to further split the audio between sets of speakers or control the volume.

The standard speaker selector switch has push buttons that you press to indicate which set of speakers will play the audio from your output source. Typically, these speaker selector switches come with labels that allow you to label each button and assign it to a certain room of the house. These are the most common and least expensive type of speaker selector switch.

If you want to be able to control which speakers play the audio from your chair or any other part of your house, you will want a speaker selector switch with a remote. For example, if you are entertaining guests in the dining room, you could use the remote to play audio in the room without having to walk to the box. Likely, this will impress your guests. Speaker selector switches that are capable of using a remote are a little more expansive than the standard speaker selector, but could be worth it if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of hunting down the speaker selector box every time you want the audio to switch.

The standard type of speaker selector switch is just a knob that looks similar to a light switch and it goes in every room that has speakers hooked up to the central speaker selector box. The knob allows you to control the volume of the audio in the room that you are in, or further switch between sets of speakers in the room itself.  Depending on how much money you want to spend, these are not entirely necessary, but they can be useful if you want to control the volume without hunting down the audio player and turning it up or down from there.