At some point growing up, my Dad put a Nutone intercom and radio system in an 250+ year old colonial house we owned in East Haddam, CT. It was rather primitive but it allowed the kids in the attic to be called down for dinner without shouting. They also installed a whole house vacuum system which was kind of cool, instead of lugging around a heavy vacuum cleaner, you just lugged around a heavy hose end.
In my various apartments and houses, I’ve wired up home theater speakers but never had truly built in wall speaker. But lately I’ve been confronted with two built in speaker situation. My brother recently purchased a small cottage property on Cape Cod that came with built speakers and I’m in the process of buying a house that has speakers installed through out the home. Some are active and some are just cover plates ready for the addition of speakers.
So I’m starting to do my research. My brother rents out his cottage on AirBnB and just need a simple way for guests to use the system and perhaps connect their phones to the speakers.
By the way, the cottage is a great setup for a retreat. Four bedrooms, three baths, plenty of beds for lots of kids or several couples. Sunroom, deck, firepit in the back, quick walk to one of the best beaches on Cape Cod – Craigville Beach. Close to all the action and not too far from the Sagamore bridge and Route 6 for easy travel to any place in the area.
For his needs I found this in wall amplifier with Bluetooth for wireless connections and other connections plus the ability to charge devices.
You can even add an Amazon Echo for voice controlled music.
The Amazon Echo Dot:
Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device with a small built-in speaker—it can also connect to your speakers or headphones over Bluetooth or through a 3.5 mm audio cable to deliver stereo sound to the speakers you choose. Dot connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly.
Echo Dot can hear you from across the room, even while music is playing. When you want to use Echo Dot, just say the wake word “Alexa” and Dot responds instantly. If you have more than one Echo or Echo Dot, Alexa responds intelligently from the Echo you’re closest to with ESP (Echo Spatial Perception).
This small amp contains all you need to power your in wall speakers and it fits into a wall gang box! It even has Bluetooth, inputs, a USB charger and volume control. You could even charge the Amazon Echo right here if you don’t mind the extra wire.
Sunken in wall gang boxes like this allow you to power “wall warts” in a recessed fashion and then run the wire up to the device through the brushed opening, sealing around the wire. You’ll probably need a three bay one like the above to handle the Echo’s small USB power thingy and the wall wart for the 12 volt converter for the amp. You might be able to use a double gang like this one:
You can put the Echo Dot anywhere but if you want to put it near the wall amp, you can get on of these wall mounts.
Or an in ceiling mount:
Another in wall amp option: