Newbie Help with Speaker and Sub Upgrade

Abba123

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Hi - first time poster who knows very little here...

I have a house that came with an installed Control4 system with built in 6.5 inch speakers (which are not great) in 7 different rooms. The in-ceiling speakers in a screening room as well as the kitchen, family room, outside cabana, living room, dining room and master.

I am trying to make 4 upgrades to my system and reached out to my Control4 vendor on this. I wanted to get some thoughts on the options and prices they provided and see if they are steering me the right direction.

1) current system only plays audio throughout all speakers at once (and separately in the screening room). Control4 said I could add 7 Sonos connects or upgrade my process to an Ea3 and add an audio matrix. Both options are similar costs. Not sure what the pros and cons are for each?

2) I would like to upgrade my speakers. The Control4 vendor recommended the Sonance VP64R's for $500 a pair. I haven't been able to find a spot to demo. Thoughts on these speakers and the price? Are they significantly better than a Sonos Play 5 for example (in addition to the in-ceiling speakers, I also have a play 1, 3 and 5 currently).

3) I would like to add a sub to the family room where I would typically listen to music. They suggested the Sonance i10 10 inch Impact Subwoofer for $900. Thoughts on this sub and price?

4) they suggested back boxes for the speakers. Are they worth it?

I have what I believe is a high quality Denon amp to power the speakers, so believe I am all set there.

Thanks for the help
 
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My advice - Ditch the Control 4, it’s a money pit and is doing nothing for you that you can’t do with Sonos. The Sonance pricing seems retail, you may want to listen to Monitor Audio C265s as well. Back boxes - the jury is out on, these speakers are designed as infinite baffle and are not designed to be enclosed although some installers swear by back boxes.
Are the sonance better than play 5s only you can judge, depends on what is powering them.
For me I would start with ditching the C4 and reinvest in Sonos Control Amps one for each zone and a Sonos sub for your family room. You already have Sonos so you know it’s benefits.
I am not sure what your screening room is, can you explain?
 
My advice - Ditch the Control 4, it’s a money pit and is doing nothing for you that you can’t do with Sonos. The Sonance pricing seems retail, you may want to listen to Monitor Audio C265s as well. Back boxes - the jury is out on, these speakers are designed as infinite baffle and are not designed to be enclosed although some installers swear by back boxes.
Are the sonance better than play 5s only you can judge, depends on what is powering them.
For me I would start with ditching the C4 and reinvest in Sonos Control Amps one for each zone and a Sonos sub for your family room. You already have Sonos so you know it’s benefits.
I am not sure what your screening room is, can you explain?

Thanks for the response. I think it’s too late to ditch the Control4. It was installed when the house was built and controls all the lights and the projector as well as the speakers.

The issue with Sonos is that I have about 20 built in 6.5 inch speakers throughout the house in the ceiling, so I would much rather use those than have stand up speakers which would clutter things up.

There’s no where that I know of for me to demo the Sonance 64 speakers so I was hoping to get feedback on them from here.

The screening room is a small theater room with a 100 inch projector screen and 5 built in in ceiling speakers, mostly used for watching movies.
 
I guess if your C4 ‘dealer’ is keen to install the Sonance he should be happy enough to bring you a pair to demo. I would suggest that this is your best recourse.
C4 was great 5 years ago, but I feel that consumer products have overtaken C4s offerings, with greater functionality and cheaper prices.
 
Any other advice here? What are good options for 6.5 inch in ceiling speakers for around $500 per pair?
 

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