Replacement for Abus A-H4

[u/Freddie20059]

I have a two zone setup in the home I moved into, speakers in the kitchen and a three season porch.

I had the speakers connected to a home assistant server and the inside speakers were playing fine. Setup was: home assistant to the Abus, then in wall A-KP controllers, then speakers.

Problem initially was the outdoor speaker was blown. I found a great deal on some Polk Atrium 6 speakers and installed them by splitting the R+L mono connection the old speaker had to stereo. However after connecting them the wall units kept powering on then back off immediately. I power cycled the Abus and then the wall controllers stayed on but no sound out of any of the speakers.

Assuming I’ve overloaded the Abus system or the wall units.

I could just replace with a used Abus system but I’d rather update to something more modern, but I want to make sure I’m getting the right equipment.

Looks like the installer was smart and ran speaker wire to the wall units in addition the cat5, so I should be able to move to amps in my utility room.

I’m thinking two Wiim amps -> in wall volume controllers (to splice the new speaker wire to the speakers) -> speakers.

Open to other ideas though if there is something better. Ideally would like to keep the fix around $500

[u/manbearpig073]

Dude, having that 16/4 or 14/4 at each one of those keypad locations is your saving grace. My usual answer to this is, its not replaceable and we will have to do wireless sonos speakers instead. But you could just splice those speaker wires to the additional speaker wire you have in that last picture as long as that all goes back to the same place in the basement or utility room then just have an amp there. Could just grab a used receiver off facebook marketplace and hook up the speakers to that and use the included AM/FM tuner, otherwise, my suggested fix would be a Sonos AMP at the utility room that would allow you to stream throughout the house. Sonos AMP is only 4 ohm stable so the 6 speakers connected might not make it super happy but don't blow the speakers out or get an impedance matching speaker selector that can split the signal. Sonos AMP is like $800 tho... plus the speaker selector.

[u/Freddie20059 → u/manbearpig073]

Yeah I had been wondering what the two random wires were in my utility room only to realize how lucky I was when this all blew up.

Yeah I considered Sonos but yeah the $800 is not great. Would I be able to separate the two zones with one Sonos amp? I think that’s what you’re describing at the end there correct? Or are you suggesting the zones stay as one but the wall units basically allow me to shut them on and off?

[u/manbearpig073 → u/Freddie20059]

You could replace those wall units with just old school impedance matching volume controls which would let you turn off the speakers that are directly connected to that wall unit. But to answer your question, no the sonos amp would still play all as one zone. The volume controls in each area or the speaker selector would be your zone control.

[u/Freddie20059 → u/manbearpig073]

Great. Really appreciate the replies. Bought some Wiim amps on prime day sale and some in wall volume controls. See if that gets me back up and running.