Talking Whole Home Audio with Jim Moran

If you’re looking for an expert to advise you on home audio systems, you can’t do better than Origin Acoustic’s VP of Sales Jim Moran. He’s been in the business for an impressive 30 years. However, his true start as an audiophile goes back even further.

“I got bit by the bug when I was 10 years old.” He explained to Architechne’s Jeff Cole. That’s because ten years old was when he first heard the Led Zeppelin II record. “It had the stereo imaging in the song What is and What Never Should be…and my mind was blown, okay? That was my first experience with stereo.”

It’s been the constant pursuit of audio perfection ever since.

These deep credentials are what led Cole to invite Moran to share his perspective on whole home audio for Architechne’s Artisans series. Let’s peek into the mind of a true audio expert and explore why today, whole home audio means something different (and better) than it ever has before.

What is whole home audio?

The concept of whole home audio is simple: No matter where you go in your home, you can experience great audio seamlessly. Music, podcasts, and the like are accessible everywhere, with no intrusive equipment or clunky interfaces interrupting your experience.

This idea has been around since the early days of hi-fi. However, the techniques and technology available have improved immensely over the decades. Some of the biggest improvements include:

• The design principle of ‘multi-zone audio’.

• Greater emphasis on speakers for home theaters.

• Transforming the design and function of outdoor audio.

To get a full picture of modern whole home audio, let’s take a look at each of these improvements individually.

Multi-zone audio

The basic version of whole home audio has long gone something like this:

Say you have $2k budgeted for your home’s speakers, and you figure you’ll need 10 speakers to cover everything. Take that $2,000, divide it by 10, and you get $200. So, you go out, buy ten $200 speakers, wire them up, and there you are. Optimal whole home audio. Right?

Not so fast.

Moran makes no bones about the fact that this one-size-fits-all method is a “horrible” idea. To create the highest quality experience, you need to think of your home as having different zones. Each zone has unique requirements, based on how it’s laid out and used. Then you need to adjust spend and technology for each zone accordingly.

Consider this: you want audio in your laundry room and in your den. But you want it for different reasons. In the laundry room, it’s background noise to keep you entertained during chores. However, in the den, listening is your primary focus – it’s the whole reason you took a seat, bourbon in hand, ready to spend an evening enjoying your favorite music.

With the multi-zone audio approach, you’d never choose speakers of equal quality in both rooms. Instead, you would opt for a less-expensive option in the laundry room, giving yourself a bigger budget to maximize the listening experience in the room where you want the absolute best quality.

Home theater and entertainment spaces

For many, having a home theater is all about the screen. Getting the largest, highest-quality projector or flat panel possible to ensure no high-definition detail is ever missed. A ‘bigger is better’ approach, if you will. To a certain extent, it’s an approach Moran agrees with. Size does matter- but he believes its more about the size of your sound system than your screen.

Neglecting audio will hamstring even the highest-end visuals. That’s because a true immersive experience needs to be multi-sensory. A modern whole home audio approach emphasizes using the best sound bar or speaker array possible for theater and entertainment spaces. This way, even in smaller rooms or when a giant screen isn’t available, you can still be swept up in the story thanks to impeccable sound quality.

Outdoor audio

Outdoor living has changed a lot since 2020. Al fresco spaces have become distinctly higher end, feature rich, and more heavily used. This change has led to massive innovation in outdoor audio designs.

It used to be that, if you had outdoor speakers at all, it was just one or two mounted on the house or garage. Outdoor speakers were notorious for having poor range, requiring owners to crank the volume if they wanted to hear anything on the far end of their lawn. Not a great recipe for happy neighbors.

Nowadays, companies like Origin are releasing far more sophisticated solutions, where multiple smaller, satellite speakers can surround the space. These smaller speakers create immersive, concert-quality audio with a very precise range. That means no more cranking up the volume, no more deafening the grill cook, and no more angry neighbors. Oh, and a better all-around listening experience to boot.

Everything sounds better with Origin Acoustics and Architechne

Whole home audio is about creating a residential audio system that meets your every need, perfectly. It makes your life at home better, in ways both dramatic and subtle. And if you’re wondering how to make that happen in your home, look no further than Architechne.

We’re passionate about whole home audio technology, design, and installation. That’s why we’re proud to be bringing the industry’s absolute best, like Origin Acoustics, straight into our clients’ homes. Contact us today to get started on your smart home transformation, and don’t forget to check out Jim Moran’s full Artisans episode here for more insights (and some bourbon-fueled antics).