Multiroom sound on the cheap?

If money for a new multiroom system is tight, TEAC's new stereo receiver could be just the ticket. Combining stereo amplification, an FM/AM tuner and outputs for four speaker pairs, TEAC's new AG-980 - priced at just £280 - has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Crude multiroom?

With the AG-980 users can have up to four pairs of speakers powered simultaneously (in a 'main-zone'), each with individual control. There's also an additional 'sub-zone', enabling the replay of a different source to a different area in the home. The system effectively offers a kind of crude multiroom at a fraction of the cost of an integrated system.

It means that you could, for example, pipe CD audio to four rooms in the house using the four speaker output pairs, and yet play radio in a separate area of the home. Each 'zone' can be controlled individually: users can adjust the volume level, select the input source and switch speaker pairs on and off.

The 'sub-zone', however, is a line-level preamp output, meaning the signal must be fed to a separate amplifier, for sound in another area. The amp is fully operable via remote control and even comes with a built-in phono stage.