Question:

Opus 300 MCU300 - Master Control Unit

I am looking at this as a possible control unit for our house in Devon and would like to ask 2 questions:

1) Is there a limit at how many speakers you can have in each zone?
2) What is the difference beetwen Zone and sub-zone?

Answer:

If you use the Opus keypads for your amplification (which most people do) they are designed to run 2 Opus in-ceiling speakers. We would always recommend that you use the Opus speakers which come with the system as they are very sensitive and are designed to give the best performance  However, there is a line level output (preamp out) from the rear of the keypads which you can wire down to a wall-plate with a pair of phono plugs on. This would allow you to hook up the output from the Opus system into a home stereo system or a separate amplifier with larger speakers attached. You could wire one of these wall-plates in every room, or just in the main rooms where you would expect to want a louder/larger sound. This is also a useful way to wire in a subwoofer into the system.

As far as the difference between a main zone and a sub-zone is as follows:
A sub-zone is another zone in the system, so it has it's own keypad and speakers (or uses an Opus Active Speaker set). However, a sub-zone can only adjust the volume/tone of the music that is being played, it cannot control it. The music that is played in a sub-zone is the same as the music that is being played in the corresponding main zone.
Sub-zones are ideal for en-suite bathrooms, dressing rooms, conservatories, etc. This is also another way to run 4 speakers if you have a larger room which rrequires this, you do this by having 2 keypads in the room one a main zone and the other a sub-zone.

If 4 zones (+ 4 sub-zones) is not enough for your requirements, you can chain up to 4 Opus MCU300's together to expand to 16 independent zones.

This is achieved with a basic CAT5 cable and some audio passthrough connectors.