Ok…so I hooked everything up last night and…it’s…I’m not sure exactly how to feel. Perhaps I’m talking myself into thinking it’s ok. It’s definitely NOT GREAT, but for background music…it’s probably fine. It certainly seems designed with the sole goal of “background music during a cocktail party,” and it’ll work decently for that.

I might try to play around with it when I have a little more time. Considering it was installed in 2003 with the technology of the day (my house was built 2 years before the first Sonos product), I might eventually see what I can do to retrofit.

For example, this hilariously doesn’t even use 2 of the wires. It seems to use one pair to power the wall control, two pairs for the positive and negative on each speaker, and then leaves the 4th pair unused (I think it might be used for IR receivers on some wall control models).

I have to assume that I’d at least get better results by removing the wall controls entirely, and using each pair together for the positive and negative lines on each speaker.

Also, the system is currently set up so that the only possible input is from a pair of RCA jacks on a wall plate in the family room. So this analog signal has to travel all the way down to the basement and then back out to the speakers. The controller its self is powered so that’s assisting the signal, but this is all just so hilarious to me.

Eventually - once I’ve recovered from the general expense of moving - I’ll probably put a Sonos Amp in the basement, and wire up the 4 pairs as I mentioned to a speaker selector. Obviously this isn’t ideal, but it’s better than tearing out all the wires in the house I guess!