I'm trying to get some simple setup for my home stereo. The thiefs at a local company want to charge 3000 baht for a service call. What a ripoff!

Can someone suggest a good tech to come to my house and help me?

If it is simple why can't you D.I.Y ?

30 minutes ago, giants49 said:

I'm trying to get some simple setup for my home stereo. The thiefs at a local company want to charge 3000 baht for a service call. What a ripoff!

Can someone suggest a good tech to come to my house and help me?

What would you pay for that service?

I have no idea who you can call but I guess the cost is going to be somewhat in line with the complexity of the job. I have a pretty complicated home theater, and it took me six at least 6 hours to set it up when we moved to a new house. I certainly would have paid 3,000 baht for that service but I was able to do it myself.

@giants49 have you gone for a walk around TukCom building? There are electronics shops around. They may be able to help.

Also Tepprasit road on the LHS about half way down coming from the beach end, there is an electrical shop. There is one on the RHS as well.

1 hour ago, giants49 said:

I'm trying to get some simple setup for my home stereo. The thiefs at a local company want to charge 3000 baht for a service call. What a ripoff!

Can someone suggest a good tech to come to my house and help me?

Where are you? I have all my TVs, sticks, lights A/Cs, controlled by WiFi. Get the BBC etc via Nord VPN.

I am with 3BB/AIS and they came last week with a newer router, set it all up in a hour or so. NO CHARGE.

It is easy to get the sound from your PC into an amp & speakers, then watch music on You Tube, or Spotify or whatever you want.

Why not go find some audio nerd at the university?

Just walk on campus and post a few notices.

Anyway, that is what I would do, if I were unable to do it myself.

Beware of Ground Loop, unless you have a perfectly grounded electrical system, and ensure that power is coming from one source to both amp, speakers, computer, etc.

Get a few of Apple Homepod speakers, pair them via your iPhone and you'll get more then expected and no crooks comming in and overcharging to wire your cables.

On 2/16/2026 at 4:36 PM, spidermike007 said:

I have no idea who you can call but I guess the cost is going to be somewhat in line with the complexity of the job. I have a pretty complicated home theater, and it took me six at least 6 hours to set it up when we moved to a new house. I certainly would have paid 3,000 baht for that service but I was able to do it myself.

7 hours ago, Sigmund said:

Get a few of Apple Homepod speakers, pair them via your iPhone and you'll get more then expected and no crooks comming in and overcharging to wire your cables.

We have the Apple homepods in the bedroom in a stereo configuration and the sound quality is excellent.

We also have 2 home theatre setups, also in the bedroom 6 speaker Atmos (no subwoofer, all designed into the house at architect stage), and in the living room 15.1.2 also designed in at architect stage. Wiring that one up took me quite a while with 15 speaker cables and testing each with a 1.5 volt battery to find the speaker on the end of the cable.

I would hope one of our esteemed members here would come out and help the OP, I would if I was local.

7 hours ago, Sigmund said:

Get a few of Apple Homepod speakers, pair them via your iPhone and you'll get more then expected and no crooks comming in and overcharging to wire your cables.

A FEW speakers? What if he has an Android? He already has a sound system.

Can't be SOOO difficult, out of the receiver/player/phone/PC, into inputs on sound system, usually using RCA cables. Or via Bluetooth if receiver has, although a delay between sound and vision could be experienced, which does not matter if only listening to music or radio or podcast.

33 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

and in the living room 15.1.2

FIFTEEN Speakers in your living room, when most movies etc are stereo 2.1, surround 5.1 or 7.1 at max.

34 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Wiring that one up took me quite a while with 15 speaker cables and testing each with a 1.5 volt battery to find the speaker on the end of the cable.

Ha ha ha. Well done

7 hours ago, Sigmund said:

Get a few of Apple Homepod speakers

I would think that these Apple speakers are able to easily act as microphones, as well.

All speakers can act as microphones, you know.

So, is Big Brother at Apple listening to us via our our Apple Speakers and Earbuds, etc?

Better to just use Linux and don't hook-up to companies like Microsoft and Apple, etc.

Also, students at unis do not charge much to do hooking-up, as everybody knows.

So, connecting common audio speakers would be cheap for them.

1 hour ago, wil iam not said:

FIFTEEN Speakers in your living room, when most movies etc are stereo 2.1, surround 5.1 or 7.1 at max.

The amplifier supports 13.1 but switches to different speakers (the Voice Of God speaker) when you're using Auro 3D which is great for stereo music as it expands it across all the channels.

Any Dolby Atmos movie decodes to the maximum number of channels because it's object based not channel based. IIRC cinema's are typically decoded to 23 or more channels. The amplifier is a Denon X8500H, they were hand built, I don't think it's available now. I also use an Apptronics UST Laser projector.

1 hour ago, GammaGlobulin said:

I would think that these Apple speakers are able to easily act as microphones, as well.

All speakers can act as microphones, you know.

So, is Big Brother at Apple listening to us via our our Apple Speakers and Earbuds, etc?

Better to just use Linux and don't hook-up to companies like Microsoft and Apple, etc.

Also, students at unis do not charge much to do hooking-up, as everybody knows.

So, connecting common audio speakers would be cheap for them.

Apple Homepods do have microphones and respond to "Hey Siri", which is a bit of a pita. When you set an alarm on your phone, the speakers sometimes set it instead and I don't know how you can change or cancel it as it doesn't show on your phone. Also we turn off the bedroom lights with "Hey Siri" and the speakers don't seem to do that, they just say "OK" and nothing happens. The speakers have excellent audio quality.

We were in a restaurant on Monday and they were playing music from their iPhone through a pair of Harmon Kardon Bluetooth speakers in stereo mode. Very impressive sound quality.

17 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

The amplifier supports 13.1 but switches to different speakers (the Voice Of God speaker) when you're using Auro 3D which is great for stereo music as it expands it across all the channels.

That is why The Beatles and others made all their early albums in mono, on two track machines. Brian Wilson said it was because 'I do not want listeners f.....g with MY mix'.

OK for movies where things are shooting from front to back, or left to right. But Pet Sounds or Sgt Pepper in 15.1....no,no,no. Just my opinion.

Why would you want stereo music to come out of rear speakers?

Does each of the drums come from a different one?

45 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Apple Homepods do have microphones and respond to "Hey Siri",

This is DEFINITELY NOT what I meant.

The same basic structure of a simple audio speaker makes it, by structure alone, ALSO a microphone.

This is what I meant in my comment.

As to whether or NOT the Apple Homepods have separate and additional microphone components in these Homepods, in addition to the speakers, this I do not know.

Maybe I need to google it or something....

2 hours ago, wil iam not said:

That is why The Beatles and others made all their early albums in mono, on two track machines. Brian Wilson said it was because 'I do not want listeners f.....g with MY mix'.

OK for movies where things are shooting from front to back, or left to right. But Pet Sounds or Sgt Pepper in 15.1....no,no,no. Just my opinion.

Why would you want stereo music to come out of rear speakers?

Does each of the drums come from a different one?

Auro3D is best suited to music, it's better to let movies decode in their native formal.

AI has this to say about it.

Auro‑3D includes an upmixer called Auro‑Matic, designed to turn mono or stereo content into a full 3D immersive sound field. The search results describe how Auro‑Matic behaves and how users configure it.

🔊 1. Mono Signals

When you feed a mono signal into Auro‑Matic:

• It creates a phantom stereo image, spreading the single channel across the front speakers.

• It then adds height information by deriving ambience cues and sending them to the height layer.

• The result is a center‑anchored but spatially expanded sound, giving mono recordings a sense of space without breaking their original focus.

This behavior is part of the general Auro‑Matic upmixing algorithm described in immersive‑audio discussions.

🎶 2. Stereo Signals

For stereo content, Auro‑Matic:

• Preserves the original stereo image (left/right balance stays intact).

• Extracts ambience and reverberant cues from the stereo channels.

• Distributes those cues to:

  • Surround speakers

  • Height speakers

  • (Optionally) Top speakers in 5.1.4 / 7.1.4 layouts

• Creates a natural, enveloping 3D field without the aggressive steering found in some other upmixers.

Users often prefer Auro‑Matic for music because it maintains tonal balance and avoids artificial effects. This is reflected in user discussions about Auro‑3D upmixer settings.

🛠️ 3. How It Decides What Goes Where

Auro‑Matic uses:

• Frequency analysis

• Phase correlation

• Ambience extraction

to determine which parts of the signal should be expanded into the height and surround layers.

It is designed to sound natural and room‑like, unlike some upmixers that aggressively isolate instruments or vocals.

🎚️ 4. User‑Adjustable Controls

Auro‑Matic includes:

• Preset (Low / Medium / High)

• Strength (0–15)

These control how aggressively ambience is extracted and how much height/surround energy is added. Users report different preferences depending on music vs. movies.

🧩 Summary Table

Input	What Auro‑3D Does	Result
Mono	Spreads signal across front, adds height ambience	Wider, more spacious mono without losing center focus
Stereo	Preserves stereo image, extracts ambience to height/surround	Natural 3D immersion ideal for music
Controls	Preset + Strength adjust ambience extraction	Tailored immersion level

Numchai store at Sukh. road has an home thearte section, Mr. Amon speaks English and is happy to help, starts at THB 500 service fee....highly recommend him

1 minute ago, MrJ said:

Numchai store at Sukh. road has an home thearte section, Mr. Amon speaks English and is happy to help, starts at THB 500 service fee....highly recommend him

Starts at 500. What does he finish at?