I’m just curious to hear your thoughts on multizone whole house audio distribution products made by NIles.  More specificaly the ZR4 product.  I have a few clients who have inquired about it and would like to make an informed recommendation on installation, programming, capatibility and etc.  Any help would be appreciated.

I just finished installing the ZR-4 in our showroom.  It is a great system.  Very easy to install, only need a Cat5e/ 16/4 per each zone.  The 4 included keypads are robust, and weather resistant so go ahead and place them outside.  It has pretty good power for the speakers (we used CC65’s and CM730’s) plus each zone has independant EQ.  You get four inputs including tuners for each zone.  Each keypad can pass IR codes through the system back to the ZR-4 for control of sources.  With the niles remote, you can set up party modes for all zones same sources.  Its a profitable install, that is quick easy and great for end users.  Try one out , you’ll like it.

Not to muddy the water, but here is my 2¢.

There are many manufacturers who make products that can be described exactly like the Niles.  “Easy to install, quick to program, good margins...”
Typically custom installers are technical and fairly geeky by nature.  We gravitate to new gadgets.  In business, this is dangerous.  Sit down and write down your priorities for deciding on what products you plan to sell.

Price
Availability
etc.

Then decide.  You can certainly change and add to this list, but it should not be every job or even every month.  Focus your sales and installation training on the products that fit your priorities and then sell those.  Your customers are asking for Niles right now, but if you had an equivalent that you were savvy with, you could sell it to them.

You’ll find that the more you focus on a particular product line, the more it will benefit your bottom line.

There you go and boy did I need to hear that. 

Morgan

We’ve been a Niles dealer for 19 years. The new ZR-4 and ZR-6 are fantastic products. If you have the opportunity to offer them to your clients that are looking for an entry level keypad system I recommend you do so. For us it has filled a vacancy in our offering. Niles customer service, dealer programs, warranty and reliability are very good and well above average. We’ve been waiting for this type of product from Niles for a while, as similar priced offerings from Russound, Kustom/Nuvo and Abus licensed product leave allot to be desired, not to mention those brands are more distributor oriented with open distribution to anyone with a tax ID number.