Which of these speaker selector units would you buy?

[Sobsey]

All available for about the same (low) price locally:

Niles SPS-4
Sonance SS-4
HomeTech HTS-6
Musica SS-6 (The mfg. is actually Mitek, I think?)
And a couple of "vintage" Radio Shack/Realistic units, probably from the 1970s.

FWIW, I don't actually need six inputs, so that difference between those units isn't applicable for me. What I'm interested in is the highest build and sound quality.

I use a Marantz 2215B and don't play it very loudly, so I'm not thinking I need to be concerned about overloading it as long as I limit it to driving no more than two pairs of speakers at once. Does that seem safe to you?

 

[1tumbleweed]

I'm only familiar with the Niles and the Sonance, so I'd pick one of those. Likely the Niles.

 

[JB1962]

All available for about the same (low) price locally:

Niles SPS-4
Sonance SS-4
HomeTech HTS-6
Musica SS-6 (The mfg. is actually Mitek, I think?)
And a couple of "vintage" Radio Shack/Realistic units, probably from the 1970s.

FWIW, I don't actually need six inputs, so that difference between those units isn't applicable for me. What I'm interested in is the highest build and sound quality.

I use a Marantz 2215B and don't play it very loudly, so I'm not thinking I need to be concerned about overloading it as long as I limit it to driving no more than two pairs of speakers at once. Does that seem safe to you?

I bought a selector from Monoprice that automatically adjusts the Ohm as you select additional speakers. Once a set of speakers were selected, the button would not return to the off position. I sent it back and the replacement did the exact same thing. I had to leave for the Philippines and never got the second one returned.

I still use it, other than not being able to un-select it works fine. I'm not using the fourth output so I just turn that all of the way down. I use it in my shop, garage, and lower garage hooked up to a KLH R 3100. I play it fairly loud to hear it either in the back yard or over the machinery in the shop so it's good to have that bit of extra grunt.

I also have a Marantz 2215B, had it for at least 40 years. Like it a lot.

 

[MaxP]

All available for about the same (low) price locally:

Niles SPS-4
Sonance SS-4
HomeTech HTS-6
Musica SS-6 (The mfg. is actually Mitek, I think?)
And a couple of "vintage" Radio Shack/Realistic units, probably from the 1970s.

FWIW, I don't actually need six inputs, so that difference between those units isn't applicable for me. What I'm interested in is the highest build and sound quality.

I use a Marantz 2215B and don't play it very loudly, so I'm not thinking I need to be concerned about overloading it as long as I limit it to driving no more than two pairs of speakers at once. Does that seem safe to you?

I just incorporated an OSD Audio AT 7 in my system and am thus far really happy with it. It can take seven pairs of speakers and two amps.

 

[nolasally]

Niles & Sonance would be my picks out of that lot. Also look for Adcom & Rotel.

 

[drummergrl]

Old thread I know but I was wondering the same thing today.
Reading the responses here, my feeling is that people picked the Niles because it markets more/ better than the other brands, it's more familiar and it's marketing presents it as "higher end" without really any info that differentiates it from the others. The specs I could find between Niles and HomeTech were the same. But I will say they HomeTech is much heavier when comparing the HTS6 vs. the SPS6. I own both, a couple Realistics and one I bought off of ebay in 2017 from specialty-av that is rated 200wpc continous power where the others are 100 and 150. My White Oak Phase Linear totally burned up a Realistic once.

But I am surprised with all the amazing techs on this forum, no one's torn into to these to be able to answer the questions regarding build quality.

 

[Dav3]

Old thread I know but I was wondering the same thing today.
Reading the responses here, my feeling is that people picked the Niles because it markets more/ better than the other brands, it's more familiar and it's marketing presents it as "higher end" without really any info that differentiates it from the others. The specs I could find between Niles and HomeTech were the same. But I will say they HomeTech is much heavier when comparing the HTS6 vs. the SPS6. I own both, a couple Realistics and one I bought off of ebay in 2017 from specialty-av that is rated 200wpc continous power where the others are 100 and 150. My White Oak Phase Linear totally burned up a Realistic once.

But I am surprised with all the amazing techs on this forum, no one's torn into to these to be able to answer the questions regarding build quality.

I picked up a Sonance SS4 speaker selector at GW for $3 the other day which eventually brought me here. I'm not an "amazing tech", but I did manage to remove the 5 screws and pull the top off to reveal I had spent just about the correct amount for this. Four inexpensive push button switches, two 50w 3 ohm resistors, and enough cheap speaker connectors squashed together for four speakers and the input. There is a resistor that (according to the literature) if selected, limits the power to the speakers to 40 w so as to not overdrive the amplifier. That should work unless the resistor fails open, but seems like a cheesy way to go. I'd keep looking

 

[70's Rockfan]

I've had 2 Niles SVC-2 for years.
I am still very happy with them.