I've got my home theater set up and my 533T (on the way) will complete it. My next project may be to set up multi room music using a 12 channel amp (6 pairs of speakers). I can use my HT processor to select the source of the music (CD/tuner etc) for the 2nd zone (all rooms ex HT). If I use a 12 channel amp to drive the 6 zones, can I use a  6 pair speaker selector with volume control to select the speakers/set volumes? If so, any special features suggestions? This would save getting a separate multi room preamp and seems simpler than using a multi room receiver with touch pads. The reason I ask is most of the speaker selectors seem to be designed for use with 2 channel amp and feature impedance protection circuits that I shouldn't need with the 12 channel amp. Sorry if this is really basic, my knowledge of impedance, 12 channel amps and multi zone audio is limited.

Heya!

 I'd use a volume control in each room since you have a 12 channel amp that can provide power to each set of speakers in your system. You may want to look for a control with an auto muting function. These controls can get expensive, but the higher quality control is really worth it to maintain audio integrity. Take a look at the Niles MVC100R  It provides a speaker relay and auto mute control which allows you to default to an "off" mode when your amp is engaged in case there are rooms you don't want automatically fed with sound.

 

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Caleb Denison

As Caleb said, I would home run each speaker pair back to the amplifier to connect to each channel of the amplifier.  Within each room locate a good spot for a volume control and terminate the 4 conductor from the amp there, and then run (2) two-conductor wires from that volume control location to the speakers in the room.

One bit of advice, run a CAT5 cable along with your speaker cable, even if you decide not to do any muting/paging/IR stuff.  It will allow you, or a future owner, to add control down the road without a HUGE hassle.

I prefer the Audioplex Technology stuff, they have some cool home paging through existing speaker stuff.  Check out this link for some muting options like the niles, and then this link for the cool paging system through the speakers.  Feel free to ask me more questions on this (in private if you desire), I have a lot of experience with these devices.

 EDIT: Just noticed this was a couple months old...sorry.

Hi Matt,

 Ironically, your post is actually very well timed. I have a customer who is doing a rather extensive distributed audio system in his home. I can help with some of the basics but at a certain point I feel I should defer to someone who has more experience. Mind if I ping you a couple of times for info?

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Caleb Denison