impedance matching controls? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis P]

My dad wants me to help him install whole-house audio. He's got a low-end receiver and doesn't have a huge budget so one of those multiroom controller boxes is out.
I'd like to buy three simple pairs of wall speakers for the kitchen, upstairs hall and den. I presume that for each pair I need to put an impedance matching volume control on the wall (in each room), but I'm not certain how to wire everything up. Do I have to run from one control to the next (daisy-chain) or can I "home run" everything back to the receiver/amp and wire them all together? How should the A/B hookups be used on the receiver (I was going to hook the main living room speakers to A, and the rest of the house to B).
Sorry if this is a newbie question, I looked around the web a bit for the answer but didnt find anything relevant.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Dennis: I'm no expert, but I don't know of any way to do what you want to without spending a bit of money. You should not wire all of these speakers up either as series or parallel. Series means adding more and more impedence and parallel means cutting the impedence lower and lower. Both would either kill your dad's receiver or sound bad.
Since there is a budget to keep in mind, at the very least, go to Radio Shack and see what they have for switching multiple pairs of speakers (and volume controls.) Ask to take a look at the manuals for the products they show you. Make sure that the manuals clearly indicate safe impedence handling of multiple pairs of speakers.
Of course, Niles or Russound makes the "good" stuff but, like you said, they are very pricey.
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