Hello -- total newbie question here...

I am going to set up a multi-room system in my theater and living room. In sum, I am looking at a 7.1 theater surround system, and I would also like this amp / receiver to run music, when needed, to living room stereo speakers (not surround).

I will not need to pipe sound into my living room during movies, etc., so it will only be for music.

What kind of switcher would I need? A Denon dual-zone receiver? A normal (single zone) receiver with a speaker switch? Do I only run the front speakers through the switching device?

Thanks!

If you go with Denon they have a handy option called "Front Speaker Setup" where you can assign your "B" speakers to 2-channel use and your "A" speakers to multichannel use.

If you configure it this way, in any multichannel mode it will play your normal speaker setup (5.1, 7.1, whatever). If you put the receiver in "STEREO" mode, it will switch to the "B" speakers and deactivate the surround speakers.

With this configuration, the advantage is the automatic switching, but the disadvantage is the fact that you can never run both simultaneously.

You could also just use any old 7.1 receiver with multizone outputs and get a decent 2-ch amp or stereo receiver for the living room music speakers. Just output from the Zone 2 OUTS to the secondary amp/receiver, and use that to power music listening in the 2nd room. This is slightly more flexible in that you can have both running simultaneously with separate sources (e.g. someone can be watching a movie with 7.1 in the main room while you listen to music in the second room) and you can just control the volume in the living room from the 2nd unit.

This is great; thanks for your reply. The second option sounds like a winner. One question -- you refer to any old 7.1 multizone receiver. Are most 7.1 receivers multizone, or is this usually a special (ie highlighted) spec?

Thanks!

at this point, the VAST majority of 7.1 receivers have Zone 2 capabilities...

Thanks. I think I found the set-up that I will get -- the Onkyo HTS6100. Yes, it's a package deal, but it seems like it will fit both of the scenarios that you detailed.