Ok, so i am wanting to setup a audio system in my new house. I am no electrician so i have no idea what im doing besides from all ive read The system does not need to be multi zone since that is more expensive. Heres the deal....

This new system will have about 8 speakers inside and 2 outside. I just purchased the inside speakers from monoprice. They are 8 ohm speakers (dont really know what that means but read about it alot) with 60w nominal output with 120 max. There has been talk about in house volume controls but they are like 30 bucks a pop so that is a maybe. I have read that 14 gauge speaker is what we need so i got that down... what i really dont understand is how to power all of this.

In the past i have ran speakers outside with some inside but if you ever wanted to hear anything outside you had to crank the volume way up to do so... I am trying to avoid that so i would like to get the right equipment.. i have read alot about impedance protecting switches for all the speaker wires but dont really know what that means... I would like a reciever/amp around the $300 range that can actually power all this equipment, switches and whatever else is needed i can always buy aswell but for the reciever/amp, my budget is around 300... please help... what do i need to look for?

Try Mike at HTD.

They have a range of switches and total home solutions. Good speakers too.
Paul:D

You need to look for some more money...

Here's a start. I presume you intend to send a stereo signal to 5 zones (10 speakers, 8 inside and 2 outside). Or is it a mono signal to 10 zones?
Anyway, the stereo signal would be more conventional for consumer applications.
You need an A/V receiver (maybe you already have a stereo AVR or 5.1 AVR lying around the house?) with roughly 100 w/ch. The AVR will have inputs for your music/HT sources like CD, MP3, DVD, radio, TV sound, etc.
The 2 channel (stereo) output gets connected via speaker wire to an impedence protected Speaker Selector Splitter Distributor w Volume Controls.
You can check these out on ebay for instance. With this type of unit, and the impedence protection button enabled, your AVR is protected against overload demands of driving all 10 speakers simultaneously AND you can adjust the volume of each stereo zone independently. This is much easier and cheaper (but less convenient or ideal) than purchasing and installing independent volume controls in each room or zone.
On the other hand, if you intend to drive 10 speakers with a mono signal, I would personally use a 70v commercial installation, which is a completely different application.

Try Mike at HTD.

They have a range of switches and total home solutions. Good speakers too.
Paul:D

You have their gear too? Love my stuff!

To the op, this will cover 5 zones for $433 + ship...

Amp w/wall controls

http://www.htd.com/whole-house-audio/basic#ReviewHeader

A/B speaker switch for outdoors

http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-accessories/Speaker-Selectors/SS41-Speaker-Selector

And one extra wall control for the outdoors speakers.

http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-accessories/Volume-Controls

I doubt you can do it any cheaper than what I have above and get the same results.

Mike

Thank you for the reply... That sounds really good! That is what ill use!

You have their gear too? Love my stuff!

To the op, this will cover 5 zones for $433 + ship...

Amp w/wall controls

http://www.htd.com/whole-house-audio/basic#ReviewHeader

A/B speaker switch for outdoors

http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-accessories/Speaker-Selectors/SS41-Speaker-Selector

And one extra wall control for the outdoors speakers.

http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-accessories/Volume-Controls

I doubt you can do it any cheaper than what I have above and get the same results.

Mike

Will there be much of a power drop when splitting the last channel? What is the best way to preserve the power to the last two speakers?