Whole house audio...zone 2 possible?

Hi all,

First of all thanks for all the great advice and help on this forum.

Secondly, its been awhile since high school physics so before I spend hours scouring the internet and drawing (then crossing out and redrawing) diagrams, I thought I would inquire here as to any shortcuts or help/advice the pros here might have. I have an Onkyo txnr 709 receiver and the specs can be seen here: http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=TX-NR709&class=Receiver&p=s

I am planning on using the zone one to play a 5.1 or 7.1 in my theater room. Also, it has a powered zone 2 that I intend to use to power my multi-room audio. I have the following speakers I intend to run throughout my house:

8 energy rc micros (4 pairs to 4 different rooms) Impedance: 8 ohm compatible, recommended amp power 20-100 watts continuous
4 Yamaha Ns-aw 190 (2 pairs, both outdoor) Impedance: 6 ohm, Nominal input 35 W, Maximum input 120 W

Questions:

1) Is it possible to wire all of these speakers to the zone 2 of my receiver?
2) Is there an easy way to figure out the wiring so as to supply adequate wattage and resistance?
3) Is there a way to wire it so that I may play only some of the speakers at a time (in other words attach to a switch so as to play certain rooms as desired, or only the outside speakers at some point and not at others)
4) If, after it is hooked up, some speakers play too loudly relative to the others on the same zone, how does one account for this so that all are at an appropriate volume...in other words, if I wanted my outdoor speakers louder than my indoor but want them playing at the same time, is there any way of doing this?

Thanks so much for all suggestions/help/input!!!

Thanks for the replies. I know this is reviving an old topic but I am finally moved into my new house and other projects unfortunately took priority (for some reason my wife thought we needed a kitchen and bathroom before whole home audio...)

Anyway, the suggested Aton product looks very nice. I was wondering, though, in the interim, what would be the disadvantage of buying a cheap speaker selector with a built in protector?

I was looking on ebay for some used and was tempted by a Niles SPS 6 which are around 20-30 bucks after shipping.

Otherwise I think monoprice sells one for about 20 bucks: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10903&cs_id=1090305&p_id=8229&seq=1&format=4#feedback

I realize i would still be unable to adjust the volume between the speakers but I thought I might save the ~$380 and give it a try first as I am using the same speakers in each room and the rooms are roughly the same size.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks!!
Edited by 12loser12 - 4/20/13 at 12:21pm

They are not run yet, I have a rough idea for running them but still need to finalize my plans and equipment as I've never done this and have 0 expertise in the area (I just like having music on).

My receiver is in my basement with my projector and movie surround (those wires are run). I was thinking of pulling a speaker wire from my zone 2 through the wall to a closet upstairs and hooking it up to my speaker selector. Then I would run speaker wires from that closet to the attic and just drop them in the ceiling corners of the various rooms I will mount my speakers in. That way I can toggle rooms on and off from the upstairs closet and it also saves a little bit of speaker wire and hassle running it as I only have to pull one wire up from the basement.

Love the advice, thanks again guys. Just to clarify, when you say home run all of the wires I'm assuming you mean run them all from the basement to the speaker selector instead of one? If so, I am curious if/how you would hook these up. The speaker selector upstairs is to make it more accessible, but I am unsure what more wires from the basement to the speaker selector would do or if/how I would use them. Also, thanks for the heads up on the cat5. What exactly would this be used for in the future?

(BTW, Im in the odd situation of knowing I will live here for 5 years, but knowing I will almost certainly move after that, which is why I balance making it awesome and future proof, with what I want to use it for now)