Also look into the Nuvo Essentia or Concerto. The Essentia and Concerto have recently reached their maturity as Nuvo has released the Grand Concerto, so you can pick them up fairly inexpensively (around $1200 to $1500). The Concerto offers twice the power per channel than the Russound, has nicer keypads (IMHO) and has 8 zones (two unpowered) versus the Russound's six. Both the Russound and Nuvo lines are excellent, though, so you won't go wrong with either. I too have the Audiosource in Ceiling Speakers in my family room and Master Bath and Sonance in-walls in all other rooms, and for normal ambient listening I can't tell a real difference in sound quality.
Also, according to your listed sources, there might be another reason to consider Nuvo/Russound. Ask your dealer how you will control each of your sources (XM, Ipod, CD-Player) and get positive feedback as to what you are playing. To my knowledge, the solutions you outlined are basically shoot in the dark control. You'll have to use a programmable remote in each room (is that cost covered) or use keypads that have no integrated feedback as to what you are doing (like what track/artist is playing). Try to envision perusing your 10,000 mp3 library from your laptop from a blind keypad or remote.
Both Nuvo and Russound offer direct hardware integration of Ipods and XM tuners that display Metadata on the keypad so that you know what you are playing. Nuvo and Russound also have ready to use drivers for many automation systems (CQC, MainLobby, HomeSeer) if you ever want to evolve to that level of control.
To give you an example, I use a Nuvo Concerto for my audio distribution, coupled with a Nuvo T2 dual tuner (AM/FM and XM) and an old PIII PC that runs an instance of CQC Server on it. I have keypads in most zones (none in the Master Bath or on the Deck). I have some inexpensive 15" Planar touchscreens in strategic locations around the house talking via Cat5 extenders back to the same PC. So, using Kiosk style interface, I can browse my 18,000 mp3s via coverart, sort by Artist or Album, select and play. From the keypads, I can scroll through tracks and the display updates with current artist-track playing. On the AM/FM and XM side, the keypad displays the current song/artist/radio station (If the station transmits RDS). It's pretty slick and easy to use.
Bottom line, don't limit yourself upfront. Select a system that you can expand upon if it is a house you plan on spending some time in. To save money, talk to your installer about just running the cable to where you can install your own equipment. Or if you are uncomfortable with installing/configuring your own, still have them install the cable and use a custom AV integrator later on that will listen to your wants and needs and tailor a system to your desires. Just don't get pigeon holed into a system because that's the only thing your installer offers.
