Reddit reviews Monoprice 4-Channel Speaker Selector - Black Up to 140W Per Ch. Distribute Speakers, Perfect for Home Theater Audio

That's interesting, but unfortunately most of these builds are DIY and lack any sort of standardization, so you'll have to do most of the heavy lifting in order to figure out what you have, as well as what you need.

As to your first point, you probably do need some sort of room selection, as well as a) an amplifier which powers the speakers, and b) either a single streaming platform (e.g. Chromecast Audio, Sonos Connect, etc.) to send signal to all speakers, or multiple streaming platform to send signal to individual speakers or rooms.

As to your second question, that depends on how you want to answer the above questions, and on how they're set up. As I mentioned, there probably isn't much standardization between this build and others, so I would start this whole process by getting a basic amplifier (Lepai 2020 is fine for this purpose) and going through each wire in that bunch as well as each pair of connectors in the garage (see below). Turn off the amp, hook up a pair of speakers, turn on the amp, play something, track down the sound, label the wires by room (colored electrical tape), stop playing, repeat.

After you figure out how the speakers, wires, and wall panels are connected, you can work on picking out an amplifier, a streaming platform, and a room selection device. I would budget $1000 for this, but it can probably be done for less. If you don't want to spend that right now (understandable), you can probably wire up one room to a Chromecast Audio and an SMSL SA50 (non-plus) for less than $100 if that room has a priority (see below).

As to your last question, those are probably banana plugs. Just another termination for speaker wire, not a big deal in the context of the rest of this. If you need banana plugs, Amazon or Monoprice have them for basically nothing.

The most basic set-up for whole home audio you could have is this speaker selector, this amplifier, and this streaming device. Probably $250 for the full home, or more if you have more than 4 rooms wired.

Alternately, if you want to be able to play two different streams in two rooms simultaneously, you could put this streaming device and this amplifier in the ceiling of each room. Google Home allows for CCAs to be combined into groups rather flexibly- you could put Kitchen-Living Room- Bathroom in one group, and Bedroom 1-Garage in another, and Living Room- Bedroom 1 in another, and every CCA you have in yet another, and still have the ability to play music in any one room on its own. Very nice system, but doing this is realistically $100 per room. If you don't mind limiting yourself to pairs of rooms, you can cut down on this cost by adding a four-channel room selector to this chain.

High-end receivers also may contain their own multi-room, multi-source implementations, but you're typically limited to two rooms, and two sources. Add in two splitters like this and you can expand that capability out to two groups of four speakers, but those groups would be less flexible than the CCA setup above. This setup is $500.

You just should get one of these and follow the instructions in the manual. Monoprice 4-Channel Speaker Selector

Edit: I have one of these and have mostly used it for A/B testing to see the differences in different speakers.

That receiver doesn't have a second zone. You either need to replace the receiver w/ a 2.0 receiver that has operate A & B speaker channels that can be toggled at your liking or get a receiver w/ a zone 2 for your kitchen. You can also buy a speaker selector & have your speakers plug into that & the receiver. something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-109995-4-Channel-Speaker-Selector/dp/B00DIGD604?ie=UTF8&keywords=speaker%20selector&qid=1462747675&ref_=sr_1_4&s=electronics&sr=1-4

all you need is this: http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-109995-4-Channel-Speaker-Selector/dp/B00DIGD604

hook your speakers up to output 1, 2, and 3 (left+right = 6 speakers), you can then turn these speakers pairs on and off with the buttons, keep "single pair direct" off unless you are only using one pair of speakers (important or you could damage the amp)

you'll need a fairly powerful amp since it will be outputting to all the speakers, maybe this: http://www.amazon.com/Crown-XLS1000-Power-Amplifier/dp/B003HZPKSM/

> Reading the Sonos Amp specs it looks I can hook up two pairs of speakers and install a switch to switch between the outdoors and indoors speakers. I understand that means I can only use one or the other at the same time which I’m fine with.

You can use a speaker selector box. You would hook the the sonos amp up to the amplifier input of the speaker selector box, then hook up your living room and patio speakers to the terminals. You could then press the button to turn the zone on, or depress it to turn the zone off. This would give you the same audio in both areas, and the volume would be the same. You could find a speaker selector box with volume controls as well, though they're more expensive.

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> Is the correct set up: PS4 and Apple TV connected directly to TV via HDMI. TV to Sonos Amp via HDMI ARC. 4 speakers connected to Sonos Amp via speaker wire and speaker selector switch? Would this be seamless or is this too busy for 1 piece of equipment?

Correct. You may find better results with Optical audio compared to HDMI Arc. We've installed a few dozen sonos beams with samsung TVs using HDMI Arc and have converted them all to Optical after the fact. The TVs seemed to fight between TV speakers and HDMI Arc.

Speaker switch, but it's not worth the money you're going to spend unless you're A/B'ing speakers ALL the time.

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Example

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You'll notice I posted a 4 channel and you may be thinking "Well, I just need A/B!" Yeaaah, the A/B is $50, the 4 channel is $30 lolol

The one I use is pretty old but there are some alternatives like this one or this which does four pair.

Any difference between the one you listed versus these?

1. 2 channel speaker selector
   
   
2. 4 channel speaker selector
   
   Only asking because I can't see the back of the amp switcher you listed on amazon .

You can get a switch

Check this out at Amazon.com - Monoprice 4-Channel Speaker Selector - Black Up to 140W Per Ch. Distribute Speakers, Perfect for Home Theater Audio https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DIGD604/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_8r6WCbMSAZJH3

I'm a noob here. Would a NAD D 3020 have a problem powering 2 speakers or 4 speakers if I used a 4 speaker selector like this?
https://www.amazon.ca/Monoprice-109995-4-Channel-Speaker-Selector/dp/B00DIGD604

I don't need it to be really loud.

What type of inputs/outputs? RCA? Or are they those bare wire speaker terminals?

This is what I use. It has RCA inputs though.

Quick amazon search brought up this

not sure of the quality, but it should get you started.

That sub is pretty strange, it looks like it came with a set at some point in the past. I'm really not sure how that gets powered. How were you using it before?

With your setup, I'd actually recommend just a stereo amp and a speaker switcher, rather than a full-blown surround receiver, if you're not using it to support video. There are lots of great stereo amps out there, but my personal favorites are the Emotiva A-100, and the Onkyo A-9010. Neither has a remote, but I've had both for some time, and both have served me well for all the different kinds of speakers I've thrown at them. If you're looking for something a little cheaper, this SMSL DAC/Amp sounds great, and has a remote.

That is a bummer but not unexpected. (Note the "subwoofer" output is labeled "Preout" but obviously it doesn't seem to matter.)

Would I be able to simply use a speaker selector and run the 5.1 front main outputs to it, then connect it to the 5.1 front main inputs as well as the other 3 pairs of stereo speakers? Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-109995-4-Channel-Speaker-Selector/dp/B00DIGD604/ref=pd_lpo_23_bs_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5EY77JSXQJPYEC5FAGQZ

1. Get a speaker selector and run some wires down to the basement connected to some big speakers.
   
   
2. Without running some kind of wire to another room no. No sure why you would want you custom build PC in the living room anyhow. I would get a beater to use a "console" machine.
   
   
3. I'm assuming that the AVR is going to be near the TV...just use an optical cable

http://smile.amazon.com/Monoprice-109995-4-Channel-Speaker-Selector/dp/B00DIGD604/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1457976343&sr=8-8&keywords=audio+switch

basically this. just called a headphone switch or a speaker switch or an audio switch.

the mic part you might need to use an extender cable.

I’d personally just use one amp with this [Selector](Monoprice 4-Channel Speaker Selector - Black Up To 140W Per Ch. Distribute Speakers, Perfect for Home Theater Audio https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DIGD604/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7TZwCbD50MTYJ) if you want two different zones of different audio you might want to purchase 2 amps

for $150, your only (realistic) option is gonna be a portable speaker that you move to the room you want. you won't get a all-in-one multi-room setup like SONOS for that budget (at least that I know of)


you could buy a few speakers, plus this amp and this speaker selector. the downside is that you'd need to run cables from the selector to each speaker, which would be a hassle, and might look bad if you don't take the time to hide the cables. additionally, that amp is good for a single pair of speakers on a desk, but over long runs of cable and multiple speakers, the amp will run of power very quickly. that being said, you could connect a Chrome Audio to the amp and control it via your phone/computer. and you could always upgrade the speakers and amp and improve the system as you wish


so yeah, either a portable speaker (pick any, they're all the same really), or bookshelf speakers+amp+select+chromecast