Whole-home audio systems – also known as multi-room or multi-zone systems – have become increasingly popular in recent years. With a little planning and an open weekend to start and finish the project, you can have complete control over how music is played throughout your home. There are several methods and technologies to consider when it comes to distributing audio, each with their own benefits and challenges. As such, figuring out how all the components will work together harmoniously, whether they’re wired, wireless, powered, and/or unpowered, can seem a little daunting.

You probably already have some equipment, like stereo speakers and a quality home theater receiver. The next step is to plan out what your multi-room system will look like before you expand and implement features to cover additional areas. Read on to get an idea of the different ways to get the job done.

The easiest way to create a dual-zone stereo system is probably right at your fingertips. Many home theater receivers have a Speaker A/B switch that allows you to connect a second set of speakers. Simply place the extra speakers in another room and run speaker wire to the Speaker B terminals on the receiver. That’s it! By toggling the A/B switch, you can choose when music is played in one or both zones. You can also connect additional speakers to the receiver using a speaker switch, which acts as a hub. Remember that even though it may be multi-zone (different areas), it is still single-source. You want to set up a multi-source system to stream different music to different rooms/speakers at the same time.

If you have a newer home theater receiver, you can take advantage of its multi-room/multi-source capabilities without having to flip a switch. Many receivers have additional outputs that can deliver two-channel audio (and sometimes video) to as many as three separate zones. This means you can play different music/sources in different areas instead of having all the speakers share the same space. On some models, the audio output is speaker-level, requiring only a run of wire to connect all the other speakers. But check this carefully. Some receivers use an unamplified signal, requiring line-level wiring and an additional amplifier between rooms and additional speakers.