Newbie: Switching Between Speakers and Simul Play

[SilveredPancakes]

First, I am very, very new to all of this. I inherited my dad's old record player, his vinyl, and am slowly trying to do it justice by getting in some decent audio equipment. We aren't there yet, but I'm learning and building slowly.

Right now, I'm trying to get a switcher that will let me use one set of speakers, another set of speakers, or both at once (A, B, A+B). One set of speakers is indoor, the other outdoor. My questions are:

a. What's the official name for this type of device?
b. Is there one that's only for audio? I see "switchers" for audio and different types of video. These areas are "listening only," though.
c. I may want to hook a computer up at some point to feed podcasts or an internet broadcast of some kind through the speakers. Would or could this be done through such a "switcher"?
d. We're building slowly. I hope that, eventually, I'll need to worry for quality though we aren't there yet. Is there a difference in quality in these types of devices? I've heard "not really." But, is there something I absolutely would not want to get or eventually might?

Thank you in advance. I appreciate the patience. This is a new and exciting world for me.

[Mr Peabody]

What you want is just called a speaker switcher. Niles makes pretty good ones. There probably is some slight differences between cheap and not so cheap switchers, it just depends on the type of equipment you have. If a receiver to mid level it may not matter so much but if higher end you may want to seek out something like the Adcom or Bryston switcher. The main thing is the switcher has good tight connections for your wires. You can probably do a Google search for just "speaker switcher" and come up with several options.

You can plug a mp3 player directly into any "AUX" input with a mini to stereo RCA "Y" adapter. There are ways to send music from your computer to your receiver wireless but that's out of my area of knowledge. I think the guys use a Squeezebox or Apple Airport Express. Hopefully a wireless member will chime in, if not post another thread in "digital domain" and ask how to go wireless, there are some knowledgeable guys here in that area.

[SilveredPancakes]

Mr. Peabody:

Thanks for the timely response. This gives me a better place to start!