Newbie advice

[njovin]

I am a computer guy, first off, so I consider myself technically inclined. I am, however, a novice when it comes to home theater. I have just purchased my first home (a two story condo) and want to wire it up for sound. I was hoping to get a little advice from the experts to point me in the right direction.

My main concern here is wiring two rooms up for sound: the living room and the kitchen. They are adjacent with a wall and staircase seperating them. The living room will (obviously) have some sort of home theater package (Home Theater in a box). What I would like to do, however, is wire a set of speakers (4?) up in the dining room. I would like these speakers to be wired up to the same receiver as the home theater system, with the option of playing the sound just in the living room, or in both rooms at once.

I don't know if this is possible as described. I'm basing my wants off of a system my uncle had setup at his place. He had a Bose 5.1 (i think) system wired up to a receiver in his living room. He could optionally pump audio out to a set of outdoor speakers (simultaneously playing indoors), which I assumed were wired to the same receiver.

As I am a bit of a newbie, superb quality is not a concern of mine, I'm not looking to spend a ton of money on a top-of-the-line system. So, my questions to the gurus are:

1) Is this setup possible as described?
2) What kind of receiver would you recommend for such a setup? (brand,model?)
3) If I'm totally off base, please advise me as to what is REALLY needed to accomplish my goals.

Thank you so so so so much in advance for any replies. I look forward to hearing from you all.

[Audioman00]

1: You need to aquire a "multi-zone" receiver, the brand of your choice and budget, but since this is free advice I am going to implant the word YAMAHA in your head, very good sound and quality for the money.
2: You need to also aquire an external amplifier, one that is capable of running 2 sets (4) spkrs simultaniously. Which you will later connect to a spkr selector switch box, that will determine which room has the music playing in it. I recommend that you have the home wired with a vol control in every room, so the sound is not the same decible level in every room at the same time. (the "Audiosource amp2" is a good amp for this project).
3: You need to have all the wiring done before you can really proceed. But that is the equipment you need first off.

Also: you need not keep that "bose" stuff in your gameplan, that will only cost you lotsa money for not much quality, and it will line the pockets of the bose poeple so they can put on more infomercials at 2 am. lol.

Let me know if you need more info :>~

[M-D]

I

1) Is this setup possible as described?
2) What kind of receiver would you recommend for such a setup? (brand,model?)
3) If I'm totally off base, please advise me as to what is REALLY needed to accomplish my goals.

Thank you so so so so much in advance for any replies. I look forward to hearing from you all.

1) Yes. No big deal.
2) You'll need a basic A/V receiver with SPEAKER A/B, A+B. Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo
seem to be popular.
3) The simple set up... living room gets speaker A, along with the center, rears and sub.
Kitchen (1 pair) gets speaker B.
If more speakers are to be used, then a selector box may be needed. Volume controls
can be added to eq. the different listening areas. For ease of wiring, selector boxes
with volume controls are an option.

Good luck.

M.