@jim
Thank you that was very helpful. Upon further exploration all of the wires run to the basement. So correct if I’m wrong. I would need the “big” receiver down there with amps to connect to each rooms seperate ceiling speakers?
For any rooms that have surround sound (more than a pair of stereo speakers), you would typically use a surround sound AV receiver. The top recommendations for a quality product for a reasonable amount of money are Denon, Yamaha, and Marantz.
If you have rooms with in-ceiling or in-wall speakers which will be used for music playback, then you have a number of options. You can use a single amplifier and a speaker selector. They have models from Sonance, Speakercraft, Niles, and others with integrated volume control that can do six rooms.
For example:
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-ErhyoFZFII3/p_190SSVC6/Niles-SSVC-6.html
When this product says '6', it is referring to 6 stereo speaker pairs, so actually it deals with 12 speakers. This is different than a 2-channel amplifier. When a amplifier talks about being two channels, it means it handles ONE pair of stereo speakers. Two total speakers. One channel of amplification is required per speaker.
Another option is a multi-channel amplifier so each stereo speaker pair receives it's own dedicated power source.
Then you need a source for all those speakers. Depending on what you want to listen to and how you want to listen, things can be complex, or easy.
The entire concept of distributed whole-house audio can be quite a mess for some people, but if you ask questions, post photos, and keep asking questions, you can figure it out on your own, or you can hire someone locally to come in and take care of things for you.
also the cables you identified; how would I go about “connecting” them to what I want the sound played from(tv, stereo etc). They all look like they were just cut at the ends
Speaker wire is sold by the roll and is not typically terminated with anything at the ends before final installation. At final installation, the installer may choose to terminate the ends, or they may work with the bare wire directly into the amplifier and speakers. If they do choose to terminate the ends, one of the most common terminations is the banana plug. A decent banana plug holds the wire firmly and will ensure good audio quality to the speakers.
There are a number of videos online about terminating speaker cable to a banana plug.
This is a good one and shows several different types of banana plugs. I agree with the assessment made about their favorite brand (about 6 minutes in)...
