trouble with multiple speaker setup with one receiver

[sydthepid]

I had 5 rooms each wired for a pair of speakers with individual volume control knobs in each room but I don't think I am getting the best sound possible. I need to turn the receiver volume high (Sony STR DE597) and the room volume knob very high. what am i doing wrong? In three of the rooms I have a pair of standard 12" ceiling speakers. One room has 10" ceiling speakers and the porch has Bose outdoor speakers. I don't know how the ohms or impedence affects the sound quality. Currently I have 2 rooms wired into the "A" and the other 3 rooms into "B". What am I missing? I see some houses where you hardly have to turn the volume control in the room before it is very loud and I have to turn it almost all the way up. Is my receiver strong enough or am I doing something wrong? help!

 

[mike c]

your receiver is simply not strong enough. does your receiver have pre-outs?

 

[jcPanny]

Whole house speakers

Do you have impedence matching volume controls? If so, check the jumpers on each control to see if they are set appropriately for the total number of speaker you have connected to the receiver (5 pairs). If you don't have this type of volume control, get them.
The impedence matching allows your receiver to run safetly with 5 pairs of speakers connected. It devides the total power of your receiver (<100 watts / channel) by the number of speakers (4 or 8 jumper setting). Assuming your receiver has 100 watts and the control are set to 8, each speaker maxes out at 12.5 Watts.

Your best bet is probably an amp for the whole house system. Check out the Behrenger A500 ($200) or the Audiosource amps ($1-200). These will give you the power you need to run that many speakers.