Two zones, pre-out question

[Warblade]

I hope this is the appropriate subforum for this question.

My wife and I are buying a new home and I've got the (fun) challenge of figuring out pre-wiring for audio distribution. What I want to have is audio in the kitchen, livingroom and back yard all wired to zone 2. Zone 1 would be driving a 5.1 setup. I'd like to be able to hook audio up such that I can either have the audio in both zones be the same (like if we have a superbowl party people can hear the game throughout the house), or have the ability to watch one thing in zone 1 and listen to something else in zone 2.

Each area (kitchen, living room and back yard) will have two channels. I'm assuming I will need a separate amp from my AV receiver to drive the speakers in zone 2. Correct?

Lets say I have my iPod hooked up to the AVR and I want to listen to it on zone 2 while someone else is watching movies in zone 1. As I'm writing this I think I've just figured out the answer to my problem, but just to be sure, how does an AVR decide which source goes to the pre-out? My current AVR doesn't have pre-out so I don't really know how this works in general.

 

[MDS]

If you buy an AVR with powered zone 2, you can run all three locations as zone 2 with the catch that you will need impedance matching volume controls or a speaker selector switch because all of the speakers will be wired in parallel. Each of those speakers will play the same source but that source can be different from zone 1.

Most such receivers also have a zone 2 pre-out (different than pre-outs for the main channels). You can use the zone 2 pre-out to feed an additional amplifier and connect all the zone 2 speakers to it. In that case, the receiver doesn't power the zone and you can retain 7.1 in the main zone. If the receiver is powering zone 2, you can only have 5.1 in the main zone when zone 2 is active.

The receiver knows which source to play in zone 2 because you tell it. The procedure is usually simple - press the zone 2 button and then select the source.

 

[Warblade]

The company that I'm going through has options for wiring rooms with volume controls (I'm assuming they would be using impedance matching controls).

If I wired 6 channels in parallel for zone 2 wouldn't that be too much impedance (assuming 6 8ohm speakers) for most receivers to handle? The receiver I was looking at is a midrange receiver, Pioneer VSX-1021-K.

 

[MDS]

If I wired 6 channels in parallel for zone 2 wouldn't that be too much impedance (assuming 6 8ohm speakers) for most receivers to handle? The receiver I was looking at is a midrange receiver, Pioneer VSX-1021-K.

Yes it would and that's why you need the impedance matching VCs.