So, just going through a major kitchen re-model and I’ve settled on a system for music for the main floor of the house which includes Rhapsody, iTunes, a New Dell PC, a Niles 12 channel Amp, 5 niles volume controllers (3 with auto-mute for the outside), 2 sets of in-ceiling speakers and 3 sets of outdoor speakers. Here’s the situation and my solution:

Situation:
3 story house. Basement has TV, home theater system and playroom. Previous system had a Denon 3802 receiver running the home theater downstairs and the multi-room channel running music upstairs through a small Niles Amp to a single niles volume control and two Boston Accoustics bookshelf speakers. The problem was that running up and downstairs to control what music was on was kind of a pain, there was some short in the speaker wire going upstairs so whenever the DBs got above -15 the system would short and the bookshelf speakers didn’t have a good home so we on the floor and obvious. Plus, didn’t have the Rhapsody library to select from to play music through the system.

Solution:
New Dell PC (XPS 400, Media Center, 1 gig ram, 320 gig harddrive, SoundBlasterr X-fi Xtreme Music audio card) running Rhapsody and iTunes going out to a Niles SI-1230 12 channel amp which powers 5 sets of speakers (could be 6) with 30 watts of dedicated power per speaker (60 watts dedicated per pair). One in-ceiling set in living room, one in-ceiling set in kitchen, three sets of boston accoustic Voyager 5’s outside for the deck and garden. Each set has it’s own volume control with the outside speakers each getting an auto-muting volume control that turns off when the system turns off and only powers on when you turn the knob (to help with the neighbors).

Should be live in another couple of weeks - hope it works!