Please Help!

TPB

Im new to the whole house audio scene and I was wondering what I needed to buy to get me up and running. Right now I have 3 rooms of music (1 pr of RC60i in each room = 6 speakers) and impedeance matching volume controls in the walls. What size receiver do I need to get the most out of these speakers. Do I need a separate amp to push all the speakers of will a standard receiver work alone? I just dont want to buy the wrong thing. I just wasnt sure how you are supposed to wire up 3 sets of speakers and still be able to hear them. Thanks alot for any advice.

unc2701

OK, with the impedence matching volume controls, one amp can drive all those speakers- just hook all the wires coming off the volume controls to your speaker posts or get a distribution block like this:
http://www.nilesaudio.com/products/sdh.html
Make absolutely certain that you got the impedence matching done right!!!! if it's wrong you'll overheat your amp.

Now, the impedence matching is a cheap solution and not the best one because:
1)The impedence matching is inefficient- you'll loose a few watts of volume in heat given off by the volume controls

2)Let's say you've got a 100 watt amp- at full volume, each of your 3 speakers will get 33 watts minus the loss from 1). So best case you might only be getting 25 watts to those speakers.

Done right you have an amp for each channel... You can either do this by getting several 2 channel amps (Adcom 535's or 545's would be perfect) or a unit meant for this, like the niles 1230:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3280&item=5782033793&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

partsexpress used to have a similiar one that ran for a little less... someone else might be able to help you out there. If you go the one amp per channel approach, you'll need to switch the impedence matching to 1x.

TPB

Thanks for all the info. I was looking today and found a Harman Kardon HK3480 120w x 2 receiver. I think that is states that it also rates 150 w x 2 at 4 ohms RMS. Is this powerful enough to push the 3 pair of speakers. Thats like 30 watts after the loss to the volume controls right?