Gee it sounds like good computer project. Have everything go into the computer and have it adjust the volume for you based on which input/output pair. There are devices that I have seen that do these type of things.

Ok...question.

So you mention the speaker wire isn't run correctly for that sort of thing. So is the Cat 5 run near where you could mount a wall mounted control?

If so, you can do a wall mounted control that then sends back the signal to an IR dist. block. This way you could walk up to a panel and select that area you are in, then adjust volume, source, etc.

But, the thing is, virtually all these solutions would cost MORE than simply altering your speaker wiring a bit. If you can get the speaker wire from the source to a wall mount box, you can simply add an impendance matching control there...fairly cheap. You'd then need the speaker cable to run from there to the actual speaker location.

Even running it behind drywall, this is the cheapest method. Later, if you drop it, you can simply join the wires that are behind the impedance control and drywall over it...back to your original.

O' course, you could use one of these: http://www.smarthome.com/97257862.html

That would let you get the signal back to where your receiver is. Now, does your current receiver allow for "soft" speaker selection? On mine, the A, B, A+B switch is a hardware selector, so an IR signal does me no good. If yours is the same, then you'd need some sort of device that WOULD accept IR to switch sources/speakers/zones. This can either be a receiver as you mention OR a audio distibution thing, both of which might not be cheap.

aiki

aiki

I am trying to find a way to do something similiar to Jason. If I can find a speaker controller with remote control then I would eliminate the need for volume control in each room with speakers. I could use a universal remote to control the speaker controller via a IR setup. Does anyone know of such a device. I would greatly appreciate any help. thank you