Sonos is great if you want wireless and want a simpler setup. My in-laws love theirs.

When we built last year I wanted a wired WHA system and installed HTD's Lync product and we love it.

https://www.htd.com/Products/Whole-House-Audio/Lync

I usually get a good stereo shop to work with my clients and their sound systems to get exactly what you want. My hubby did ours to suit what we like I have no idea what brand but it is wireless and works very well for what we wanted.

Thanks for the input. Basically, i want to be able to play music in my attached garage, basement and back porch. So i guess that means 3 zones. I do not need the capability to play different music at the same time in the zones, just need to have the ability to turn off a zone while another keeps playing. I would like the ability to play off of either my phone or an internet source and also FM radio. It would be ideal to be able to control the music from any of the 3 zones.

Also, what about voice command? Should i be considering something like alexa as a control?

I have a Yamaha receiver (well I have 3) each has two zones, and controls a tv. It’s controlled through our phone with WiFi and Alexa can control it as well. We wired them to a linen closet. I haven’t touched a receiver since we set them up. Cost for audio through the whole house was less than 2000 including speakers. Oh and they can all connect to play the same audio.

Let me preface this by saying that I am no audiophile. If you want a system that will play music decently and sound fine for the average joe, I'd keep it simple and go with Sonos. No wires to run. Exceedingly flexible. Sounds good.

If you're an audiophile, I doubt Sonos would be acceptable. I would also look to an audio forum to seek advice.

Why not bluetooth wireless speakers and move them around as needed?

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We are doing whole home audio with Sonos, however ours will be wired (I can't tell from your post if you want wired or wireless). We were going to go with another setup that wasn't Sonos, but I sort of view this like Apple products. They just work. The app is nice, its easy to play what you want where you want. But again, ours is a wired system with multi-zone audio (like, 7 zones). The amps alone for this setup are $$$$. its not the cheapest route to go. For you, if you want wireless (or even wired), the Sonos system will do what you want.

You can control it from your iPhone if you have one; you just swipe down and with the new airplay 2, you can toggle on/off which speakers you want to play, and what you want to hear. It also plays nicely with alexa and google.

Also, where do you live? AV companies aren't cheap, but they do make this easy.

In our just finished house we have 7 zones. I used 2 NAD CI 580’s music streamers connected to 2 Emotiva multi room power amps. I have a NAD tuner connected to each streamer by splitting its RCA output. I use the NAD streamers 12v trigger to turn everything on. Works perfect, can control it with my phone or a $130 Samsung Android Tablet I got at Costco with the free BluOS app.

An easier solution for a 3 zone system would be 3 Sonos Amps (one for each zone). You could get a separate AM/FM tuner and split the RCA out to each of the amps.

I think Sonos is the best and most flexible choice.

We went through Home Theater Direct. Great people to work with, and I can run it all from my phone. I use an Alexa dot to control the music but can change on the Alexa app, and volume in any zone with the htd lync app. We have a 6 zone system, but I have speakers in 8 different areas. Some of them are wired together. It took me a little while to get the right configuration, but it's pretty easy to change.

Each zone can have it's own input also. I have the Alexa dot connected to the main unit and also had wires ran from where the TV goes. So I can have the sound from the satellite pipe thru the whole house, or...for example, the MBath, when I have to use the facilities but still want to hear what I might be missing on Blue Bloods. :)

We love it. It is all wired, we pre-wired while building in 2013 so I'm sure there are way better wireless technologies now than there were even then.

Good luck!! :)

ETA: I guess I should have read the whole thread, @dbrad recommended them also!

An important consideration not specified nor asked is - what is quality of the the sound sources to be used, and the quality of the amplifier and speakers?

If what's desired is built in speakers and typical home theater amps, along with audio from TV or streaming from the internet, the quality of what you put in won't matter much because you're mostly not dealing with higher quality sound nor sound equipment.

A speaker is best with having Bluetooth conection in it. As o do not need to go here and there or in the basement. But at the same time, one need to check the quality of the speaker, generally it has blur sound .

look at VSSL. I have done a lot of research on this and I found their product to be easy to use. I have not installed it yet but it is a great option as your phone is the source and like most people it is always with you. I am very Apple centric and this makes my life easy. Very easy to expand.

My other advice to you would be run as much wiring as you can now. You have empty walls and it is easier now then down the road. Run it where you think you may want it in the future. If you don't use it no big deal as wire is cheap. I am running all of my wire myself and between speaker wire and CAT6 cabling for networking I am running almost 4000 ft of cabling. I may never use it but it is only costing about $700 in wiring

Another vote for Sonos. Very flexible. You are not looking for audiophile equipment.

I would work with a local audio shop that deals with Sonos to configure a system that accomplishes the things you want.

I have some Sonos equipment, and I have some very expensive audiophile equipment. Sonos would be my choice to bring sound throughout my home.

Remember that if you are considering the Sonos wi-fi system, IKEA now has Sonos SYMFONISK WiFi speakers, a small rectangular one and another in a lamp, both available in two colors. The rectangular one is only $99 and might be used where lower sound quality is acceptable (kitchen, basement). The lamp might be used in, say, a bedroom. They are powered (amplifier is built in) and they are completely Sonos; they integrate with other Sonos speakers. You can find online reviews for both speakers.

You control a Sonos system using a cellphone app.

We have had our Sonos for over 10 years and it has moved with us twice into new homes. Love it, have the app on our phones and the wireless controller. You can create many zones (bedroom, basement, garage) and group zones together (whole house, outdoors). My husband has >10000 songs in iTunes and they are all accessible, plus access to other streaming services. We also like that you can create playlists on the fly, like putting music in a jukebox, it’s fun at parties to let people play DJ.

" My husband has >10000 songs in iTunes..... "

ITunes is just a program and a webstore, not a system. The music is stored in separate media files on the PC or other digital device. I don't know if it's changed but the music sold by Apple from its iTunes site for a long time was lossy, sub-CD quality because of low sample rates for compression. Apple used its proprietary format (called alternatively either AAC and MP4, same thing) . Similar to MP3s and sub-CD quality for the same reason. CD sound itself is compromised but better than compressed AAC or MP3 versions.

Sonos can handle lossless files - whether Apple Lossless format itself or the FLAC format that's platform independent. They're equivalent and if produced from ripping a CD, are bit for bit identical to the CD source. but in a smaller package for more tidy storage.

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We have sonos and have been very happy with it. We have wireless speakers in our kitchen and greatroom and Bose wired speakers on our screened in porch. The reason for the wired speakers is we had them from our previous home and they were fairly new and I don't believe the sonos speakers were rated for outdoor use at the time we bought them. I am not sure if sonos now has outdoor speakers.

Sonos is a great product and I have used it in the past. If you are looking to have speakers on countertops or shelves then pricing is not too expensive. If you are looking to add in ceiling speakers then it is really expensive. While it does work well it still cost a lot. For the price of 3 zones you can get an HTD system or something like VSSL and have more zones and flexibility

I use Juke Audio. It allows multiple people to stream audio from iPhones, iPads, etc. to any combination of wired speakers located throughout our home and yard. You just connect the speaker wires. The sound quality is fantastic, it's really easy to use, and it's inexpensive.

However, Juke Audio products work only with iPhones and other Apple devices, not Android.

I work in the industry. Sonos gets you an entire range of products that are flexible and allow you to do exactly what you need and upgrade as technology changes.

Brad: what is Juke? Does it contain an amplifier? The information they have on their website is extremely limited.

Yes, Juke is a powerful amplifier capable of directly driving all the speakers in all of the zones.

Brad, do you sell these?

Depending on your budget, the best way to accomplish this is to use a multi-zone A/V receiver from a company such as Denon. You will be able to control everything with your phone or a remote control, setup individual speaker zones and have different sources playing in each zone (or the same source playing in all zones at once).

Moving on to the speaker situation, ensure that you have proper soffits built to house each speaker as well as a removable grill where you can service and/or replace the speaker(s) over time. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make when installing a whole home system. They buy everything, have it installed, and then a year or two down the road something goes wrong and it's a nightmare to fix. I always design my soffits a bit oversized in case the client decides to change speakers down the road.

Why would you add soffits to your ceiling for speakers? Ceilings will usually have either an attic or another floor above them, so there's plenty of room already. And as long as you stick with the same size speakers (or go larger), replacing them later isn't even an issue. Ceiling speakers also generally have their own removable grill.

Obviously I was referring to in-wall speakers, not ceiling.

But you mentioned soffits - are we talking about a different kind of soffit maybe? In my vernacular, soffits are a ceiling feature.

Is it common to put whole home audio speakers in walls? Home theater sure, but WHA? Everything I've seen around here - and what I did in my own house - is ceiling mounted.