I am putting in a whole house audio system with multiple zones. There will be areceiver per zone. Some zones have more speakers than I believe the receiver can adequately drive. How do I figure out what kind of power I will be needed? For example, if I have 1 zone with a 100 Watt Receiver and need to drive 6 speakers (rated to 50 watts each), what size amp do I need? I know I could probably get by driving 6 speakers on a decent receiver, but I want good sound quality and good volume.

Been there done that. I made myself crazy. Get a good multi channel amp and call it a day. I use SpeakerCraft BB835's in my house. I love them. I think they have a 12 channel (BB1235)also. Check them out www.speakercraft.com. (If you havent purchased your amps yet). I was also lucky enough to come across a Elan 630 preamp to do my zone switching. You will need to purchase that from a dealer though. But there are others you do not need a dealer for. (Nile?)

That is the DIY'ers view. I am also curious what the pro,s think.

Mike

You know what they say about horsepower and wattage; some is good, more is better, and too much is just enough! Seriously, it depends upon your lifestyle. If you just want background music distributed throughout the house, then you don't need too much power. If you plan on "cranking it up" once in a while, or listen to music with alot of dynamic range, then you'll obviously need more. Use good quality speakers, and good amps/receivers. You'll find that using a good quality amp/receiver that uses discrete transistors in the power amplifier section will have more power than one that uses amp-on-a-chip designs. Even though two amps may be rated for the same wattage. An example would be a souped up Honda engine vs. a Chevy V8. Both may be rated at 200 HP, but the Chevy has more torque.

As far as how much wattage I would recommend, it's tough to say without knowing how you plan on using the system. You'll find that it's pretty hard to find a receiver with more than ~100 watts per channel. Realistically, I don't think that you'll need more than that if you keep the number of speakers at a reasonable number (6 pair or less). Just be sure to use either impedence matching volume controls or a speaker switcher with built in protection. You can also use a pair of large (100w) 2-4 ohm resistors in line with your amp. Good luck!

David

Well, you can kinda figure out how loud a speaker will play by looking at the sensitivity of the speaker. That tells you how loud it will play with a given input power at a given distance.