You are not using two sources so the DSSM4 would not be necessary. I would look at a unit that had volume controls and impedence adjustment like the Niles SSVC-4 or the Sima SSW-L4EX. Just connect the unit to your A speaker terminals on your receiver and attach all your speakers to the unit.

I believe you would do best to get in touch with a good dealer since there are plenty of options and you have things a bit confused. I don't understand why you would choose to move your HT speakers to the "B" outputs. I don't know your receiver but most HT receiver do not allow HT level set on the "B" speaker side. You would be unable to balance individual speakers levels with this arrangement. Why not just leave the HT speakers on "A" where they belong and put the additional speakers on "B"?

Note also that your receiver is not well known for driving multiple speakers. This installation might benefit from an additional multichannel amplifier. Possibly an autoformer based, impedance matching switcher can solve your problem here.

Additionally, you are not describing a two "zone" system. You are saying you want a single source, multiple speaker system; one source, one "zone" with multiple speakers. Allocating individual sources to two spearate areas would require a two zone system. Otherwise, with a single source playing in all locations, you are only in need of speaker switching and volume controls (assuming one amplifier can drive all the speakers you desire). You need to decide how you want to accomplish this task, whether everything is done at one central location or remotely accomplished with IR systems. The options are extensive and hinge on your budget, your desire for convenience, who will do the installation and the restrictions your present system and home construction place on all of the above.

Put "PARA dealer" in a seach engine to find a good dealer in your area. These are the sorts of installations they do everyday and they can provide individual options and manage the sale and installation.

Let me clarify my question a bit.

I am not planning on changing the HT over to B. We have just recently moved and my stereo is all in boxes and I was typing from memory.

For the "Zones" I was under the impression (and what we called it when I was doing the prewiring) that a "Zone" is a set of speakers or area that will be connected and a "Source" refers to a component ie: radio, DVD, TV, etc. Please correct me if I am wrong and clarify what you mean by a "Zone".

As for my original question, I understand that my reciever is not normally used for running this kind of setup but i do want to utilize the A and B channels that it has. When listening to music I would like to be able to listen to speakers placed on my patio, livingroom and kitchen, 1 at a time 2 at a time or all at once.

If my reciever had A+B functionality I would connect my HT speakers to one, a speaker selector to the other and then the patio and kitchen speakers to the selector. This would work fine for what I want using the A+B switch and the speaker selector. However I only have A or B so my question is would it be safe to connect the living room front speakers both to the reciever and to the speaker selector. This way I would be able to use the A or B switch to toggle between HT mode (only in the living room)and Stereo Mode (speaker selector to patio, kitchen, and front livingroom speakers). Again if this is ok it would suit my current needs fine. If not I could just have the patio and kitchen on the speaker selector but then I could not have music in all the rooms at the same time. Or is there a better way of doing this at a low cost.

The exact reciever I have is this one:
HTR-5930

For volume controls I have wired the speaker wire to locations on the wall where I can add them in the future and am possibly going to wire CAT5 there as well just in case. As for the reciever in the future when I upgrade I will get one more suitable to multiroom, multisource setups and avoid these workarounds altogether with the benifit of having all the wiring done already.

Thanks again and thanks for the advice already offered including the selector suggestions.

Source refers to whatever you are listening to, i.e. tuner, DVD, CD, etc. Zone refers to an area that can receive a source input different than any other location. For example, one area hearing tuner while another area hears DVD would constitute a two zone, multi-source system no matter how many speakers are involved with each source. All areas hearing the same source constitutes a multi-speaker system only. I assume you have no intentions to do so but do not use CAT5 as speaker cabling. It's high capacitance and thin gauge may be very unfriendly to your amplifier.

OK, if I understand correctly, you want to have your living room speakers do double duty. They will be HT speakers only in the context of your HT system and then they also will be music speakers when they are (capable of) playing with the remaining speakers in the house. And you want the ability to shut down any of the speakers at any time. If that's the case, I would wire everything to the "A" speaker outputs and make certain the additional speakers in the system are shut down when using the HT system. You will be required to switch the receiver to two channel stereo output for music (whole house listening) in order to disengage any multispeaker surround modes it might provide within the living room/HT system. In other words, you can't listen to music in surround in the main room and not loose something in the translation when listening through the patio/kitchen speakers. When using the system for HT, the receiver should automatically detect any 5.1 signal. If you want ProLogic or some other surround mode for the current two channel video broadcasts, you'll have to switch to that mode when using a two channel video source.

I think I understand that you were hoping to connect your front HT speakers to both the "A" and "B" speaker outputs and let the receiver do the surround mode switching for you since it doesn't output surround to the "B" speakers. This would probably work with your receiver since the "A or B" switch should break the circuit back to the amplifier when using the speakers as one or the other. But this connection will still load down the amplifier when using it strictly for HT since the speaker cables will allow the amp to see the switch box at all times. You'll end up having to switch the speakers off at the switch box anyway and if you forget the volume controls and speakers in the other locations will make live unpleasant for the amplifier when you want only HT. My preference would be to use only the "A" system to force you to use the HT system as intended. It's a bit more hassle but that's the result of a kludged together system. When you switch to a receiver with the capabilites you require, none of this will matter. Hopefully, making life a bit more difficult for the other person controlling the system and the checkbook will make her a bit more interested in stepping up to the correct product. On the other hand, blowing up the Yamaha has it's advantages in that department also.

In either case, you will still require impedance matching. It can be done from the switch box or at the volume controls and from a central location or at each speaker location. And you still need to decide whether you want more convenience or lower cost for your switching needs. Individual (mechanical) volume controls and switches at the receiver are less convenient when using the system as a whole house and more convenient when using it as a HT system. They avoid loading down the receiver with a switch that hasn't been thrown. IR based switches and vc's at each location are the most convenient all the way around and the most expensive.

Did that answer your questions?

yes thanks for the clarification.

The CAT5 I will wire to the possible future control panels would not be to connect the speakers, I have already wired speaker wire there. It would used for future keypads though. Right now I am just wiring and I want to be ready for the future without tearing my house apart again.

Thanks for all your help.

Now if in the future I want to upgrade my system to allow for Multi-source and Multi-Zone and have my HT in my living room what would be a low cost solution? Is there a way to incorporate my current HT receiver and all of my components into this and just get something to distribute stereo signals to the all 3 rooms to provide multi source, multi-zone? If I upgrade I would like to at least be able to have 2 sources to the 3 areas (Patio, Living room, kitchen)and independent volume controls. To provide TV in the living room and radio, CD, etc to kitchen and patio. Then when I want to be able to use 5.1 HT in the living room.

Right now I am wiring 4 conductor (for speakers) and CAT5 (for control) to locations I may add keypads. From there I am wiring 2 conductor wires to my two speakers in each room.
Everything is wired back to the head end.

For the HT I am wiring 2 conductor to each rear speaker. For the left, center and right I am not going to wire in the walls.

Thanks you have provided me with alot of insight.