I'm finishing my basement and at the point where I need to get the speaker wiring in. I'm confused about if I need to make home runs with all the wires or just connect them all in parallel. I'll have a TV and receiver in one room and in the other room I'll have the stereo receiver. I'd like to play the stereo in the pool table area of main room. http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj133/dermeling/basementdwg.jpg

Something is fishy.

Tell me a little about your stereo. Conventional? Line to voice coil outputs?
Power nominal like 100 W into 8 ohms
X watts into 2 ohms.

Stereo speakers? How many pairs?
Quality that you expect?
Do you expect to be able to set the volume at each location/room?

Did you purchase the speakers yet? Specs?

K.I.S.S. I don't have any of the stereo equipment yet. I won't be getting a high end unit though. In the photo, the blue dashed line is where I hoped to have speakers to play music from the stereo in the room in the right. The red dashed line is where I kind of thought I'd have speakers to hear the TV sound. There are 2 speakers I was hoping to be able to use from either side if possible. I was thinking of using the small on-wall mount speakers in the left room except for the ones that will be on the left and right of the TV stand which will not need to be prewired in the walls. Hope this helps.
Thanks

I need to get back to you. First, in the traditional sense, you have to keep the impedance (Z) of the speaker the same when switching them in and out or you can wire them in series an parallel to keep Z within the amp range. L-pads were used to change the volume at the speaker level. There are speaker switchers which will allow so many pairs of speakers. This suggests the home run approach.

Stores use what's called a 70 V line. On each speaker there is a transformer and a tap that selects the relative volume.

What I would like you to do is research some whole house audio systems. Here are a few places to start. Website Index - HomeTech Solutions (http://www.hometech.com/home/index.html) and Smarthome - Home Automation, X10, Remote Control, Lighting, Wireless Security (http://www.smarthome.com).
For all I know, they could be using local amplifiers and controlling them with CAT 5 cable and putting the sound over CAT 5. ANything is possible.

Come back with questions.