Tie the whole bundle together and weave it into a home-automation system. Whether you're on a beer or a champagne budget, there's a system to meet every need. In its most basic form, multiroom audio can be as simple as putting a minisystem or a boombox in every room where you want music. The advantages of devoting a separate system to each room are simple setup, flexibility, and portability. On the down side, when you have CD players or tape decks in several locations, your music collection tends to become nomadic and favorite discs or cassettes can be hard to find.
Separate systems can create a cluttered appearance, too.
A plain old stereo receiver with A and B speaker outputs can provide all you need for a simple two-room music system. Many people use this kind of basic setup to send the same music that's playing in the main listening room out to a pair of weather-resistant speakers on the patio or deck.