I think Keta's got the right idea here - a Niles speaker distribution hub would let you connect the 770's two spare channels to eight pairs of speakers, each with a wall-mounted volume control in the remote space. If I'm thinking clearly this afternoon, it should be possible to connect two 8-ohm speakers to one output of the hub and count that as a single 4-ohm speaker, allowing you to feed all ten remote pairs from the pair of extra channels on the 770. Niles recommends 16ga for runs up to 80 feet and 14ga for any runs longer than that.

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Very helpful. Thank you. So the way I see it I need Stereo Volume Controls for each room, a distribution hub and a speaker selector. My wiring guy says he uses Russound for the speaker selector/hub and M&S for the volume controls. Any comments on these brands?

You may only need volume controls in aech room and not a selector. Go to Niles or Crutchfield and read about them. They have some pretty good information.

Right--1 selector, 1 hub and a volume knob in every room.

Sorry cbell I just thought if you were using the 950 and you would use the zone 2 for all the remote speakers making the speaker selector unnecessary. If you do use a speaker selector you could do away with the volumes in each room but that may be inconvenient. One problem with the Niles stuff is most will only take up to 14ga. 12ga will work (I do it) but it's a tight fit.

well, i have to say that if I were buying A SUB, it would be only from one brand. that brand is velodyne. i would buy the best that i could afford, best being Digital Drive 1812 Signature Edition, however it costs over $5k i think. next would be DD-18, then HGS-15X. i currently have several HGS-II 18s, which incorporate everything the newer models (except 1812) do except for the parametric eq feature, same amps, same driver, etc. i will NEVER go to any other sub manufacturer unless velodyne goes out of business. i have used them for years; i will use them for many more. they always get glowing reviews, they have good people working there, and they are reliable.
anthem makes an AVM20, coming out with statement D1, which i think is best pre/pro money being secondary.
i would probably give outlaw amps a try, m200s are my style. rotel is nice too though.
as far as speakers, i am not as interested in them, so i dont keep up with a lot of brands, so i wont waste your time.
dvd player=DENON, whatever one you want. if sacd is important, then the 1200, if not 910 (which is what i have). keep in mind dvd is soon going to be revolutionized with blu laser technology, so dont waste your money now.
niles make good distribution systems.
cables, there are a lot that are fine. buy a good sub cable, buy good analog cables, and buy good speaker wire. video and digital i have found to have smaller quality gains with significant price gains.
THE SAMSUNG DLPS ARE JUNK. if you must get DLP, get a front projector using 3 chip setup (there are several brands that are good, runco being best, but too much for the 15k range im sure). unfortunately there are not too many 50in tvs to recommend, they all have serious issues, hence my suggestion for front projector.
hope that helps you out some.

Keta--

My wiring guy uses Russound for the speaker selector. Know anything about these? I don't know that it matters that much as it seams like a pretty simple device. I definately want volume knobs in each room and need a centralized location downstairs to turn speakers on/off. The actual music will be housed in HT which is way off to one side of the house and up a set of stairs.

curegeorg--

All of those brands have been on and off my list. They have Velodyne subs at the new Tweeter close by. What would you recommend in the $500/600 range from Velodyne. No way can I afford $5K. I was going to go with Anthem AV20 before I read about the Outlaw stuff which seems very competitive. Also looked at Rotel very closely. The Outlaw combo just seems like the best value and that is important to me.

My biggest concern is your bashing of the Samsung DLP. I have not read anything negative except that there may be some voice synch problems with video(though this is a big problem). I talked with Samsung and they are working on the problem and said they were working with consumers that have already purchased their product. What else is wrong. Front Projection won't work for me due to the room lay out. Plasma won't work due to the screen burn issues and the price. I guess that leaves LCD and LCoS. Do you like any of these? If so why.

Hey you guys are being a great help and I really appreciate your input.

For a sub in your price range stick with the LFM-1 or one of the Hsu VTF or STF series subs. All of these get great praise, especially in the "Bang-for-Buck" category. As for other items on your list, sorry, I can't offer any valid advice!

cbell this is how it appears to me. Both volume controls from either Niles or Russound are attenuators with autformers which allow for impedance matching of multiple speakers being driven by the amp. I doubt one is of superior quality to the other with both being very good. Neither manufacturer recommends 12ga wire, they only recommend up to 14ga which I believe would suffice given your application. If I understand correctly what you want to do is hook up your HT as usual with the 950/770 powering your 5.1 setup. Use the two remaining channels on the 770 as Zone 2 and supply the distribution block(not a switcher). Come out of the distribution block and feed each volume control. With this setup you would enable zone 2, set the volume on the 950 to a predetermined value(when you want music in the other rooms)and then you can go to any of your rooms and turn up the volume using the Niles or Russound controls. Both manufacturers even offer these volume controls with IR receivers so you could control the 770 and other sources from the other rooms. Hope this helps.

That is very close to how I understand it though I am a little shaky on the terminology. The only thing is they are running 16 guage wire for all of these remote speakers. I think the limitation for 16 guage was 80 feet. So I don't think that will be a problem.