I took the alternate route with regard to whole-house audio, but that was probably because I have amassed a lot of two-channel gear over the years... and for the most part, I never got rid of any of it. So, rather than use a multi-channel, multi-zone amplifier, I opted for some self-amplified near-field monitors to be used in the other rooms of my house, and send the zone 2 signal to those rooms.

That is, the approach that I took was to take the zone-2 signal from my 990 and 1) convert it to a balanced output via a multi-format converter (A/D and D/A on its chassis), 2) send the balanced analog signal from that to a Rane DA-216 distribution amplifier, and 3) distribute the balanced line-level analog signals to each room in my house. I also have the optical out (from the 990) going into the format converter, and lastly, I have the RCA front channel signals (from the 990 - I used the balanced outputs for the main system) going into a flying cow A/D, the AES/EBU signal from which feeds the format converter as well. Thus, if I select the analog input to the format converter, the distribution amplifier gets the zone 2 signal. If I select AES/EBU, I get the front signals (RCA to flying cow A/D), but since these are dependent upon the volume setting on the 990, if I turn the volume up / down on the 990, so goes the volume in the rest of the house. If I select Optical (on the format converter), I get whatever is selected on the 990, but the feed is not affected by the volume control of the 990. Why all this? Because sometimes I like the whole house feed to be independent of the gain on the 990, and other times, I want it to be in lockstep with the 990's gain, and having an outboard format converter solves this problem quite nicely - because it allows me to select just what signal the rest of the house will receive.

From there, in each room I pressed pretty much all of my legacy two-channel equipment into service (mostly pre-amplifiers, though I do have some preamp / tuners) and then bought active near-field monitors (the same kind) for each room. In each room, the whole house feed is converted back to single-ended (RCA) either by active means (Audio Control BLR-10) or passive (balanced to unbalanced audio matching transformers).

Thus, if you want the whole house feed in a given room, you just select the TAPE 2 input. TAPE 1 is reserved (on each preamp / preamp-tuner) for the local Audiotron (streaming device), and because I have several old preamp/tuners, I get access to AM/FM in a given room, local access to my music library (in .wav format), access to the whole-house feed, or...when people visit with their mp3 players, they can connect them to the local (or to the 990) via an RCA to 3.5 mm stereo adapter. This gives me a lot of flexibility, especially since I really like to have music throughout the house at a nice comfortable level; I never have to turn up the volume in one room just to hear something in the other room(s).

Also, there's a real nice benefit to this approach, namely the Audiotrons are all IP-based, and as such, I can control what they play (tracks or streaming stations) from any computer / tablet in the house, or even from my Android phone; I don't have to rely upon the use of remote control for the Audiotrons...instead, I use my network to control them. This is particularly handy when I am sending the signal from the front room Audiotron to the whole house feed - because in that case, I can control the gain of all systems at once simply by controlling the gain of the Audiotron. Yes, there are much more modern streaming devices available, but I have been able to find Audiotrons on eBay for as little as $20 or so (perfectly functional units), so adding one to each room was kind of a no-brainer (plus, my girlfriend knows the Audiotron well, so there's a comfort level there that I know she appreciates - she 'just wants to hear the music' as she says, and sine the playback devices are the same in each room, there's no learning curver for her...gotta keep the ladies happy...).

My next project is to write an app (unless anyone out there has one ready to go that they would be willing to share) that would give me a GUI to drive a CAT5e to RS-232 device. When I have this...I will be able to control the 990 much like I control my Audiotrons - from a laptop, tablet, Android phone etc., and my plan is to allow the app to allow selection of what goes to zone 2 as well.

Of course, right around the time this last bit comes together I'll probably want to upgrade...but honestly, the 990 and the additional gear do all that I need. I realize that I am in a unique position (at least compared to the general population but not necessarily compared to my Outlaw brethren) in that I had spare preamps etc just lying around, as I did the Rane distribution amplifier and such...and now that there are wireless distribution systems, that's certainly anotehr option one could pursue, but I like balanced lines, and since they do what they do so well with no noise issues, I plan on sticking with this approach for the forseeable future.