Well...I actually did not have to open up walls - merely score the sheet rock with a utility knife...and then drill holes from the basement - more on that later.

The front room has two wall plates - one for the four ports (CAT5) going from the router into the gigabit switches (which serve the rest of the drops in the house), and another plate which serves four drops, plus the audio connections. So far, two wall penetrations.

Master bedroom - I put two plates in, with CAT5 (x2) and L&R balanced audio outputs. This makes the total four wall penetrations.

Guest bedroom - one plate with 2x CAT5, and L&R balanced outputs. Count = 5.

Daughter's bedroom - two more plates; one with 2x CAT5 and one with 2x CAT5 and the two balanced outputs. Count = 7.

Fireplace Room - two plates, each with 2x CAT5 and L&R balanced audio. Count = 9.

Back Porch - two plates, one with 2x CAT5 and one with balanced L&R outputs. Count = 11.

Basement - one plate (in a wall-mount box) carrying 2x CAT5 and L&R balanced audio. Count = 12.

Luckily, this (with the exception of the basement 'drop') was all facilitated with wall inserts (for low voltage) and the Leviton Dataport (or maybe they are called quickport...I can't recall) wall plates, which are meant for CAT5/6 drops; pulling the wires was pretty easy in the sense that I was able to easily find references for the locations of the penetrations in the wall(s) upstairs while in the basement, which made it very easy for me to know where to drill. I did most of that last summer, and since it was really hot out at the time, working in the basement was a blessing in disguise...

The balanced audio in each room was facilitated through the use of 3.5 mm jacks (one each for left and right channels) - though they are typically used for headphones (i.e. mini jack), they are three-conductor, so I treated them as balanced connectors. From there. I found some HOSA 3.5 mm "TRS" to XLR male connectors (which I had to modify as they are not 'true' TRS and as such, I had to make the tip correspond with pin 2 of the XLR male, the shield correspond with pin 3 of the XLR male, and the sleeve correspond to pin 1 of the XLR male).

Why would I opt for 3.5 mm over XLR male outputs? Well, they are physically much smaller than an XLR, and though not ideal, I was able to drill-out the CAT5 'blanks' made by Leviton and snap them in, solder the three wires accordingly, and be done with it. Leviton does make a pre-made version (3.5 mm mounted on a 'blank'), but they run about $10 a pop on-line, and by making them myself, the unit cost was around $1.75 or so. Yes, to 'save' this money I had to spend my time...six of one...

Mark