Once upon a time, whole house audio was very basic and involved simply installing speakers all around your home and connecting them all to a single amplifier. And, though it was an improvement over "blasting" the volume from the stereo in your living room to hear music in your bedroom, whole house audio has become so much more.

Today, whole house audio lets you select exactly what you want to hear and how loudly you want to hear it — independently — from any other room in the house. For instance, you can now listen to classical music in your own bedroom while the kids are listening to the latest Disney® soundtrack in theirs — all through the same system.

And while the concept sounds simple, designing and installing a whole house audio system can be a complex process as there are many parts to a complete system. Components that make up great whole house audio system can include numerous multi-zone amplifiers, CD and MP3 players, tuners, satellite radio, speakers, touch panels, keypads and controllers. What's more, all components must be precisely matched to meet the needs of each room. For example, a bathroom has completely different controller, speaker and amplification needs than a large family room, so these factors must all be taken into consideration from the planning stages.