Pre-wire speakers everywhere you might want them. You can even leave wires buried in the walls for the future. In wall speakers are great, wives love them too. Paint the grills to match your walls. I don't care for in-ceilings, sound is weird if you aren't sitting in a perfect spot.
Electricians are lazy. You will have to watch them pull the wires to make sure they don't pull speaker lines through the same places as electric lines. The can cross at 90 degree angles, just don't have them run together.
Buy good wire. You can use Cat-5e for speakers but it is thin. Advantages are that it is shielded. You can always use 2 wires for + and two for - which will equal thicker wire.
I pull extra CAT-5e everywhere. This is just for future proofing. It's cheap and pays off in spades if you ever even need just one of the runs vs poking holes all over the place to retro-fit. I pulled 2 runs of CAT-5 to many places to allow for future items such as lighting controls, phone and internet. Yes, most of this can be done wireless these days.
Although I have a wired Niles system (6 years old). It looks like the whole world is going wireless for the controls. Much more flexible. Keep in mind that many of the controls are a bitch to program...
I have had several systems and it turns out that a dedicated system works much better than Zone 2 off of a receiver (my Anthem worked ok but not as well as a Denon 395). Even with the Denon multi-zone unit, I still use a dedicated amp and Niles 8 zone impedance matching controller. The amps in a receiver are nothing compared to using a really good 2 channel amp (NAD, ROTEL or similar) that will run all of the time. I actually use a QSC 1000.
Final note: Price does matter. Niles is expensive for a reason. It is really well built gear. Xantech is cheaper, made by niles, and may be easier to install but at a lower quality (in my opinion...). Also, some gear is mix and match, some is not. Be careful.
Hope this helps.
Electricians are lazy. You will have to watch them pull the wires to make sure they don't pull speaker lines through the same places as electric lines. The can cross at 90 degree angles, just don't have them run together.
Buy good wire. You can use Cat-5e for speakers but it is thin. Advantages are that it is shielded. You can always use 2 wires for + and two for - which will equal thicker wire.
I pull extra CAT-5e everywhere. This is just for future proofing. It's cheap and pays off in spades if you ever even need just one of the runs vs poking holes all over the place to retro-fit. I pulled 2 runs of CAT-5 to many places to allow for future items such as lighting controls, phone and internet. Yes, most of this can be done wireless these days.
Although I have a wired Niles system (6 years old). It looks like the whole world is going wireless for the controls. Much more flexible. Keep in mind that many of the controls are a bitch to program...
I have had several systems and it turns out that a dedicated system works much better than Zone 2 off of a receiver (my Anthem worked ok but not as well as a Denon 395). Even with the Denon multi-zone unit, I still use a dedicated amp and Niles 8 zone impedance matching controller. The amps in a receiver are nothing compared to using a really good 2 channel amp (NAD, ROTEL or similar) that will run all of the time. I actually use a QSC 1000.
Final note: Price does matter. Niles is expensive for a reason. It is really well built gear. Xantech is cheaper, made by niles, and may be easier to install but at a lower quality (in my opinion...). Also, some gear is mix and match, some is not. Be careful.
Hope this helps.