Stereo question
 

Forgive my ignorance, I don't know much about sound systems.

What do I need to do this?

Lets say you had 3 or 4 pairs of speakers and needed to control the volume between each pair. Have some pairs louder than others.
I also want it to be able to accomodate more than one sound input.

I seen them before but I have no idea what they are called, it sits between the reciever and speaker connections and had slide controls for each set of speakers. It's also for a business with a lot of people and background noise so sound quality isn't a big issue (I don't want to spend a lot LOL)
Dave

I think you could do this on the cheap.

Just buy lots of speaker wire and some volume control knobs from somewhere like Maplins or some other hardware shop.

You would then have a few stereo sound sources which should have two sets of wires coming out as sound output. If they have plugs on the end just cut them off.

When you strip the wires they will have either one wire inside or two depending on the wire type (the ones with phono plugs on the end are the best as they only have one and it is easier to work with). If there are two wires inside each one, one will normally be covered and coloured red or white with a thicker wire down the side which isn't covered.

You then need to join all the wires for the sound output devices together matching white and red ones. If they are not red and white the one which should connect to the red wires is usually marked in some other way. If you get them the wrong way around it will reverse the left and right speakers.

You then need to wire all your sets of speakers to where all the sound outputs are joined matching red and white wires again. If you get these the wrong way around the speakers will play inwards instead of outwards which will give a muffled effect and lower tone to the music/sound.

Every time an additional device outputs sound, the overal sound will decrease and the noise level may increase. You can then stick volume controls on each set of speaker wires to control them individually.

If any wires touch each other it will stop sound coming out of any of the devices (a short circuit)

Hope this helps.
Robin

You want a sound mixer :) Its the easiest way.

Sounds like what you're looking for are called "Rheostats". These are like 100 watt variable resitiors ( like light dimmers) you can place between a 100 watt power amp and mulitiple speaker systems. There used to be several companies who made quality "Black Boxes" that could do this. You might call your local High End Stereo shop for more info as I'm sure someone still makes these things.

There are cheaper ways to do this in a 'lo-fi' business environment involving 120 volt lines to "PA" speakers. Hope this helps.

tubert.