Please help me choose a sound system

[larryalk <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a large custom house built around 2004 with multiple drops
(cat5, tel, RG6 and sound in flexible conduit) in each room and am
looking for a sound system to handle 8-12 zones.

Several contractors have each suggested _their_ pet system including
Speakercraft, Russound and Elan.  I just hate buying an expensive
black box and would prefer something I could program myself - like a
Linux box to handle control of zones and an mp3 server or something
like Russound which I could install and tweak myself.

I like Russound because I could handle it myself.  I have a lot of
comptuer expertese and have built quite a few computers - lately
mostly Slackware Linux as I'm moving completely away from Windows.

I've followed this group for several years now and know there is a lot
of expertise here.  So I respectfully some comments that apply
directly to my situation.

Larry

--
My real sig is much better.