House sound system installation

[RecycleMichael]

I need some advice.

What I want is to make a collection of music stored on a hard drive that I can access and make play sets for parties or background while doing work around the house.

I want to install (wireless?) speakers in four rooms and outside around the back deck. I am cheap and don't need super high quality and never plan to really crank it up. Affordable and versatile are a higher priority. I want to be able to only use speakers in one room most of the time.

What is the best program for handling music? How large a hard drive will I want? What is the best choice for speaker systems? 

Is this a project I can do myself or should I hire a local installer or sound guy? Where should I go to do research?

I also have a few hundred CDs that I want to get loaded onto a hard drive. Is there an affordable option locally for that?

[ex-riverman]

Call Kazar. (918) 630-3988. Great guys. They know what they're doing. 

[sgrizzle]

Usually the easiest way is to use a desktop PC in your house as the library. You can load all of your CDs into it. You can then play directly form that computer or use an AppleTV, Roku or other media device to play the library. That device will plug into a stereo receiver that powers all of the speakers. Many nice receivers have multiple zones so you can tell it "play only in living room" or "play in whole house"

Wireless speakers don't gain you much since they have to have some sort of cables. Either they have wires to the receiver or if they are wireless they have no speaker wires but they have power wires.

[AngieB]

I bet Randy can help you, Michael.