What Do I Need ?

Posted this on my Yardcraphome.com but it is not as audio-centric as this forum and most members are not audiophiles like you guys.

Here is my problem:

Lets say you have two pair of speakers that are different. Maybe one day you want to play this pair, the next day that pair, and on the third day, both together.

What if you want to be able to switch between the speaker pairs or play them both at the same time.
You also want a volume control for each pair so if played together they can be matched as to volume.

This sounds like some kind of preamp I guess. Is there a quality thing like this that is small? Simple is good as I want as transparent as possible.

For example, say the signal comes out of my BenchMark Pre (that has to stay) and goes to a splitter box that can control two sets of speakers independently with different volume controls. It could be passive, passive might be good.

I put in "speaker selector" on ebay, found a lot of good ones, but they all take the signal from the amp, not the preamp. I don't want that.

If you used an amp with gain control pots you could use a standard speaker switch and adjust the amp to balance the sound. Another option would be to run a multi-channel preamp like one of the Theater Grands. You can run just 2 channel stereo or "party" mode which lets you select which speakers you have running in stereo with separate gain controls for each speaker.

Don't know about the quality of this particular unit but looks like something that would work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NILES-SVC-4-MUL ... 19d621906f

I have an Adcom GFS-3 I'd just give you if you want it but it doesn't have volume controls.

Two of these might do exactly what you're looking for, Bill:

http://www.amazon.com/PAC-Remote-Amplif ... me+control

Although JL Audio is a great name & has something similar, but looks like it needs a 12 volt power supply:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JL-Audio-CL-RLC ... cb&vxp=mtr