Hi Kristin All great comments above. Episode speakers are only available through the pro-AV channel and are very good speakers - we use them for many of our multi-room audio (indoor/outdoor) solutions, such as in your application. However, if the model number you mentioned is correct "200 series" ($36.00 MSRP) - those particular speakers are more often used in a commercial audio setting (70V audio) such as retail locations, offices, etc. And although they can be used in residential applications with the proper amp, I personally would not have selected that model for your application. For entry level speakers, the Episode "300 or 500" series (8 Ohm) would have been a better fit - sound wise as well as aesthetically. The 1700 series speakers are Episode's "Signature Series" - excellent mid-level in-wall LCR speaker ($385 MSRP) for home theater. And just so you don't think I'm an Episode speaker selling snob-LOL, we also use Klipsch as well - both are very good speakers. I'm thinking that your electrician A/V guy had a come-to-Jesus moment and realized that the Episode 200 series was the wrong fit...and that my friend was a good thing. In this case, the Klipsch 160CDT was clearly the better choice. We basically listen to multi-room audio somewhere between 5-10 watts, so don't over think it. As for the HT speakers, the Pro 160RPW are Klipsch's entry level all-around, in-wall speaker. If you are willing to put a little more money into the HT sound and want to stay with Klipsch, I would recommend the R5502 for the front and the 5650S for the surrounds (providing that the rears are in the wall). These speakers are priced close to the Episode 1700 series. As Pro-integrators, clients don't usually ask us for specific brand names, but they do rely on us to select the proper speaker for their budget. Listening to architectural speakers in the store doesn't always guarantee that they will sound great in you home - in fact , they never do. Providing that you start off with a good quality speaker, a Pro A/V integrator can equalize the amp to match the speaker to your environment. Lastly, if we ever promised a client a specific brand of speaker, we would never show up with a different model without having discussed the pros & cons of why we did that. Hope this helps Frank P

Depending on your budget, the best way to accomplish this is to use a multi-zone A/V receiver from a company such as Denon. You will be able to control everything with your phone or a remote control, setup individual speaker zones and have different sources playing in each zone (or the same source playing in all zones at once). Moving on to the speaker situation, ensure that you have proper soffits built to house each speaker as well as a removable grill where you can service and/or replace the speaker(s) over time. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make when installing a whole home system. They buy everything, have it installed, and then a year or two down the road something goes wrong and it's a nightmare to fix. I always design my soffits a bit oversized in case the client decides to change speakers down the road.

A multi-zone receiver is the usual method but that wouldn't be the simplest solution. The gotcha with BT speakers is you still need to give them power so depends on your setup. Method 1 - Wireless: Get a cheap Bluetooth amp (click me) and BT speakers (assuming TV has BT). If you're good with a smaller speaker you could use a USB powered one for example and avoid all the wiring. The smaller Bose USB speakers sound nice - seen for $80 at Costco. Method 2 - Wired: I'd just get a cheap amp (click me) connect with a 'Y' splitter on the audio to the soundbar to audio input, and output to speakers. Also manually controlled but the small amp could be inconspicuous. Assumption here is you can run the wires easily.

The wifi may be too weak for the app to operate properly. Apps don't always show a notification when that is the case. I haven't used Overdrive for audiobooks, just ebooks, but I always download them so I don't need mobile data or wifi to read them. Libby is another version of Overdrive, isn't it? I'm not familiar with Chirp, but I do use Hoopla, and that one doesn't download materials, so it won't work without a strong signal, and it doesn't let you know that's the case either. I had to figure that out on my own.